Left-wing socialists are gaining popularity in the United States. What you need to know

The far-left wing of the US Democratic Party is rapidly gaining popularity. In the next congress, supporters of socialism will receive several mandates, and in the near future their candidate may head the capital of the country. Young politicians are gradually replacing experienced representatives of the Washington establishment, and this could turn into a crisis for the Democrats. How the historic rise of the left is taking place in the United States is in the Izvestia material.

The Socialists are gaining strength

• The main platform of supporters of leftist ideology in the United States is the organization "Democratic Socialists of America" (DSA). It was founded back in 1982 and for a long time remained a tiny association of hundreds of activists within the Democratic Party. This continued until the 2016 presidential election, in which Senator Bernie Sanders was one of the favorites. He declared himself a democratic socialist, which was unprecedented for the United States. Although Sanders never became the Democratic candidate, he attracted a new young audience into politics, which sympathizes with leftist ideas and is disappointed in the moderate position of the Democrats.

• These activists found shelter in the DSA, and the organization began to expand rapidly, especially after the victory of Republican candidate Donald Trump in the presidential election. In four years, the average age of the platform's members dropped from 68 to 33, and the number began to number in the thousands. In the next 2018 elections, DSA members Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Rashida Tlaib, who became the voice of the left-wing Democrats in Congress, were elected to the House of Representatives. But the development of the platform stopped there. During two electoral cycles, she has not increased her representation in the echelons of power, and the number of activists has decreased by one and a half times.

Raznoklassniki: how social networks divided the USA

The radicalization of American politics has led to segregation on the web

• The DSA received a new lease of life during Trump's second term. A breakthrough for the left was the election of New York Mayor Zohran Mamdani, who beat the main Democratic candidate, former Governor Andrew Cuomo. During the Mamdani campaign, the DSA experienced a new influx of members, in 2026 their number exceeded 100,000 people.

• The 2026 election campaign has already brought even more success to the Socialists. Mamdani and the DSA supported three candidates for the House of Representatives, and all of them won the primaries, virtually guaranteeing themselves seats in Congress. Darializa Avila Chevalier, Brad Lander and Claire Valdez bypassed the status representatives of the moderate wing of the Democrats, including two current congressmen, one of whom, Adriano Espaillat, sat in the House of Representatives for 10 years and headed the Latin American faction. Melat Kiros, a candidate from Colorado, may soon join the new Socialist politicians. According to polls, she is ahead of Congresswoman Diana Degette, who has held the mandate since 1997, when Kiros herself was not yet born. Janice Lewis George, the main favorite in the Washington mayoral election, also considers herself a Socialist.

Reasons for popularity

• The ideology of democratic socialists in the USA is based on many ideas of the left spectrum. They call for following the green agenda in the economy, strengthening antitrust policy, creating a public health system, introducing free higher education, and raising taxes for the rich. Such demands were primarily a response to the rising cost of living in the United States: among their main problems, young people in the country point to excessively expensive housing, education and medicine, and the inability to provide themselves with the same standard of living as their parents had in previous decades.

• The Israeli factor played a significant role in the rise of the American left. Even before the Hamas attack in 2023, the DSA held a firm pro-Palestinian position and demanded that funding for the Iron Dome air defense system be stopped. After Israel launched an operation in the Gaza Strip, and US President Joe Biden supported it, there was a real split in the country. The Socialists have dramatically increased their popularity by supporting Palestine and making it one of the main pillars of their ideology. Many members of the platform became radicalized and began to speak out with anti-Israeli rhetoric, including Mamdani.

• Last but not least, the socialist movement in the United States began to gain supporters because of Trump, who is the main antagonist for the left. His presidential election victories inevitably led to an influx of new members who oppose his conservative and right-wing populist ideology. At the same time, the extreme left accuses moderate Democrats, who were at the head of the country under Biden, of Trump's presence in the White House. For DSA activists, the centrist core of the party, which is part of the US political establishment, is as much an opponent as the Republicans.

• The entry of the extreme left into the political arena and their earning of the first political points is generally a reaction to the strengthening of the right, which is taking place in the developed world. In response to the strengthening of the Alternative for Germany, the far—left Sarah Wagenknecht Union for Reason and Justice appeared in Germany, the Green Party became a counterweight to the British right-wing populist Reform UK, and the far-left Unconquered France opposes the right-wing National Union in France. When Trump began to create his own far-right MAGA movement within the Republican Party, an even more radical wing of the left began to form within the Democratic Party, which quickly found its supporters.

Consequences of the rise of the Socialists

• Although the current successes are historic for the Socialists themselves, they are still insignificant on a national scale. At the moment, they can only count on a few mandates in the 435-seat House of Representatives of Congress and the legislatures of individual states. In the executive branch, the Socialists have won top positions in New York and Seattle, and they also expect to win the Washington mayoral election. At the same time, the majority of gubernatorial and mayoral posts are still held by moderate Republicans or Democrats.

Gray donkey: the popularity of democratic NGOs in the United States has fallen due to dark schemes

The Democratic Party is suspected of financing color revolutions inside the country

However, until recently it was hard to imagine in the United States that the country's largest city would be run by a former migrant who proposed raising taxes for Wall Street capitalists, and his young assistants would oust respected politicians with great experience from Congress. Just as it was impossible to predict that the Republican Party would become personally dependent on a businessman without political experience, who even the threat of criminal prosecution and impeachment did not prevent him from returning to the White House. The extreme left, having stalled in the early 2020s, is still only gaining momentum and has not yet reached the limit of its capabilities, even within the current election cycle.

• In the near future, a handful of far-left congressmen will not be able to directly influence government policy, implement the socialist agenda and drastically change the American foreign policy. However, they can become serious troublemakers within the Democratic Party, which is counting on a majority in Congress and is sure to get it. For the moderate core, having troublemakers with a growing base of support within their faction will be even more unpleasant than standing up to the Republicans.

• The Democrats' electorate is primarily not claimed by conservatives, but by leftists, and for the next two years they will use the podium in the Capitol to continue promoting their candidates for the old Democrats. The struggle between moderates and radicals within the democratic faction will play into the hands of the opposition, as those few deputies who are willing to go against the party line may in certain cases find common ground even with Republicans.