LOS ANGELES—The June 2, 2026, primary for Los Angeles’ City Council may still be about a year away, but this summer, Councilmember Eunisses Hernandez is already campaigning for reelection. Why is 35-year-old Eunisses—the Council’s youngest member, its only Latina, and the body’s “most progressive member,” as she calls herself—out on the stump so early?
Eunisses threw her hat into the ring back on May 12 because five candidates are running against her, supported by big business, such as developer and failed mayoral contender Rick Caruso, plus “corporate Democrats,” in order to unseat the left-leaning leader.
This is according to the candidate herself, who made these comments at a fundraiser hosted by LA Progressive/Hollywood Progressive’s publishers, Sharon Kyle and Dick Price, who are residents of District 1, which Eunisses has represented in the City Council since she took office in December 2022 (she was endorsed by United Farm Workers co-founder Dolores Huerta, among many others).
Describing her first term on the Council as “a roller coaster ride,” casually clad in a blouse, jeans, and sneakers, the down-to-earth Councilwoman was accompanied by campaign manager Annie Freiermuth and a photographer for social media. The campaign event at a Mount Washington home, with a spectacular mountain view, took place on July 26—which is, annually, Cuba’s National Revolution Day.
This seems appropriate, for while Eunisses is no Fidel Castro or Che Guevara, she is indeed a member of Democratic Socialists of America, the same left-wing group that New York City mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani belongs to. Like Mamdani, Eunisses is also a registered Democrat, although the L.A. City Council race, like the Council itself, is nonpartisan.
Hernandez’s platform: Call it “Streetlight Socialism”
During Eunisses’ campaign event, she spoke without any notes. She answered questions both after her address to the gathering, as well as impromptu one-on-one, when she mingled with voters before and after her speech, in between attendees enjoying tasty tacos prepared by Chef Jose of Valendez Foods. She came across as personable, present, knowledgeable, accessible, and engaged as she detailed her electoral program.
In the wake of the wildfires that devastated parts of L.A., the Councilwoman said she has “done a drive-along in the area with the fire department,” observing “narrow streets” and the needs for “brushfire clearance.” Eunisses is advocating for neighborhood “Fire Councils” to prepare for and prevent possible future blazes before they get out of control.
Sitting on the Budget Committee, the Councilmember expressed concern over L.A.’s billion-dollar deficit and the city’s funding priorities, noting there’s “more money for LAPD than Meals-On-Wheels or streetlights” (a recurring topic for her). Hernandez opposed purchasing two additional helicopters—at a price tag of $9 million each—for LAPD’s already considerable fleet, stating that “based on a report, for 40 hours in the air, one arrest” results due to the choppers, which are often noisy intrusions into Angelenos’ lives.
Eunisses proposed sources for raising revenue, including “taxing autonomous vehicles and robots on the streets,” making their owners pay for their “use [of city] infrastructure.” Of course, taxing the rich is an oldie but goodie for socialists, and the lefty candidate also wants to target the oil industry, which still operates thousands of oilwells in L.A., including, if I heard correctly, 600 alone in District 1.
The Councilmember condemned “developers’ influence on the floor of City Hall” and promised to be “the biggest barrier to luxury development and to prioritize affordable housing,” in a high rent city where homelessness is epidemic.
She also stressed the importance of strengthening “the Bureau of Street Lighting to fix lights faster” and for “fix[ing] sidewalks in one week.” These are key issues for the residents of hilly District 1, and the Councilmember’s attention to her constituents’ basic infrastructure needs is reminiscent of what was once called “sewer socialism,” that stressed honest government and public works projects, such as an excellent sewer system that enhanced the health of the masses.
Sewer socialism was the hallmark of Milwaukee’s three mayors (and a congressman) who belonged to the Socialist Party of America, starting in 1910 with the election of Emil Seidel (he was America’s first Socialist mayor and in 1912 ran for Vice President as Eugene V. Debs’ running mate). Socialist Daniel Hoan served as Milwaukee’s mayor from 1916-40 and Socialist Frank Zeidler was a three-term mayor in the Wisconsin city, from 1948-60. (Bernie Sanders, of course, served as the mayor of Burlington, Vt., until he was elected to Congress.)
Opposing the ICE-tapo and militarization of urban America
At her July fundraiser, Eunisses also presciently denounced the deployment of thousands of National Guardsmen, hundreds of Marines, the ICE-tapo (my term, not hers) plus LAPD’s alleged complicity with them, proclaiming: “For the first couple weeks we were teetering on martial law…. We are the canary in the coalmine, the experiment. We don’t want to set precedents that spread to other cities,” she prophetically warned, as the dictatorial madman in the White House went on to activate the National Guard in Washington, D.C., in August.
The Councilmember advised that “being risk averse doesn’t work, doesn’t stop the federal government from sending in the Marines and National Guard.” Eunisses went on to say it “appears as if the LAPD is enabling unconstitutional actions,” including collaborating with ICE and other U.S. government personnel in violating L.A.’s sanctuary city laws intended to protect immigrants.
Hernandez is the daughter of Mexican immigrants who was born in Highland Park and is, according to her website, “a lifelong resident of District 1.” On June 20, wearing a T-shirt bearing the words “All My Homies Hate Prisons,” Eunisses was at the confrontation between demonstrators and ICE-tapo at Dodger Stadium.
Interestingly, in 2013 Eunisses graduated from CSU Long Beach with a bachelor’s degree in criminal justice. During her talk at the fundraiser, the self-proclaimed “abolitionist,” espoused the use of “unarmed crisis response teams” (instead of deploying armed police to mental health and similar situations) and added: “LAPD gets too much money” from the city’s coffers.
The Mark of Zohran: Socialism and the city
Remember on June 12 when, shortly before plainclothes police roughed up U.S. Sen. Alex Padilla, Kristi Noem spewed in L.A.: “We are staying here to liberate the city from the socialists…”? What was the Secretary of Homeland Security Secretary talking about?
Zohran Mamdani and his candidacy for New York mayor are headlines news and fellow DSA member Eunisses Hernandez is arguably a West Coast municipal leader in the Mamdani mold. In NYC, three members of Democratic Socialists of America are on the City Council, which has 50-plus seats.
But in the City of the Angels, which has only a 15-person City Council, four DSA members sit on the City Council—in other words, in NYC roughly 6% of the City Council are DSA members, but more than 25% of L.A.’s City Council are “card carrying, dues paying” socialists. And the mayor, Karen Bass, cut sugarcane in Cuba with the Venceremos Brigade back in the day.
At the fundraiser, Hernandez was asked what “socialism” means to her, and she forthrightly responded: “Socialism is making sure there’s a society where the workers are at the table and decide what the menu is. We leave no one behind, no voices are unheard. Workers are leading, leaving no one behind.”
At the end of Hernandez’s fundraiser, campaign manager Annie Freiermuth announced various ways attendees could support the candidacy of Eunisses, who doesn’t “take corporate, real-estate, fossil fuel, or police union donations”: “Host fundraisers. Post lawn signs. Donate money. Do video testimonials for people who live in the district.”
When Fidel Castro and his band of guerrillas attacked the Moncada Barracks on July 26, 1953, they sparked the Cuban Revolution. Can socialism be achieved via the ballot or must it always be won by way of the bullet? How should U.S. leftists respond to self-identified socialists who run for public office? In the age of Trump, as fascism rears its ugly head, should the old “ultra-left” approach of sneering at socialist-leaning candidates as petty bourgeois reformists and revisionists be followed? Or should they be supported—and pushed—to fight for policies that ameliorate, if not abolish, the oppression of the masses?
Inquiring minds want to know, and the candidacy of Eunisses Hernandez for re-election to the L.A. City Council is a case in point. Will this acolyte of “streetlight socialism” once again be empowered to bring the light to the masses? If she wins an outright majority of 50%-plus one of the votes cast in the June 2, 2026, primary, Eunisses will be declared the winner (well, unless Trump tallies the votes).
If Hernandez is one of the two top vote-getters but does not receive more than 50% of the votes, she will then have to face off with the other top contender in the 2026 general election on Nov.3, 2026. If Eunisses is not one of the top two vote-getters in the primary, she will lose her seat, and ordinary Angelenos may lose one of their most militant municipal voices. (Write-in candidates are not eligible to run in the general election unless they are among the top two vote-getters.)
For what it’s worth, based on Hernandez’s excellent speech on April 12 at Gloria Molina Grand Park in Downtown L.A. during the Bernie Sanders/AOC “Fight The Oligarchy” Rally attended by 36,000 people wherein she railed against an economic system where “three individuals own more wealth than half the country combined,” and on experiencing the Councilwoman at her campaign fundraiser, for what it’s worth, if I lived in District 1, this writer would strongly consider casting a ballot for Eunisses Hernandez to strengthen a pro-socialist bloc in the City Council working to build a city for the workers, by the workers and of the workers.
For more info see: Eunisses for the People
The views expressed here are those of the author.
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