Most Democrats would vote for a candidate describing themselves as a “Democratic Socialist,” a recent Economist/YouGov survey revealed.
The survey asked respondents, “Would you ever vote for a candidate who identified as a “Democratic Socialist?”
Across the board, a plurality of respondents, 45 percent, said they would not vote for such a candidate, followed by 29 percent who said they would and 26 percent who remain unsure.
Predictably, the vast majority of Republicans, 85 percent, said they would not vote for a “Democratic Socialist,” but most Democrats, 62 percent, said they would do so. Further, only 11 percent of Democrats said they would not, and over a quarter, 27 percent, said they are “not sure.”
A plurality of independents, 40 percent, said they would not vote for a “Democratic Socialist,” compared to 24 percent who said they would.
An even greater majority, 73 percent, of self-described liberals said they would support a “Democratic Socialist,” and most 2024 voters of former Vice President Kamala Harris, 64 percent, said they would as well. Only five percent of 2024 Trump voters said the same.
The survey also revealed that more Democrats view socialism more favorably than capitalism – 34 percent choosing socialism and 22 percent choosing capitalism. Additionally, 58 percent of Democrats view socialism in general “favorably.”
The survey was taken June 26 – 29, 2026, among 1,606 respondents. It has a +/- 3.2 percent margin of error.
The rise of socialism in the Democrat Party has been well-documented, making waves after New York City elected a socialist mayor, Zohran Mamdani. Since then, Mamdani-endorsed socialist candidates in the state have ousted establishment Democrats in their respective primaries.
“…But still alarming that a majority of people are voting for socialists,” Sen. Rand Paul said during a recent appearance on Breitbart News Daily. “I wrote a book a few years ago, The Case Against Socialism, and in it we talked about some of the polls where, you know, majority of young people are thinking, hey, socialism sounds good, why don’t we try it.”
“They don’t understand … the disaster that is Venezuela, the disaster that is Cuba, the disaster that was China, Laos, Vietnam, Cambodia, all these places,” the senator said. “What they understand it to be is fairness, and they’re like, well, it’s just not fair that you make twice as much money as me, and we’re just going to make it fair.”
Paul added that young people equate that idea of “fairness” with socialism, failing to realize that “equal outcome leads to a disaster” such as food shortages, lack of wealth, “and all the things that we have” with capitalism.
“It’s ignorance, but it is alarming, and then the other, the other possibility, though, is [the] left goes so far left that maybe they can’t win general elections, but in New York, all these people will win,” he added.
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