“As the summer of the Democratic Socialists of America gives way to the fall's midterm campaigns, some patterns have emerged with implications for the 2028 presidential contest.
Evidence from polls and primary elections suggests that support for DSA and DSA-adjacent candidates reflects the current strengths and weaknesses of the Democratic Party. These candidates run well among younger, more educated urban voters but poorly among older voters without college degrees who live outside big cities. They do somewhat better among women than men, as the party does. And they enjoy considerably more support among white and upper-income Democrats and Democratic-leaning independents than among blacks, Hispanics and lower-income voters.
While some elements of the DSA agenda -- such as Medicare for all and higher taxes on corporations and wealthy individuals -- enjoy majority support, most don't.
The organization's platform advocates government ownership of much of the economy, including food, education, energy, medicine and transportation. Americans wouldn't have landlords or mortgages because "comfortable housing is a human right."
The DSA platform also includes the following: "Demilitarize police departments, disempower police unions, and redirect funding to public services as steps towards fully abolishing the police and prison system"; "Defund the Department of War. End all foreign wars and close overseas military bases"; "Legalize migration, grant amnesty for all immigrants regardless of status, provide a path to citizenship for all permanent residents, and end visa caps and quotas"; "Replace the President and Supreme Court with an executive and judiciary chosen by and subordinate to Congress"; "Abolish the Senate."
No doubt a serious candidate with past ties to democratic socialism would repudiate these proposals to win over centrist voters. But that's a problem, not a solution. In a general-election campaign, such a candidate would be forced on the defensive by an endless wave of negative advertising, hampering his ability to take the offensive against the excesses of the Trump administration and to promote a publicly acceptable alternative to it. A democratic socialist-leaning Democratic nominee might well repeat the fiasco of George McGovern's candidacy in 1972, in which the Democratic nominee was branded as too far left and lost in a landslide.
Although the presidential election is more than two years away, the available evidence supports common sense: If the presidential election were held tomorrow, a Democratic nominee who identifies with democratic socialism would fare badly. Fifty-four percent of registered voters in a recent Washington Post-Ipsos poll said they wouldn't even consider voting for such a candidate, including 54% of independents and 20% of Democrats.
But according to a recent CBS/YouGov survey, 58% of Democrats view socialism favorably, compared with 35% of the electorate as a whole.
This gap could lead Democrats to nominate a candidate well outside the national mainstream.
Still, the DSA is on the rise -- the latest sign that many Americans are angry and scared about trends they feel powerless to halt. "Take back control," the slogan that helped Brexit win an upset victory, would serve well as a summary of what Americans want, but aren't getting, from today's politics.
Protesters are upset about a range of issues, including wages that lag behind prices, increasingly unaffordable healthcare, the vanishing of the dream of homeownership for young adults, and a technological revolution that threatens the jobs of millions of workers. Overall, Americans believe it is harder for them to enter the middle class and enjoy financial security than it was for their parents. No wonder so many communities are rallying against data centers.
Adding fuel to the fire, President Trump hasn't kept the promises he made during his 2024 campaign. Prices are rising faster than during Joe Biden's final year in office. Despite tariffs intended to reverse offshoring, there are fewer U.S. manufacturing jobs than when Mr. Trump began his second term. The war against Iran has raised the price of gasoline, fertilizer and the diesel fuel that trucks use to transport most of the goods that Americans use every day. Against this backdrop, it's hardly surprising that 63% of Americans -- including 53% of Republicans and Republican-leaning independents -- believe that the Republican Party hasn't focused enough on the cost of living.
Democratic leaders should take no comfort from these developments. The 2024 election was more than a defeat for Kamala Harris; it was the end of an era. Democratic voters want a new generation of leaders with new ideas to take charge, and they are in no mood to accept timid incrementalism. Support for capitalism is at a low ebb among independents as well as Democrats.
As Republicans learned in 2016, a charismatic anti-status-quo candidate can win the nomination without majority support -- if multiple candidates representing business as usual split the vote. If the Democratic Party's center-left wing fails to offer an agenda voters can believe in, the door will be open for a radical faction to take charge during the presidential nomination contest, regardless of the consequences for the general election.” [1]
1. Politics & Ideas: How Radical Will the Democrats Get? Galston, William A. Wall Street Journal, Eastern edition; New York, N.Y.. 19 Aug 2026: A13.
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