Socialism is on the rise—or at least growing in popularity in the U.S. Forty-three percent of Americans have a positive view of socialism, the highest share since Gallup began tracking the measure since 2010. The latest survey, conducted Aug. 3-24, found that socialism has gained ground over time as several market-oriented economic concepts have lost favor.
It now ranks ahead of big business, which has fallen to a positive rating of 35% from a peak of 58% in 2012. Capitalism and free enterprise are still more popular than socialism. Capitalism’s positive rating, however, has fallen to 55% from a peak of 61% in 2010 and 2012.
Free enterprise is now favored at 77%, compared to its peak of 89% in 2012. Small business remains the most favored economic system at 95%, relatively unchanged in 2010. Those figures, however, mask sharp partisan differences.
Democrats view socialism much more favorably than Republicans do, and their views have become more positive over time. This shift has come as progressives and democratic socialists have defeated establishment candidates in several key Democratic primary contests. Zohran Mamdani’s election as New York City Mayor last year marked a breakthrough for the Democratic Socialists of America (DSA).
In June, all three of his endorsed candidates won against establishment Democrats in congressional primaries in New York City. Read More: Congress Is Headed for a Massive Turnover Progressives also won high-profile primaries elsewhere, including Senate candidates Abdul El-Sayed in Michigan and Peggy Flanagan in Minnesota, both of whom have not adopted the socialist label, as well as DSA members and House candidates Melat Kiros in Colorado and Chris Rabb in Pennsylvania. Democratic socialist Francesca Hong narrowly lost in the gubernatorial primary in Wisconsin, a battleground state.
What Brookings analysts dubbed a “DSA summer” serves to “signal that unhappiness with the Democratic establishment and, in the post-Biden world, opposition to elderly officeholders can be leveraged by young, charismatic DSA candidates—and reflect an impatience with party leadership that transcends ideology.” Republicans have sought to portray those victories as evidence that the Democratic Party is moving too far left ahead of the November midterm elections, while Democratic leaders have tried to temper concerns about the party’s direction. In November 2025, the House voted 285-98 to approve a resolution denouncing the “horrors of socialism,” which was followed by another resolution condemning socialism that passed 220-192 earlier this month. A July analysis by the Cook Political Report found that center-left candidates dominated primaries in the competitive House seats most likely to determine control of Congress, suggesting that progressive victories may not signal a leftward shift across the country.
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