The Democratic Socialists of America have endorsed 131 candidates across 30 states and Washington, D.C., for the midterm elections, and ten of them are running for the U.S. House of Representatives. If current projections hold, the organization would go from two seats in Congress to roughly ten.

The endorsements break down along three tiers. Sixty-nine candidates are running for local office, including city councils and ten mayoral races, with the largest share in California. Fifty-two are running for statewide offices such as state senates and assemblies, where New York has the biggest contingent. At the federal level, the ten House candidates include three in New York, two in California, two in Michigan, and one each in Colorado, Louisiana, and Pennsylvania.

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Of those ten, two are incumbents, two are running for open seats, two are challenging Democratic incumbents, three defeated Democratic incumbents in their primaries, and one is challenging a Republican incumbent.

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From The National Pulse: 

The DSA has already signaled its intention to use its leverage within the House to extract concessions from Rep. Hakeem Jeffries (D), the current House Minority leader, in his bid for the speakership. Specifically, the DSA aims to lower the thresholds for both discharge petitions and vacating the chair to make it easier to force votes on DSA-aligned objectives and topple the House leadership.

If current projections hold, the DSA is set to gain approximately eight representatives in the House. As the DSA currently has only two representatives (Ocasio-Cortez and Tlaib), this would quadruple the organization’s presence in the House.

According to polling conducted by the non-partisan Cook Political Report earlier this month, the Democrats are projected to win between 224 and 234 seats in the House. In order to secure a majority in the House, a party requires 218 seats.

In New York, the party has endorsed Darializa Avila Chevalier in NY-13 and Claire Valdez in NY-7, while Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez defends her NY-14 seat after rejoining the DSA earlier this year. California’s endorsed candidates are Angela Gonzales-Torres in CA-34 and Mai Vang in CA-7. In Michigan, Donavan McKinney is running in MI-13 and Rep. Rashida Tlaib is defending MI-12. Melat Kiros is running in CO-1, and Chris Rabb is running in PA-3.

The one race the party is unlikely to win is in Louisiana, where Lauren Jewett is challenging Rep. Steve Scalise, the House Majority Leader, in a district that strongly favors Republicans. Eight of the ten endorsed candidates are running in districts where Democrats are heavily favored, and Gonzales-Torres and Vang are both facing fellow Democrats in primaries.

The House math is where the endorsements matter most. With 218 seats needed for a majority, a Democratic majority near 220 would leave a handful of democratic socialists holding the balance of power in the Speaker’s vote. Lowering the threshold for a discharge petition would let a small bloc force floor votes over the objection of leadership, and lowering the threshold for vacating the chair would make a motion to remove the Speaker easier to bring. Both changes would convert a narrow majority into leverage for the party’s left flank, whether or not its members chair committees or hold seniority.

The DSA did not respond to a request for comment on its endorsements or on the specific procedural demands it has attached to the Speaker’s race, and the source material for this report did not include a response from Rep. Jeffries or from the Democratic caucus.

A party that operates as a faction inside the Democratic Party is positioning itself to hold a narrow majority hostage, and its first demands are procedural tools built to force votes and remove leaders. Four years ago it had two seats in Congress. Christians should understand what democratic socialism asks of a nation: a larger state, a smaller family, and a citizenry that looks to government for what God gives through work, church, and household. Pray for voters in these districts to have wisdom and see the lies behind this, and for men and women of principle in both parties to stand against it.

Let’s pray for the candidates running in these races and the voters who will decide them, that campaigns would be conducted honestly and that fear of a faction would not drive men to compromise what they know is right. Pray for wisdom for those who will cast the Speaker’s vote, and for the families in these districts who will live under whatever policies result.

How are you praying about this issue? Share your prayers and scriptures in the comments below.

(Excerpt from The National Pulse. Photo Credit: uschools from Getty Images Signature via Canva).