WASHINGTON — With the midterm elections approaching, new polling and a wave of progressive primary victories suggest that socialism, once among the most politically damaging labels in American politics, is losing some of the stigma it carried during the Cold War, particularly among younger voters.
At the same time, President Donald Trump’s transformation of the Republican Party has moved conservative politics toward a more nationalist and confrontational agenda, while his presidency has helped energize a growing progressive movement within the Democratic Party.
The shifts are playing out in congressional and local elections across the country, including Michigan, where a progressive Democrat who defeated an establishment-backed opponent in the primary is now leading in polls against a Republican aligned with Trump in one of the nation’s closely divided battleground states.
A Gallup survey released Sept. 23 found that 43% of Americans now view socialism positively, the highest level recorded since the polling organization began measuring attitudes toward the economic system in 2010.
Among Americans ages 18 to 34, socialism receives more favorable ratings than capitalism, 57% to 43%. Among political independents, favorable views of socialism increased from 37% in 2025 to 45% this year.
Those findings represent a substantial departure from the political environment that dominated American elections for generations, when accusations of socialism or communism could damage political careers and Democratic candidates frequently sought to distance themselves from the labels.
The generational divide is particularly pronounced. Among Americans 55 and older, capitalism remains considerably more popular than socialism, with favorable ratings of 65% and 34%, respectively.
Younger voters, by contrast, came of age decades after the collapse of the Soviet Union and amid growing concerns about housing costs, student debt, health care affordability and economic inequality.
Gallup’s findings do not establish that Americans are abandoning capitalism. A majority, 55%, still view capitalism favorably, while 77% express positive views of free enterprise and 95% favor small businesses.
But the findings suggest that socialism is becoming less politically disqualifying, even among voters who continue to support market-based economic systems.
The changing attitudes are also influencing electoral politics.
According to an Oct. 26 analysis by Ballotpedia, the Democratic Socialists of America and its local chapters have endorsed 131 candidates appearing on the Nov. 3 ballot across 30 states and Washington, D.C.
Those candidates include 10 running for the U.S. House of Representatives, 52 seeking state legislative seats and 69 pursuing local offices.
Three DSA-endorsed congressional candidates defeated Democratic incumbents in primary elections this year, demonstrating the movement’s growing ability to challenge established party figures in heavily Democratic districts.
Ballotpedia reported that the number of DSA-endorsed members of Congress could increase from two to at least seven, with two additional California contests potentially increasing that number to nine.
An Associated Press report published Oct. 31 identified several democratic socialist candidates positioned to enter Congress, including Chris Rabb in Pennsylvania, Melat Kiros in Colorado and Claire Valdez in New York.
Their campaigns have emphasized economic inequality, affordable housing, expanded health care, labor protections and opposition to Trump’s immigration policies.
The movement’s influence is not confined to candidates who explicitly identify as democratic socialists.
In Michigan, Abdul El-Sayed, a progressive Democrat and former Wayne County health director, defeated establishment-backed Rep. Haley Stevens in the August Democratic Senate primary.
El-Sayed received 48.45% of the vote to Stevens’ 47.55%, according to certified election results, overcoming a candidate who had received support from prominent Democratic officials, including retiring Sen. Gary Peters.
His campaign drew support from Sen. Bernie Sanders and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, two of the most prominent figures associated with the party’s progressive wing.
Although El-Sayed does not identify as a democratic socialist, his campaign has embraced universal health care, expanded social programs and economic policies aimed at reducing costs for working-class Americans.
His victory demonstrated that a candidate running to the left of the Democratic establishment could capture a major statewide nomination in a competitive state.
More significantly, his positions have not prevented him from competing in the general election.
An Oct. 27 poll commissioned by WDIV-TV and The Detroit News found El-Sayed leading Republican Mike Rogers, 51.4% to 45.1%, among likely voters.
A subsequent CBS Detroit poll placed El-Sayed at 51% and Rogers at 44%.
Decision Desk HQ’s polling average as of Oct. 30 showed El-Sayed ahead by approximately five percentage points, despite Michigan having voted for Trump in the 2024 presidential election.
The Michigan contest has also become a test of the more confrontational political environment that has emerged under Trump.
In an Oct. 28 report, Reuters described how Rogers has sought to portray El-Sayed, who would become the nation’s first Muslim senator if elected, as sympathetic to Islamist extremism.
El-Sayed has denied those allegations, while supporters have criticized the attacks as Islamophobic. Trump has amplified allegations about El-Sayed’s supposed connections to extremist organizations.
Rogers has also argued that El-Sayed’s support for universal health care and other progressive policies places him outside the political mainstream.
El-Sayed, meanwhile, has focused on affordability and sought to connect Rogers to Trump’s economic and immigration policies.
The divisions have extended into the Democratic Party itself.
Reuters reported Oct. 31 that El-Sayed had asked Stevens to stay away from his campaign events in the final days before the election following a dispute over an outside political advertisement linking high grocery prices to U.S. support for Israel.
Stevens criticized the advertisement as antisemitic and called on El-Sayed to denounce it, although she had previously affirmed her support for his candidacy.
The disagreement exposed continuing tensions between the party’s progressive and establishment wings even as Democrats seek to retain the Senate seat.
The Michigan race offers a different electoral test from the contests involving DSA candidates in overwhelmingly Democratic congressional districts. A victory by El-Sayed would demonstrate that a progressive candidate could defeat both the Democratic establishment and a Republican opponent in a state that supported Trump two years earlier.
The ideological shifts are also taking place within the Republican Party.
Under Trump, the party has moved away from several longstanding conservative economic positions, particularly its commitment to free trade and opposition to direct federal involvement in private industry.
The administration has embraced sweeping tariffs, industrial policy and direct government investments in private corporations.
In August 2025, the administration acquired a nearly 10% equity stake in semiconductor manufacturer Intel, converting previously authorized federal support into government ownership.
The arrangement represented an unusual degree of federal intervention in a major American corporation for a Republican administration traditionally associated with limited government and free-market economics.
The administration has pursued similar interventions in strategically important industries, reflecting an economic nationalism that departs from the Republican Party’s traditional free-market orthodoxy.
That approach has complicated Republican efforts to characterize government intervention in the economy as inherently socialist, even as the two parties continue to advance sharply different economic goals.
The ideological changes extend beyond economics.
A June 2026 study by the Public Religion Research Institute found that favorable views of Christian nationalism among Republicans had increased from 36% in 2022 to 48% in 2026.
The study also found that Americans who strongly embraced Christian nationalism were substantially more likely to support giving Trump expanded authority to restore what they regarded as the nation’s greatness.
Separately, PRRI research released in February found that 56% of Republicans qualified as either adherents or sympathizers of Christian nationalism, compared with 25% of independents and 17% of Democrats.
The findings illustrate how Trump’s political movement has strengthened nationalist and religiously conservative positions within the Republican coalition, even as democratic socialists and other progressives have gained ground among Democratic voters.
Those movements differ substantially in their objectives and approaches to government power.
Democratic socialist candidates have generally focused on economic redistribution, expanded public services and worker protections, while Trump’s nationalist movement has emphasized immigration restrictions, national identity, trade protectionism and executive authority.
Nevertheless, both are challenging political assumptions that shaped their respective parties for decades.
The socialist movement’s expansion also predates Trump’s presidency.
Sanders’ 2016 presidential campaign demonstrated that a self-described democratic socialist could attract millions of Democratic primary voters, particularly younger Americans frustrated by economic inequality and the influence of wealthy donors.
The 2008 financial crisis, the Occupy Wall Street movement and the growing affordability crisis had already helped revive political interest in economic alternatives before Trump entered the White House.
Trump’s rise coincided with that transformation and has become a major focus of organizing for a new generation of progressive candidates.
The electoral implications remain uncertain.
Research from the Brookings Institution has found that DSA-endorsed candidates have achieved meaningful gains but remain concentrated in strongly Democratic districts, with a more limited record of success in politically competitive areas.
The movement has also encountered resistance from established Democratic figures who argue that socialist candidates could complicate the party’s efforts to win moderate and independent voters.
But the conventional Republican strategy of invoking socialism as a political warning may be losing some of its effectiveness, particularly among younger Americans who lack the Cold War associations that shaped earlier generations.
The shifting attitudes are especially notable among independents, whose increased favorable views accounted for the entire rise in socialism’s national Gallup rating between 2025 and 2026.
Favorable views among Democrats remained virtually unchanged at 65%, while Republican support stayed at 14%.
The results indicate that socialism’s growing acceptability is not confined to Democrats who already identify with progressive economic policies.
At the same time, Gallup found that Americans continue to express strong support for economic competition and market choice, suggesting that favorable views of socialism do not necessarily translate into support for replacing capitalism.
As voters prepare for Tuesday’s elections, the socialist movement faces its most extensive electoral test of the year, with candidates competing for congressional seats, state legislatures and municipal offices.
In California, 37 DSA-endorsed candidates are running for local offices, according to Ballotpedia, while two socialist-backed congressional candidates are challenging Democratic incumbents in the general election.
Los Angeles voters are also weighing a mayoral contest between incumbent Karen Bass and City Council member Nithya Raman, a DSA-endorsed candidate whose campaign has emphasized housing affordability, tenant protections and city services.
In Michigan, El-Sayed enters the final days of the Senate campaign with a polling advantage over Rogers, despite continued divisions within the Democratic Party and Republican attacks on his progressive positions.
The state will vote Nov. 3, with the outcome helping determine control of the U.S. Senate and whether a candidate running on an explicitly progressive economic platform can win statewide in a battleground that supported Trump in 2024.
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