What Americans Think of Democratic Socialism
A new national poll shows democratic socialism has made enormous strides over the last decade. But to grow beyond blue strongholds, its champions will need to continue to anchor campaigns in bread-and-butter economics.
The success of Zohran Mamdani — driven by a sharp focus on affordability issues that speak directly to the material concerns of ordinary New Yorkers — offers a hopeful test case for the potential of democratic socialist politics. (Victor J. Blue / Bloomberg via Getty Images)
Since Bernie Sanders’s insurgent bid for the Democratic presidential nomination in 2016, democratic socialism has migrated from the margins of American politics to a visible and popular current. The Democratic Socialists of America (DSA) now boasts candidates with real power in city councils and statehouses around the country, and socialists have brought progressive economic demands back into circulation.
Most recently, New York assemblymember Zohran Mamdani shocked the political establishment by winning a decisive victory in the New York City Democratic mayoral primary, making him the odds-on favorite to succeed current mayor Eric Adams. His success — driven by a sharp focus on affordability issues that speak directly to the material concerns of ordinary New Yorkers — offers a hopeful test case for the potential of democratic socialist politics and disciplined populist rhetoric.
But it also raises larger questions. How is democratic socialism viewed by Americans as a whole? Is its appeal confined, for now, to large, heavily Democratic cities? And do candidates who foreground their socialist identity risk blunting the power of their economic populism?
To gain insight into these questions, DSA Fund, Jacobin, and the Rosa Luxemburg Stiftung had Data for Progress field a national survey of 1,257 likely voters from August 22–24, 2025, weighted to the likely electorate by age, gender, education, race, geography, and presidential vote. A few headline patterns emerge from the poll that help to situate both the standing of democratic socialism in American politics and the potential viability of Mamdani-style insurgent campaigns in less “blue” areas of the country.
First, democratic socialism is now a recognized pole within the Democratic Party. Democrats surveyed preferred “democratic socialism” to “capitalism” by a wide margin, favored democratic socialists like Bernie Sanders and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez over centrist Democrats like Chuck Schumer and Hakeem Jeffries, and were just as supportive of candidates who explicitly identified as democratic socialists as they were of candidates who ran simply as Democrats. Second, there is meaningful — if uneven — openness to democratic socialism beyond the Democratic base. Independents, Latinos, and working-class voters show pockets of receptivity, yet the “democratic socialist” label can be a real liability in red and purple contexts, raising practical questions about the most effective paths for presenting democratic socialist politics to electorates who might have economic populist instincts but are skeptical of democratic socialism as they understand it. Third, economic populism is the broadest bridge to take democratic socialist ideas to the mainstream: strong support for messages on wages, costs, corruption, and reining in corporate power cut across partisanship, ethnicity, class, and geography.
To take full advantage of the tremendous momentum that democratic socialism has built up over the last decade, progressives need to continue the work they’ve started of building a robust economic populist pole in American politics that rejects the false promises of both major parties, while seriously confronting the electoral trade-offs they face among critical constituencies they need to expand outside democratic strongholds. What follows are some key takeaways from the survey.
1
Democrats already like democratic socialism — others are movable.
Despite high-profile calls by mainstream Democrats like Rep. Tom Suozzi for democratic socialists to create their own party, the DSA Fund/Jacobin/Rosa Luxemburg Stiftung poll suggests that most Democrats are more than happy to have democratic socialists within the party fold. While the poll found that 42% of voters overall say they support democratic socialism — a modest but real uptick from the 36%–39% range recorded in national polling over the past decade — support among Democratic voters has risen sharply: 74% of Democrats viewed democratic socialism favorably, up from roughly four in 10 in 2016. Likewise Democrats in the survey favored Ocasio-Cortez, Sanders, and Mamdani over party regulars like Schumer, Jeffries, and former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi by a 20 point margin (53% vs. 33%) and had a slightly more positive view of candidates who explicitly ran as “democratic socialists” rather than just “Democrats” (79% vs. 77% support).
The survey also suggests that there is considerable room to grow the ranks of organized democratic socialist politics. Of the 54% of survey respondents who had never heard of DSA, 43% were more favorable toward democratic socialism than capitalism, compared to 38% who preferred capitalism. That awareness gap represents latent potential: a pool of sympathetic voters who have yet to be invited into the work of campaigns, chapters, and coalitions.
The appeal of democratic socialism also reaches even more surprising corners of the American electorate. Indeed, nearly one in six (15%) of survey respondents who reported voting for Donald Trump in 2024 also indicated a preference for democratic socialism over capitalism. Compared with Trump voters overall, these respondents are more likely to be younger than 45 (by 14 points) and more likely to be nonwhite (by 11 points) — two of the most critical groups whose support shifted toward Republicans in 2024. These voters are not a core constituency, but they mark a fissure in the partisan map where bread-and-butter democratic socialist appeals may find a sympathetic hearing.
Democratic socialist political leaders were also viewed more favorably than mainstream Democrats among a range of key electoral blocs that Democrats have struggled to maintain in their coalition in recent years. The AOC/Sanders wing of the party was viewed more favorably than the establishment wing by respondents in working-class occupations (42% to 28%, respectively). They also outperformed mainstream Democratic leaders among Latinos (59% vs. 29%), rural voters (37% vs. 29%), and voters without a college degree (37% vs. 29%). Among non-working-class and college-educated respondents, however, mainstream Democrats retain an edge (36% vs. 28% and 43% vs. 38%, respectively). These results challenge the claim that democratic socialists only appeal to professional, highly educated voters.
2
The image of democratic socialists is improving, but more work needs to be done.
The harder news is that beyond Democratic voters, the “democratic socialist” label can be costly. In a test holding candidates’ message (a cost-of-living platform) constant but replacing “Democrat” with “Democratic Socialist,” the survey found that support drops sharply within key constituencies progressives need to build electoral strength outside of Democratic strongholds. Among independents, favorability falls from 77% to (an admittedly still high) 59%; among Republicans, from 58% to 40%. The penalty is also pronounced in rural America (−25 points) and substantial among non-college voters (−12) as well as respondents in working-class occupations (−11).
More broadly, the concept of democratic socialism underperforms capitalism by a few points overall, and among independents and Republicans by substantial margins (11 and a whopping 60 points, respectively). The results also indicate that geography plays a role in shaping attitudes toward democratic socialism: urban voters favor democratic socialism (54%–37%), while rural (52%–33%) and suburban voters (49%–40%) tilt toward capitalism. By occupation, manual workers prefer capitalism (57%–38%); office (46%–42%) and service workers (44%–41%) tilt slightly toward socialism; while “sociocultural” professionals, like lawyers, academics, and journalists, strongly prefer socialism (54%–35%).
This is not an argument for retreat but for strategy. In electorates predisposed to the Left, an explicit democratic socialist brand can clarify political fault lines within the Democratic Party and energize progressive voters. In predominantly “red” and “purple” areas, the poll results suggest that democratic socialist candidates should think creatively about how to maximize their appeal among voters by framing politics in terms that independents and even some Republicans can relate to.
3
Speak out on polarizing issues — but with care and strategy.
The survey also examined how candidates fare when they speak — or remain silent — on polarizing social issues. The goal was to assess, as some critics contend, whether democratic socialist candidates lose support for their core economic policies because of other, potentially less popular stances they take. The results here are both hopeful and cause for critical reflection.
On the one hand, the survey found that taking a stance against Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) raids increases support overall for cost-of-living-focused candidates, including double-digit gains among independents and an over 40 point boost among Democrats. Backing also rises among respondents in working-class occupations (+11 points) and among noncollege voters (+7 points). Similarly when candidates spoke out in defense of the civil rights of trans people or in defense of Palestinian rights instead of staying silent on those issues, they faced only a marginal (3–4 point) decline in favorability, and in the former case their support remained unchanged among independent voters, and support among Democrats rose sharply in both cases.
Yet on the other hand, candidates who expressed opposition to ICE raids saw a 20 point decline in support among Republicans; those who defended trans right saw pronounced losses not just among Republicans (−32 points) but also rural voters (−7 points), noncollege voters (−7 points), black respondents (−21 points), and those in working-class occupations (−15 points). Similarly talking about Palestine produced steep losses among Republicans (−21 points), independents (−11 points), rural voters (−18 points), and college-educated respondents (−11 points).
These findings don’t mean democratic socialists should change their positions to pander to centrist voters or stay silent on key moral issues of our time. Rather they call for a highly disciplined approach to campaigning around polarizing issues that accounts for often radical differences in political and social contexts across districts. Especially in settings where victory depends on reaching beyond the Democratic base into the ranks of independents and even Republicans, effective issue sequencing and framing are likely to be critical.
4
Economic populism is the immediate route to building support for democratic socialism.
Consistent with a range of recent research, the survey finds that regardless of partisanship, ethnicity, class, and geography, voters converge around a kitchen-table indictment of corporate power and calls to materially improve the lives of working Americans.
Agreement that “our economic system is rigged in favor of corporations and the wealthy” cleared 60% in every major demographic group (just under that for Republicans) and topped 70% among noncollege voters, black and Latino voters, and voters under 45. At least six in 10 across every major demographic group agreed that “corporations and the wealthy have too much influence in the party I usually vote for.” Likewise majorities across the board blamed landlord and bank profiteering for the housing crisis. And while a slim majority of Republicans said it’s good that the number of billionaires is increasing, the statement was rejected by large majorities of Democrats and independents and by majorities of black, white, college, and noncollege voters, as well as working-class voters.
These findings point to a concrete program — like that championed by Mamdani and Sanders, as well as a host of progressive economic populists who don’t identify as socialists — that can be named in plain language: raise wages, lower prices, stop price-gouging, punish corruption, protect workers’ rights to organize and bargain collectively, and invest in good jobs and public goods that reduce household costs. Even where the “democratic socialist” label itself may be a liability, this bread-and-butter socialist agenda knits together a surprisingly broad coalition.
The past decade built a credible democratic socialist pole in US politics. The decade ahead will turn on whether that pole can scale a majoritarian economic populist program while managing real liabilities among certain parts of the electorate and successfully navigating polarizing social issues outside deep-blue strongholds. Do that, and campaigns like Mamdani’s won’t just be viable; they’ll be catalytic — proof that worker-first politics can travel and win in any part of the country.