We’ve long known here at Teen Vogue that young people are desperate for a change in the Democratic Party — drawn to democratic socialism and candidates like New York mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani. Capitalism doesn’t have the best reputation among these folks.
A new poll from Data for Progress — surveying 1,257 likely voters via web panel between August 22 and 24 — found that “voters of all parties” are open to leftist policies, and that a majority of Democratic voters polled preferred democratic socialism to capitalism “when written definitions of each are read aloud to them,” reported POLITICO’s Holly Otterbein. According to the Democratic Socialists of America Fund’s (who commissioned the poll alongside Jacobin magazine and the Rosa Luxemburg Foundation) analysis on the poll, socialism “wins overall with likely voters under 45.”
Democratic voters responded favorably to policies like broader access to housing and high-quality healthcare; they also preferred DSA-affiliated politicians with platforms like Mamdani’s, Bernie Sanders’s, and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s, over politicians similar to party centrists Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, and Rep. Nancy Pelosi. Democrats also said they wanted candidates who would fight ICE raids and protect trans rights.
70% of all respondents felt that “our economic system is rigged in favor of corporations and the wealthy” and 59% blame landlords and banks for housing costs. As noted in Politico’s coverage, a recent Gallup poll found that capitalism is “slip[ping]” in popularity with those Americans polled, while views on socialism have stayed generally the same, hovering at 39 percent popularity.
“These results tell a clear story: democratic socialism is now mainstream,” DSA Fund Executive Director Gabe Tobias said of the poll in a statement. “Far from a liability, the ‘democratic socialist’ label is now how voters recognize a leader who they can trust to fight for them. And far from fringe, DSA actually represents the majority political views of Democratic voters.”
Just this weekend, New York Gov. Kathy Hochul endorsed Mamdani in the New York City mayoral’s race — while, observed The Intercept’s Akela Lacy, Jeffries and Schumer remain silent on the race.
Zohran Mamdani did something different, and it made all the difference.
Youth organizers with the New York City climate group TREEage wrote for Teen Vogue of their decision to organize for Mamdani’s election, “Young progressive voters are stepping into their full economic and political power, frustrated with geriatric leaders making decisions for a world that no longer exists.” They cited the city’s “skyrocketing rent” and “historic affordability crisis” as motivating factors bringing them to Mamdani’s campaign, as well as the “multiethnic, intergenerational, politically diverse coalition” brought together by his candidacy. Those who aren’t rejoicing in Mamdani’s sudden success: The city’s landlords, and the very wealthy.
It remains to be seen if Democratic Party power-brokers will put their full weight behind democratic socialists like Mamdani, or continue to court the center. What polls like this one make clear is that, either way, more people may be open to them than they realize.
