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…
Auteur: Jared Abbott
