In recent years, candidates affiliated with the Democratic Socialists of America have experienced a renaissance of electoral success. From big-city mayorships in Chicago, Seattle and New York, to House primaries in New York, Colorado, California and beyond, the winds of change appear to be blowing in the direction of the DSA all over the country.
Nowhere is this more evident than within the Democratic Party.
And the evidence isn’t found only in recent election results; it’s also found in polling data.
According to a Marquette Law School poll conducted earlier this year, 42% of Democrats have a favorable view of the DSA, compared to just 17% who view them unfavorably.
Among all Americans, the same poll found the DSA with a 21% favorability rate and 48% who view them in an unfavorable light.
Talk about Democrats being on an island… and not just Jeffrey Epstein’s island.
However, these results fall in line with a Data for Progress/Jacobin/DSA Fund survey conducted in 2025, which found that among Democrats, “democratic socialism” is quite popular. That poll found that Democrats prefer democratic socialism over capitalism by a 58-point margin.
And, boy, is the word getting out.
Even mainstream Democrats, who are widely regarded as potential candidates in the 2028 Democratic presidential primary and don’t consider themselves part of the DSA, are now making direct overtures to the DSA.
Earlier this month, former Vice President Kamala Harris bragged about the fact that she had a private call with New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani, in addition to holding lengthy, closed-door meetings with other prominent progressives.
Not to be outdone, Harris frenemy and California Gov. Gavin Newsom just came out in favor of a national billionaire tax, despite having publicly opposed a similar measure at the state level here at home. He didn’t mention how a lame-duck governor would go about passing a sweeping new, nationwide tax law, but it sounded good on Instagram.
However, it remains to be seen if the DSA will accept one of these longtime Democratic politicians as one of their own.
To my eye, one of the biggest tells as to who is DSA and who’s just a regular Democrat is how they choose to frame themselves in relation to Donald Trump.
Traditional Democrats use President Trump as the central villain in every story, and conveniently bill themselves as the only ones capable of stopping him.
It doesn’t matter if these Democrats are running for president, governor, the state legislature, or dog catcher, they’re all running on the same “Stop Donald Trump!” platform.
They regard him as being “a threat to democracy,” “a king,” and a “wannabe dictator” — and spend every waking moment telling you about it.
In recent Democratic primaries for the House of Representatives, New York Rep. Dan Goldman and Colorado Rep. Diana DeGette both bragged of being impeachment managers for Donald Trump as among their top career accomplishments.
For those of you keeping score, both ended up losing their seats to DSA-approved candidates.
DSA candidates, on the other hand, frame themselves a little differently. They depict Trump as a symptom of a broken capitalist system, and focus their attention on taxing billionaires, ending U.S. support for Israel, and promising Medicare for All, among other policy goals.
Such candidates are willing to talk Trump, but mostly as a way to pivot to their laundry list of empty, discredited socialist promises.
To them, it’s the cause that is important. Individual players are less relevant. That explains, for example, why Cori Bush has a career in politics.
It’s no wonder that, in a world where Donald Trump is prohibited by term limits from running again, Democrats come off as stale cranks who can’t stop beating the same dead horse, over and over again, while the DSA has the floor to themselves to at least say something new.
And while it’s true that the DSA embraces lots of nutty ideas, at least we know what they believe in. I can’t say the same for modern-day Democrats.
John Phillips can be heard weekdays from noon to 3 p.m. on “The John Phillips Show” on KABC/AM 790.