1 Notably, respected socialist scholar and activist Dan La Botz ran for a Senate seat on the Socialist Party ticket in Ohio in 2010. Campaigns such as this might help push the party into playing a more significant organizing role.

2 I draw here on conversations with Dan La Botz, 13 July 2010, and Jane Slaughter, 14 July 2010.

3 My discussion of the DSA is informed in part by conversations I had with an older member of the DSA and a younger member of the Young Democratic Socialists.