Project 2026

Release Date: December 26, 2025

Hello Comrades,

2025 has been a rough year. It was the year that Trump took over our country’s government and wreaked havoc on the actual good things that the often-evil US government does. We saw the biggest transfer of wealth from the poor and middle class to the rich and ultra-rich in American history. Meanwhile, massive cuts to USAID took food literally out of the mouths of the poorest in the world, and is estimated to lead to 14 million excess deaths by 2030. ICE and other jackbooted thugs were unleashed on American cities, causing untold misery and illegal actions. The genocide in Gaza continued unabated, regardless of the on-paper ceasefire, while the United States government attempted to silence, imprison, and deport those willing to speak up against it.

There are countless other horrors that happened this year, beyond the ones I’ve listed, not to mention whatever bad things you may be dealing with in your own life (and from talking to comrades it seems there is far too much of this!). It is clear that the fascists that came to power last January executed the plan they had to make America worse, the plan that they claimed they didn’t know anything about, the much-discussed Project 2025 from the Heritage foundation. We saw it in action, and man, it sucked.

But looking at the end of this annus horribilus, and seeing our enemies flail as they come up against the unpopularity of their awful policies, the incompetence of their leaders and toadies, and the very real and very powerful popular resistance that we have been a part of, one thing becomes clear: There is no Project 2026. The Republicans came in with a “muzzle velocity” plan to remake the country, and they succeeded at much of it, but that doesn’t mean they will be able to keep it going. Seeing Trump flail over issues like the Epstein files, the affordability crisis, his genuine love for war crimes, and rank corruption should give us some hope.

Despite the accomplishments of our enemies, we have accomplished a lot this year too. We helped block Proposition 414 (the bad one that would have raised Tucson's sales tax to pay for TPD), we joined in the coalition that got the city council to say no to Project Blue, and we helped elect Tucson DSA member Miranda Schubert to city council (and got close with Sadie Shaw)! All the while, we brought the Public Power campaign to more visibility and support throughout the city than many thought possible, and expanded our membership by over 100 members.

The White House may not have a plan for 2026, but we do. Tucson DSA is poised for a great year, when we will be able to influence our city more than ever before. There are a million things to do this year, but it depends on you, our members, to ensure they get done.

Let's get to work!

What Can I Do Right Now?

1. Join us tomorrow for our December meeting!

It’s almost the end of the month, and the year, so we will be holding our last DSA general meeting tomorrow, Saturday December 27th at 2pm. We know many people are traveling or otherwise busy with family and the like, so this final meeting of the year will be on Zoom, not in person.

Zoom link to join: https://dsausa.zoom.us/j/83433124187

Our last meeting of the year is usually a little low-key, with less official business and more chances to just meet with comrades and discuss the past year and our plans for the future. Log on if you can make it, so we can prepare ourselves to start 2026 with a bang.

2. Run for Tucson DSA Steering Committee

The end of the year also means we are approaching the end of our one-year terms for Tucson DSA Steering Committee. The elections are coming in early February, so right now is the time to start thinking about what you might want to do to get more involved in the chapter and help build on our 2025 victories next year. Our chapter is only as powerful as our members are willing to make it, so we need your help in making this the best chapter it can be in 2026.

The steering committee positions available for election are as follow:

• 2 co-chairs

• Outreach Coordinator

• Communications Coordinator

• Mutual Aid Coordinator

• Labor Coordinator

• Field Coordinator

• Research Coordinator

• Harassment and Grievance Officer (non-voting position)

The Steering Committee as a whole is responsible for setting agendas for meetings, planning events, approving chapter spending, and deciding on strategies to implement chapter campaigns and priorities.. The general time commitment is 2-5 hours per week, but our chapter has been quite flexible in letting our SC leadership do what they can, when they can, and avoid stress.

If you’re interested, contact someone from the steering committee, chat with folks on Discord or in tomorrow’s meeting, or respond to this email.

3. Join the Electoral and Socialists in Office Committee

Speaking of elections, Tucson DSA recently formed our newest sub-committee, the Electoral and Socialists in Office Committee. After our electoral successes in 2025, which led to us having a DSA member on Tucson City Council, we are fired up to do even more, get more candidates we care about elected, and take advantage of the wins we have to affect policy in Tucson.

After our first meeting on Zoom in December, the committee has agreed on the following three mandates for our work:

1. Elect DSA-aligned candidates to public office

2. Connect with DSA-aligned officeholders to push for our agenda and hold them accountable to our values

3. Elevate DSA members to low-level public office through volunteer boards, with the intention of both influencing policy and preparing those members for future elected positions

That’s a lot of work to do, and we need your help to do it. Soon we will be electing two co-chairs for the committee, but beyond leadership, we need as many members as possible who are interested in getting involved. If you’re one of them, join our next Zoom call, coming on Wednesday, January 7 at 5:30 pm.

4. Read The Red Deal with DSA book club

We voted recently on our next book club book, and chose Red Deal: Indigenous Action to Save Our Earth, published by The Red Nation, a socialist indigenous action collective. The book is a call to arms and a rethinking of ecological activism to better integrate indigenous knowledge and activism into environmental activism, and especially the dream of The Green New Deal. For our chapter involved in ecological activism, in a heavily indigenous area, this book is essential.

As our book club has expanded in membership and ambition, we have now for the first time been able to order a bulk discount on copies from the Homeward Books collective. The order has already been sent out, so it’s too late to get in on the order, but we did order one extra that you may be able to get, and you can ask other book club members to borrow a copy if you can’t get a hold of it.

If we’re going to be making bulk orders like this, it means we’ll need to start deciding on books farther in advance to give time for both delivery and reading. For that reason, we are opening up submissions for our February book choice now, so that we can order the next book as soon as possible.

5.Pack the first Mayor and Council Meeting of 2026 for Public Power

New Year, New Utility! 2025 made it clear what our future will be if we stick with TEP: higher bills and more harmful hyperscale data centers.

We need a public power utility that serves the people of Tucson, not Big Tech and the corporate class. That’s why we are showing up to the first Mayor & Council meeting of 2026 and demand they move forward with the great feasibility study results and put public power on the ballot this year.