Democrats Now Favor Socialism Over Capitalism by Nearly 2-to-1 Margin, New Poll Finds

Democratic voters have moved dramatically toward socialism, with a new national poll finding that members of the party now view socialism far more favorably than capitalism.

A CBS News/YouGov survey released Sunday found that 58% of Democrats have a positive view of socialism, compared with just 32% who hold a positive opinion of capitalism. That gives socialism a striking 26-point advantage within the Democratic Party.

The divide is even larger among college-educated Democrats. Seventy-one percent of Democrats with a college degree said they view socialism positively, while only 31% expressed a favorable opinion of capitalism.

The results provide another indication of the Democratic Party’s ideological shift as democratic socialists become increasingly influential in elections across the country. Candidates backed by the Democratic Socialists of America have scored several prominent victories during the 2026 primary season.

Michigan Democratic Senate nominee Abdul El-Sayed has emerged as one of the movement’s biggest recent successes. Other progressive candidates have defeated establishment-backed Democrats, increasing concerns among party moderates about the direction of the Democratic coalition heading into November.

The shift has been developing for years. A Gallup survey released last year found 66% of Democrats viewed socialism favorably compared with 42% who viewed capitalism favorably, while capitalism’s popularity among Democrats had declined substantially from earlier polling.

The broader American public, however, has not followed Democrats toward socialism. The new CBS News survey found 46% of Americans have a positive view of capitalism compared with 35% who view it negatively. Socialism remains underwater nationally, with 35% viewing it positively and 42% negatively.

Americans also remain broadly supportive of the free market. The survey found that most respondents consider a free-market system a good thing, demonstrating a significant divide between the attitudes of the overall electorate and the increasingly socialist-friendly Democratic base.

President Trump and Republicans have seized on that divide ahead of the midterm elections. Trump has repeatedly portrayed the growing influence of democratic socialists as evidence that the Democratic Party is moving sharply to the left on economics, government spending and the role of the federal government.

The political challenge for Democrats is that many voters who express negative opinions about socialism still support individual policies commonly associated with the economic left. The CBS News poll found majority support across party lines for some government interventions, including policies intended to control prices.

Still, the headline numbers reveal a remarkable transformation inside one of America’s two major political parties. With 58% of Democrats now viewing socialism positively and only 32% saying the same about capitalism, socialism holds nearly a two-to-one advantage among Democratic voters as the party battles over what direction it should take heading into the 2026 midterms and the 2028 presidential race.