Meet Solidarity Rising

Solidarity Rising, a diverse, growing group focused on organizing for progressive change, is bringing something new to local politics: the voices of everyday, working people.

In Salem’s recent municipal election, Solidarity Rising supported a number of candidates for local office. Both Kyle Davis and Chris Malstrom were endorsed by the group in their respective campaigns for City Council, and AJ Hoffman and Henry Gulergun received the group’s support in their runs for School Committee. Far from just a rubber stamp of approval, the endorsed campaigns agreed to work in coalition with Solidarity Rising and each other based on a shared vision and set of values - not on party lines or pre-existing relationships. As the name of the group suggests, the endorsed candidates stood in solidarity with one another; knocking on doors together, holding one another’s signs, and sharing strategies and resources across campaigns.

“There was a shared understanding that the road to affordable housing, workers’ rights, and saving our schools isn’t about one person’s political ambitions,” says Kyle Davis, who is a founding member of Solidarity Rising and was successfully elected to serve as City Councilor at Large. “It’s going to take a movement. No one was campaigning solely for themselves, but rather for this exciting collective group of people that each brought lived experience and bold policy ideas to the table.”

Kyle Davis, a Salem renter and service worker who ousted a three-term conservative incumbent, is excited about the power of uniting behind common values and lifting up other candidates.

The coalition strategy paid off. On Nov. 7, Kyle Davis won, while AJ Hoffman succeeded in their bid for the School Committee. Malstrom and Gulergun, meanwhile, won respectable vote shares, even if their campaigns did not ultimately prove successful this election cycle.

Davis will now be the only renter on the Council. His campaign highlighted his history with wage theft as a waiter working on the North Shore. A recent Salem city ordinance outlawing wage theft predates Davis’ time on the Council, but he expressed support of the ordinance while it was being drafted, and he has said that he would like to build on its success with more worker and renter protections that he wants to see passed by the City Council. At the same time, Henry Gulergun leaned into his experience as a child with a learning disability and his desire to be a voice for high-needs students.

“We started out campaigning by ourselves, but as we got to know the other candidates, some of them for the same race even - we realized that our values aligned and that the city would be in great hands if either candidate got elected. We figured, why not work together then? If the goal is not to further our egos, but to further our city, helping one another feels like a no-brainer.” - Lydia King, Henry’s wife and Volunteer for Solidarity Rising

“Candidates working together, including supposed opponents, is unheard of in this city and it scares incumbents. They don’t know how to handle it,” said AJ Hoffman.

Solidarity Rising plans to continue its work in the form of putting public pressure on elected officials and rallying public support for real, progressive gains at the local, state, and, eventually, federal level. By showing the power of everyday people working together, they want to build a society that guarantees living wages, healthcare, and shelter for all: an ambitious platform that, nonetheless, they want to build wide-ranging support for. “For too long in this country, we’ve considered the basic necessities of life to be something people have to demonstrate that they ‘deserve’,” said Solidarity Rising member Jeremy Mele. “But no one deserves to go hungry, to be denied healthcare, to lack a roof over their head. Solidarity Rising is about building a society based on solidarity; one where we all contribute, one where we all look after one another, and one where no one is left to fend off hunger, illness, and homelessness on their own. That might seem radical now, but the hope is that, through Solidarity Rising, we can change the discussion and promote universal goods and support for every single one of us.”

Solidarity Rising plans to put forth a larger slate of candidates next cycle that will include some of those who narrowly lost this year.

Salem has a long history of progressivism, from its support for the LGBTQ+ community to the recent worker protections enshrined in the wage theft ordinance. Still, local politics, like most everywhere, has been dominated by those on the inside. Solidarity Rising, with its focus on movement building and its values-over-party-loyalty orientation, hopes to change the political landscape of the North Shore and make it a place where all voices are heard.
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