(CNN) — About a third of Democrats and Democratic-leaning adults identify as democratic socialists, according to a new CNN poll conducted by SSRS.
They’re some of the party’s staunchest supporters, but many are also raring for a party overhaul at a time when democratic socialists are seeing new momentum at the polls.
Building on New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s victory over Andrew Cuomo last year, candidates describing themselves as democratic socialists have secured the Democratic nomination in several US House races around the country, including defeats of incumbent Reps. Adriano Espaillat in New York and Diana DeGette in Colorado.
Primaries over the next few weeks will test whether the trend can expand beyond Democratic strongholds – with recent polling on the Democratic gubernatorial primary in Wisconsin finding democratic socialist Francesca Hong leading the field in that critical battleground state.
Who makes up the democratic socialist wing of the Democratic Party’s base? According to CNN’s poll, Democratic-aligned Americans who identify as democratic socialists:
- Tend to be younger (59% are younger than 45, compared to 46% of non-democratic socialists aligned with the Democratic Party) and are more likely to be White (57% to 49%)
- Are less likely to have a college degree (66% to 54%) and more likely to earn less than $100,000 a year (76% to 65%)
- Are more likely to say they are extremely motivated to vote this year (66% of those who are registered voters say so, compared to 57% for non-democratic socialists), though both groups overwhelmingly support Democratic congressional candidates (99% of democratic socialists and 94% of non-democratic socialists)
- Are more positive toward the Democratic Party. They are more likely to hold favorable views of the Democratic Party (68% to 60%) and its congressional leaders, and more likely to have negative views of the Republican Party and its congressional leaders
Although democratic socialists are just as likely as other Democratic-leaning Americans to say the Democratic Party needs to be completely reformed or needs major changes, they are more likely to see as positive changing the current leadership of the party and nominating younger candidates. Notably, they are nearly twice as likely to support the party moving to the left on policy issues.
Democratic socialists also split from the rest of the party on US aid to Israel – 48% say they’d be enthusiastic about a candidate who believes the US should cut support to Israel, compared to 20% for non-democratic socialists. Three years into the war in Gaza, the issue has animated many Democratic primaries this cycle.
Democratic socialists overwhelmingly tend to hold favorable views of the Democratic Socialists of America as well as of democratic socialist officeholders: among those expressing an opinion, nearly all have favorable views of Mamdani and of New York Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez.
Democratic-aligned adults are generally comfortable with the possibility of their party nominating a candidate who identifies as a democratic socialist.
While enthusiasm is considerably higher among democratic socialists, 64% of Democratic-aligned adults who do not identify as democratic socialists would be at least OK with such a candidate, while 36% would be upset or uneasy.
The-CNN-Wire
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