Benzie, Leelanau, and Grand Traverse counties are successful because of working class families. Our largely rural "Up North" working class has many challenges – an explosion of short-term rentals instead of affordable year-round housing, loose workplace protections and a lack of real competitive liveable wages, as well as limited access to efficient mass transit, affordable childcare, healthcare, and mental health services. Now is the time for the working class people of Northwestern Michigan to come together and organize for a better future for our region, and our country.

The Democratic Socialists of America (DSA) is the largest socialist organization in the United States, with over 90,000 members nationwide. We believe that working people should run both the economy and society democratically to meet human needs rather than make profits for a few. DSA is not a political party, but a nonprofit activist organization.

We are socialist because we share a vision of a humane social order based on popular control of resources and production, economic planning, equitable distribution, feminism, racial equality and non-oppressive relationships. We are democratic because we know that this transformation cannot be won from the top down, by a small group of elites who claim to have all the answers, or by even well-meaning politicians. This transformation can only come from the bottom up, when millions of working class people stand together.