Socialist Marine vet wins VA election

Compiled by Marmilist Moderator

November 8, 2017

Lee Carter, a 30-year-old Marine veteran and member of the Democratic Socialists of America, won a seat to the Virginia state legislature.  He defeated Delegate Jackson Miller, the Republican incumbent who serves as House Majority Whip in a vote of 11,360 to 9,510 on Tuesday. 

Miller red-baited Carter by comparing him to Stalin and Mao.  Miller also mailed literature that attacked Carter for identifying as a democratic socialist and included the word “Socialism” over a red background with a picture of Carter alongside images of Marx, Engels and Lenin. 

Carter ran openly as a socialist.  He and his supporters sang the union anthem “Solidarity Forever” after their victory. 

He won with almost no institutional support from the state Democratic Party, butwas supported by the Bernie Sanders' affiliated Our Revolution organization and the DC Chapter of Democratic Socialists of America.