{"id":8347,"date":"2026-07-30T11:06:01","date_gmt":"2026-07-30T11:06:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/movinginsiderusa.com\/?p=8347"},"modified":"2026-07-30T11:06:01","modified_gmt":"2026-07-30T11:06:01","slug":"most-americans-say-they-would-not-back-a-democratic-socialist-for-president","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/movinginsiderusa.com\/?p=8347","title":{"rendered":"Most Americans say they would not back a democratic socialist for president"},"content":{"rendered":"

Left-leaning candidates have been gaining strength in recent primaries, posing challenges for a Democratic Party that is debating how to win mass appeal in 2028.<\/strong><\/p>

Read more Lawmakers will investigate Iranian attack that killed 6 U.S. troops<\/a><\/p>\n

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Demonstrators hold a Democratic Socialists of America banner ahead of a vote by the Rent Guidelines Board in New York on Saturday. (Bloomberg\/Getty Images\/Bloomberg via Getty Images)<\/figcaption>\n<\/figure>\n

Three in 4 Democrats say they would be open to supporting a democratic socialist for president, but less than half of all Americans say they would vote for such a candidate, according to a Washington Post-Ipsos poll<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The findings from the recent survey show the ascendant strength<\/a> of socialist-backed candidates among left-leaning voters \u2014 and the challenges that strength poses for a Democratic Party that is debating how to win mass appeal ahead of the 2028 presidential election.<\/p>\n

The Democratic Socialists of America has amassed tens of thousands of new dues-paying members as the party appeals to voters frustrated with widening income inequality. Several democratic socialists or candidates affiliated with the movement have won primaries in deep-blue cities<\/a> and congressional districts.<\/p>\n

The DSA considers itself a big-tent organization, and its members hold a variety of left-leaning political views that range from support for Nordic-style social welfare programs to a staunch belief in communism.<\/p>\n

The group\u2019s platform includes support for<\/a> the socialized health care program known as Medicare-for-all, a popular vote for president, increasing taxes on the rich, stronger union protections, universal rent control and free prekindergarten.<\/p>\n

But Americans have not reached consensus on what being a democratic socialist<\/a> actually means, the poll indicates. When asked to describe what democratic socialists stand for, respondents provided a range of answers, from economic equality and universal health care to wealth redistribution and communism. No more than 13 percent of the public coalesced around any singular view.<\/p>\n

Democrats are more likely to describe democratic socialism as standing for economic equality, helping ordinary people and expanded social programs. Republicans are more apt to mention communism or Marxism, government control or providing undeserved benefits. Independents mention a mix of all of these topics.<\/p>\n

Republicans and right-wing influencers are increasingly invoking \u201ccommunism,\u201d often to criticize democratic socialists and the Democratic Party broadly, according to a Washington Post analysis<\/a>. Americans split on this comparison in the Post-Ipsos poll, with 30 percent saying democratic socialism is similar to communism while 32 percent say it is different and 36 percent <\/b>saying they are <\/b>not sure.<\/p>\n

Democratic socialism has clearly caught on with many Democrats, fueling questions about how that energy will affect upcoming elections, including the 2028 presidential race. Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-New York), a DSA member, is viewed as a potential presidential candidate.<\/p>\n

The Post-Ipsos poll indicates that 55 percent of Americans would not consider voting for a democratic socialist for president, while 39 percent would consider supporting one and 6 percent having no opinion. A majority of self-described independents, 54 percent, would also rule out a democratic socialist candidate.<\/p>\n

A much smaller segment of Americans \u2014 <\/b>15 percent <\/b>\u2014 <\/b>say they like leaders who identify as democratic socialists, compared with 36 percent who dislike them and nearly half saying they neither like nor dislike democratic socialists, the poll shows.<\/p>\n

About one-third of Democrats say they like democratic socialist candidates and 10 percent dislike them, but most have neither positive nor negative views of them. Republicans are more negative, with 7 in 10 disliking democratic socialists.<\/p>

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Age and education level appear to be the strongest factors in explaining views of democratic socialism, with young people the most open to supporting them.<\/p>\n

Forty-six percent of Americans under age 30 say they would consider supporting a democratic socialist for president. Willingness to consider a democratic socialist candidate drops to 36 percent among those ages 50 to 64 and down to 33 percent among people older than that.<\/p>\n

People with postgraduate degrees stand out as the biggest potential supporters, with 51 percent willing to support a democratic socialist candidate for president. That\u2019s compared with 44 percent of bachelor\u2019s degree holders, 39 percent of those with some college education and 32 percent of those who did not attend college.<\/p>\n

The DSA, which this month said<\/a> it now has <\/b>more than 120,000 dues-paying members in 220 local chapters, has focused on organizing year-round, including at events outside the frame of political campaigns, such as abortion clinic defenses, \u201cknow your rights\u201d trainings for immigrants and clothing swaps to give transgender and gender-nonconforming people easy access to the clothing they prefer.<\/p>\n

The group\u2019s canvassing infrastructure \u2014 and strong support among young people \u2014 powered the rise of New York Mayor Zohran Mamdani (D) last year as well as other candidates in congressional and state legislature primaries this summer in New York<\/a>, Philadelphia and Denver.<\/p>\n

But critics have also attacked the group as a movement of wealthier, White, highly educated gentrifiers who are displacing the Black and Latino voters who were once at the heart of progressive electoral machines in those cities.<\/p>\n

Some longtime Black political leaders have pointed<\/a> to a video from an election-night watch party for one New York DSA candidate, Claire Valdez, in which mostly White supporters were booing television footage of House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-New York) \u2014 and then chanting, \u201cYou\u2019re next!\u201d<\/p>\n

The Post-Ipsos poll finds Black Americans are more likely than White and Hispanic Americans to be open to a democratic socialist candidates. But White Democrats are about twice as likely as Black Democrats to say they like when political leaders identify as democratic socialists, at 42 percent vs. 22 percent.<\/p>\n

And while one core tenet of democratic socialism is their aim to fight poverty and wealth inequality, support for the movement does not fall neatly along income lines.<\/p>\n

For instance, Americans with incomes over $100,000 are more likely to say they would consider voting for a democratic socialist in a presidential election than those with incomes below $50,000. But people with higher incomes are more likely to say they \u201cdislike\u201d democratic socialists, while those with lower incomes are more likely to offer no opinion either way.<\/p>\n

Read <\/i>detailed results of The Washington Post-Ipsos poll<\/i><\/a>. The poll was conducted online July 8-13 among 2,648 U.S. adults nationwide reached through the Ipsos KnowledgePanel, an ongoing panel of U.S. households recruited by mail using random sampling methods. Overall results have a margin of error of plus or minus 1.9 percentage points. The sample was weighted to match population demographics, 2024 turnout\/vote choice and political partisanship.<\/i><\/p>

Read more Trump\u2019s support for Graham\u2019s sister stirs GOP backlash in South Carolina<\/a><\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Left-leaning candidates have been gaining strength in recent primaries, posing challenges for a Democratic Party that is debating how to win mass appeal in 2028.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":8345,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-8347","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-interesting"],"yoast_head":"\nMost Americans say they would not back a democratic socialist for president - Moving Insider USA<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/movinginsiderusa.com\/?p=8347\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Most Americans say they would not back a democratic socialist for president - 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