Socialist Ties followed Kansas Democrat Erik Murray into the spotlight just days before he launched his longshot U.S. Senate bid, raising new questions about his political influences and ideological grounding. The connection emerged during a late November podcast appearance in which Murray praised his close relationship with former Black Panther leader Elaine Brown, an outspoken socialist who has called for dismantling the United States.
Murray officially entered the Democratic primary on Dec. 3, seeking to unseat Sen. Roger Marshall in deep-red Kansas. On The Disruption Lab podcast, Murray described his decade living in Oakland, California, as “life-changing,” crediting Brown with reshaping how he thinks. “Go spend a decade, you know, having lunch with Elaine Brown, who’s one of the original founders of the Black Panther[s]. It’ll change some wiring in your brain,” Murray said.
He added, “It was a great experience, the decade I spent in Oakland,” citing “eye-opening social justice conversations” and even noting his adoption of regional slang, saying, “‘hella’ is actually a word that came out of Oakland.”
Brown’s record presents potential complications for Murray’s candidacy. As leader of the Black Panther Party from 1974 to 1977, she described the group as revolutionary. “That’s how we saw ourselves, as a soldier in the army… to introduce socialist revolution into the United States of America,” Brown said in 1988. She reaffirmed that position in 2022, stating, “All I know is that it is my goal. We will never be a free people without it.”
Brown also declared, “The bottom line is that the Empire of the United States… cannot continue like this.” Her activism continues today, including a 2024 housing project backed by $1 million from Black Lives Matter.
Kansas last elected a Democratic senator in 1932. Murray is one of five Democrats seeking the nomination, and only one challenger has prior elected experience.
