From Colorado to New York: Is democratic socialism on the rise?
Democratic socialism is stealing the national spotlight, notching wins in Democratic primaries in select cities and forcing a reckoning over the future of the party.
Democratic socialism is stealing the national spotlight, notching wins in Democratic primaries in select cities and forcing a reckoning over the future of the party. In deep-blue districts, those wins are emblematic of a growing enthusiasm among younger, anti-establishment voters keen to throw out incumbents, experts say.
“It’s definitely generational; it’s definitely anti-incumbent,” said Nick Beauchamp, an associate professor of political science at Northeastern University. “And those two things synergize because anti-incumbent attitudes have always been stronger among the young.”
The growing interest in alternatives to establishment visions of the Democratic Party comes as many younger Americans are confronting a markedly different economic reality than previous generations. Skyrocketing housing costs, lingering student debt, widening inequality and growing pessimism about the American promise of upward mobility have fueled a broader appetite for candidates promising more sweeping economic change on both sides of the aisle, experts say.
But experts are equally cautious about reading into a handful of primary wins the prospect of some larger political realignment taking place in the U.S. electorate.
Historically, incumbents tend to eschew such labels, Beauchamp said, so as to attract a wider coalition of voters. Challengers, on the other hand, often benefit from embracing them as a way to distinguish themselves from entrenched party leaders.
In New York and select other constituencies, the conditions were especially favorable for an insurgent politics, he said.
Following the success in November of New York Mayor Zohran Mamdani, a political newcomer who identifies as a democratic socialist, voters in June backed a slate of democratic socialists, or candidates endorsed by the Democratic Socialists of America (DSA), in congressional primaries there. Most recently, on June 30, self-described democratic socialist and first-time challenger Melat Kiros defeated U.S. Rep. Diana DeGette in Colorado’s 1st Congressional District in the state’s primary.
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Democratic socialism is a diffuse political ideology that advocates for more public control over the economy and a more expansive role for government in providing social services. There are “many avenues” toward achieving the democratic goals of socialism, according to the DSA’s website, which notes that the national organization is itself not a political party, and uses a “variety of tactics” to try to empower workers and advocate for reform.
Perhaps at its most specific, democratic socialism today has come to be associated with a broad and expanding set of issues and priorities, including workers’ rights, immigration, progressive tax policies, universal healthcare and affordable housing, among others, Beauchamp said.
It is a label many of the challengers have worn proudly, like Brad Lander, who recently defeated U.S. Rep. Dan Goldman in a primary for New York’s 10th Congressional District; Darializa Avila Chevalier, who overcame Adriano Espaillat to represent the state’s 13th Congressional District; and Claire Valdez, who defeated Antonio Reynoso in the contest for the 7th Congressional District.
At the same time, critics counter that the movement could complicate Democrats’ efforts to win competitive races outside deep-blue districts.
But the spate of victories by radical progressives doesn’t necessarily signal that Democratic voters have embraced democratic socialism as a single coherent vision — far from it, according to Beauchamp. Rather, he said, many of the candidates so far have benefited from the broad frustration with the mainstream Democratic establishment that has been boiling since the party’s defeat in the 2024 presidential election.
Those dynamics have been especially pronounced in New York, where debate over Israel’s war in Gaza, the role of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, or ICE, and its tactics, and the party’s future direction have opened the door for fresh challengers, he said. Chevalier and Valdez campaigned by attacking the influence of pro-Israel lobbying groups, such as AIPAC, and are pushing for the abolition of ICE as a way to break with the centrist platform.
AIPAC describes itself as a bipartisan organization that works “to strengthen the U.S.-Israel partnership” and supports Democratic and Republican candidates who back that alliance, according to its website. The organization says a strong U.S.-Israel relationship makes “America safer, stronger and more prosperous.”
The Department of Homeland Security has long rejected calls to abolish ICE, arguing the agency is essential to enforcing immigration laws and protecting public safety.
Whether “democratic socialism” will have any staying power heading into the general election remains to be seen. The ideology appears to be more popular with Gen Z and millennials than with older generations, but the DSA is still viewed more unfavorably than favorably among younger adults more broadly, according to recent national polling from Marquette Law School and Pew Research.
Among adults ages 18 to 29, the DSA has a 28% favorable rating compared with a 40% unfavorable rating, according to a June Pew Research survey. Among those ages 30 to 44, it has an 18% favorable rating and a 45% unfavorable rating.
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Citing the slew of primary wins, consistently strong public support for trade unions and the frenzy of organizing activity, among other things, Sanders has said that the country may be “on the verge of the political revolution we have fought for, for such a long time.”
Speaking in a video message to supporters on July 1, he added that they “are a movement to elect progressives at every level who will fight for a government that represents all of us, and not just the one percent.”
Lucas Holtz, a senior political adviser with Third Way, a national think tank and advocacy organization, said in an email that the string of victories is laying bare the “two competing projects” shaping the future of the party. One, he said, is the vision of the DSA and the far-left, which is to further strengthen Democratic support in already blue areas; the other is flipping red and purple states and “putting a check on Trump” and his Make America Great Again, or MAGA, right-wing political movement, he said.
Holtz noted that New York’s primary victors managed to defeat incumbents who could be described as progressive, but added they’re not competing in the red and purple districts that will ultimately decide which party controls the House or the Senate. The DSA’s message simply “does not sell in those areas,” he said.
He added that there was no single battleground state where a majority of voters think the Republican Party is too extreme. What seems true “is that the Democrats running for Senate in these battleground states are escaping the Democratic Party’s far-left brand by running as mainstream center-left Democrats,” Holtz said. The path to a majority runs through the center.”
