On Tuesday’s “CNN News Central,” CNN Chief Data Analyst Harry Enten stated that New York Gov. Kathy Hochul’s (D) endorsement of New York City mayoral candidate Assemblyman Zohran Mamdani (D) isn’t surprising “because the fact is, socialism is not a four-letter word in Democratic primaries, not among Democratic voters. It’s a five-letter word in the minds of a lot of Democrats, that five-letter word being, ‘Great.’” While they view capitalism as “Bad.”
Enten said, “I’m not really surprised that Kathy Hochul decided to, in fact, endorse Zohran Mamdani, because the fact is, socialism is not a four-letter word in Democratic primaries, not among Democratic voters. It’s a five-letter word in the minds of a lot of Democrats, that five-letter word being, ‘Great.’ Look at this, net popularity of socialism among Democrats, you go back to 2010, it was plus 7 points. Look how high it is now, up like a rocket, up to plus 36 points. That’s a jump of nearly 30 points on the net popularity scale among Democrats in just 15 years. And I was looking at the polling from New York City, and what you see is the clear plurality of New York City Democrats think the idea of having a socialist mayor is a good idea, matching what we see nationally. The bottom line is, socialism isn’t a dirty word among Democrats at this particular point. It’s actually a word that, when attached, Democrats seem to like it.”
He added, “So, if, all of a sudden, socialism is now a five-letter word, great. What I would say is, capitalism, in the mind of Democrats, is a three-letter word, ‘Bad.’ What are we talking about? Net popularity of [capitalism] among Democrats. Look at this trend, it was plus eight points in 2010 on the positive side of the ledger. Look at where we are in 2025, down, falling through the floor at minus 13 points. That’s a drop of over 20 points in just 15 years. So, we see the exact opposite trend that we see in socialism, which is up, up, and away. What we see with capitalism is down, down, down through the floor.”
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