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# K Street's DSA Problem: Meet the Lobbyists Who Already Have a Way In
- URL: https://thecrimsonhub.com/k-streets-dsa-problem-meet-the-lobbyists-who-already-have-a-way-in/
- Published: 2026-09-23T11:00:52.000Z
- Updated: 2026-09-23T11:00:51.000Z
- Author: Crimson Staff

Democratic Socialists of America candidates keep winning primaries, and Washington lobbyists are starting to sweat. The DSA's platform explicitly calls for getting "rid of lobbyists." [Politico recently reported](https://www.politico.com/newsletters/politico-influence/2026/08/21/how-to-lobby-a-democratic-socialist-01046022?ref=thecrimsonhub.com) that if Democrats narrowly retake the House, DSA-affiliated members could hold outsized leverage in a Hakeem Jeffries speakership, and K Street has no obvious playbook for engaging members who reject the industry's premise on principle.

One lobbyist put it bluntly: "If you have a relationship with them and you're downtown, great for you. If you don't, you're kind of screwed." Another told Politico that the smart move is to hire people who've already built trust with Congressional Progressive Caucus incumbents, since incoming socialist freshmen will lean on experienced lawmakers to learn the ropes in Washington. The last generation of progressive Hill staffers already made that move.

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Ashley Westbrook Turton spent seven years in Rosa DeLauro's office, rising from press secretary to chief of staff, before leaving in 2007 to lobby for Progress Energy. Renuka Nagaraj served as a Congressional Progressive Caucus fellow placed in Jan Schakowsky's office, on top of earlier stints as legislative counsel to Sen. Jack Reed and Rep. David Cicilline, before registering as a federal lobbyist. Both moved from the inside track of the progressive wing directly onto K Street's client rolls.

![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/cf/ac/cfac1fd0-23e3-490f-a17a-a11b795ef5b5/content/images/2026/09/Screenshot-2026-09-23-at-6.32.41---AM.png)

Adjacent to the House Progressive Caucus, several Sanders-world staffers made the same jump. Michaeleen Earle Crowell, Sanders' former chief of staff, now lobbies for health and pharmaceutical interests including Horizon Therapeutics. Alex Beaton, a former Sanders legislative aide, works in government affairs for EVgo. Aissa Canchola Bañez lobbied before joining Ayanna Pressley's office as legislative director, which puts her outside the strict revolving-door pattern but still inside the same relationship network.

![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/cf/ac/cfac1fd0-23e3-490f-a17a-a11b795ef5b5/content/images/2026/09/image.png)

Republican lobbyist Sam Geduldig warned his own side not to repeat Democrats' mistake with the Tea Party: "If these DSA candidates come to Washington, D.C., they will build relationships with people in Washington; it's impossible not to. In five, six, ten years, those people will be running the show." Justice Democrats co-founder Corbin Trent was more blunt about where that leaves traditional K Street: "You're probably shit out of luck if they don't need your money."

For now, some firms are told to lay low. As one lobbyist told Politico, "the risk outweighs the reward" until progressives control enough votes to matter. But the staffers-turned-lobbyists list above shows the relationship-building has been underway for two decades already. If the DSA wave delivers the numbers Politico describes, the people positioned to translate socialist freshmen into K Street access won't be strangers. They'll be former colleagues.