On Monday, New York Governor Kathy Hochul endorsed Democratic Socialist of America (DSA) candidate Zohran Mamdani for mayor of New York City. She was the first prominent Democratic Party establishment figure in the state to endorse Mamdani. Expect House Minority Leader Rep. Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.) and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) to follow suit before the snow flies.
Senator Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.) was recently in Iowa criticizing those Democrats for not endorsing Mamdani.
“Many Democratic members of the Senate and the House representing New York have stayed on the sidelines,” Van Hollen told the crowd at a fundraiser. “That kind of spineless politics is what people are sick of. They need to get behind him and get behind him now.”
On the surface, this would appear to be very good news for Republicans. In many states, it will be. But in swing states with sizable numbers of Democrats (Pennsylvania, Michigan, Wisconsin, and North Carolina, especially), the energy that the DSA is bringing to the Democratic Party should be worrisome to Republicans.
"Socialism" is no longer a political killer. This is especially true among younger Democrats, but the center of gravity of the party is now lurched decidedly to the left.
In cities across the country where Democrats dominate, the DSA is rising fast. They have cash, an army of enthusiastic volunteers, and something the establishment Democrats have lost: confidence.
A DSA-commissioned poll out this week tells the story.
In cities across the country, including Seattle, Detroit, and Minneapolis, the group is running radical candidates on its anti-Israel and anti-capitalism platform. A new DSA-commissioned poll out this week showed just how far the base has shifted. Seventy-four percent of Democratic voters polled said they preferred democratic socialism to capitalism, which only 16 percent of those same voters backed. In Minneapolis, Omar Fateh, a Somali American who has helped campaign for Mamdani, is five points behind incumbent mayor Jacob Frey, according to the latest poll. The group has even turned its focus to school boards and city councils, including in San Antonio, where three of the city council’s 10 members are also DSA members.
“The same fight is going on all over the country,” said one long-time Democratic operative. “The leftist forces are increasingly powerful.”
You might recall a similar scenario in the 2010s when the Tea Party changed Republican politics. That massive infusion of energy carried the GOP to control of the House and Senate while pushing the party rightward.
Governor Hochul had a very good reason for endorsing Mamdani: she can't win re-election without a big vote out of New York City. A third of the state vote comes from Gotham, so with the socialist's popularity (he's likely to get 60% or more of the vote), Hochul took the "if we can't beat 'em, join 'em" route.
Capitalism is still more popular than socialism, but a recent Gallup poll showed the gap narrowing:
Once a fringe voice, Mamdani now represents the ideological center around which the party is realigning. Capitalism remains more popular than socialism among American voters, but a new poll from Gallup shows a widening gap between both parties, with 74 percent of Republicans reporting a “positive image” of capitalism, compared with only 42 percent of Democrats. Six out of 10 adults under 30 said they have a “favorable view” of socialism, in a May poll from the libertarian Cato Institute.
In truth, America is now more of a "crony capitalist" economy than either socialist or capitalist. The Tea Party's efforts never made the kind of impact they might have if the establishment hadn't pre-empted the organization and absorbed it.
The Democrats will try something similar. But socialists are far more regimented than the Tea Party and will try to resist being assimilated.
Either way, Democrats are undergoing massive changes. How that plays in the heartland and beyond will determine the future of politics in the United States for decades to come.
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