Socialism

Socialists Are Trying To Take Hold of the Democratic Party—and They're Winning

The democratic socialists taking over the Democratic Party often say they just want affordable healthcare. They actually want to end America's constitutional system as we know it.

Zach Weissmueller | 8.5.2026 10:30 AM

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It's the "democratic" socialist moment.

The Democratic Socialists of America (DSA) engineered the primary victories of three winning candidates in New York's recent congressional races. A week later, DSA-backed Melat Kiros toppled a 30-year incumbent in Colorado's 1st congressional district, sailing to victory. "You are the proof that the power of organized people beats the power of organized money," Kiros told supporters. When House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D–N.Y.) appeared onscreen at a Zohran Mamdani victory party in New York, the crowd chanted, "You're next, you're next, you're next."

The socialists aim to take over the Democratic Party, and some members of the old guard are making nice.

"I can disagree with some of the positions or statements of some of the incoming members of Congress but still welcome them. We are a big tent party," Rep. Johnny Olszewski (D–Md.) told CNN. Sen. Chris Murphy (D–Conn.) agrees: "I'm not a democratic socialist. But I do believe the Democratic Party has been, historically, way too timid in taking on corporate power. I think our party should have bigger ideas."

Others are wary of these "bigger ideas" and see a hard leftward turn as a losing strategy.

Rep. Josh Gottheimer (D–N.J.) argues that "socialists aren't Democrats. They're socialists." Rep. Adam Smith (D–Wash.) warns of a "dangerous" agenda that amounts to "expressing support for communism…for open borders, defunding the police." Sen. John Fetterman (D–Pa.) is blunter still: "Our party's becoming an orgy of socialism." And veteran Democratic strategist James Carville says it's time to talk "the S-word, schism."

But so far, the rise of the DSA is looking less like a schism and more like a hostile takeover. Some DSA members have been honest about their radical ambitions.

DSA National Political Committee member David Jenkins declares that "our goal is communism"; National Political Committee member Hazel Williams argues that "U.S. imperialism is not a thing that can be reformed away. It has to be overthrown through revolutionary struggle."

Socialism never took hold in America. But those who believe the DSA can't win outside of progressive cities may be underestimating its reach.

Socialism, Coast to Coast

In Colorado, Kiros sailed to victory promising that "the only way we get Medicare for All passed is by getting rid of the Democrats that are actively standing in that way." In Los Angeles, socialist Nithya Raman may unseat the incumbent Democratic mayor; she credits the DSA as "the only place where people were really talking about tenants' rights and renters' rights in the context of a political movement." Michigan Democratic Rep. Rashida Tlaib is also a DSA member. The DSA recruited Maine Senate candidate Graham Platner, who once posted on Reddit that he became a "communist" as he got older. Platner has since dropped out of his race amid rape allegations against him.

As mayor, Mamdani hasn't had time to transform New York into either a workers' paradise or a communist hellhole. But he has begun to transform the political landscape by skillfully leveraging his platform to promote the ideals of socialism at every turn. After signing the largest budget in New York City history—one that, among other things, delayed pension contributions so he could avoid making substantive cuts—Mamdani proclaimed that socialism had triumphed over capitalism.

"If these past months have shown us anything, it is that socialists not only understand economics just as well as the capitalists who came before, but that we can solve their years of mismanagement through an embrace of our principles," he said.

Mamdani is fulfilling a promise he made early in his political career: to remain an uncompromising promoter of doctrinaire socialism.

"We have to continue to elect more socialists, and we have to ensure that we are unapologetic about our socialism," he told a Young Democratic Socialists of America conference in 2021. His new role as kingmaker has put Jeffries in a bind. Asked whether Mamdani was making enemies on Capitol Hill by endorsing against incumbents, Jeffries demurred: "The mayor and I agreed to strongly disagree about some of his endorsements, and he's got work to do in terms of the conversations that he's going to have with members of Congress moving forward."

How Socialists Infiltrate

In the early 1980s, the left-wing British Labour Party was infiltrated by a socialist group called the Militant tendency. The group organized........

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