The local Democratic Socialists of America chapter endorsed Monty Bruell for mayor of Chattanooga this week, marking the organization’s first-ever candidate endorsement.
Casey Crook, co-chair of DSA Chattanooga’s Electoral Politics working group, said Friday that the group had voted to back Bruell this week after forming a “peripheral” relationship with Bruell through his attendance of their meetings and protests this past summer.
“There are kind of two main reasons that we chose Monty. And one is that he listens,” Crook said. “A lot of times, he would come to meetings and not say anything. He would just sit there, take notes and listen to what we were talking about, what our concerns were and things like that. And that is really valuable.”
In addition to trust and rapport with Bruell, Crook said the group endorsed him based on his preparedness and progressive policies.
“And that was kind of refreshing. Especially when you add on what a lot of his policies actually are. He supports things like housing homeless, like directly housing the homeless. And providing free CARTA transportation, expanding CARTA and things like that,” Crook said. “They were actual concrete, thought-out policies, as opposed to most of what I hear from other people that are, like, ‘Yeah, we’ll fix roads.’