A new YouGov poll on socialism asked 1,100 U.S. adult citizens…

  • Do you have a favorable or an unfavorable view of socialism? More Americans say they have a very or somewhat unfavorable view (43%) than have a favorable one (31%), while 26% say they don't know
  • Would you ever vote for a candidate who identified as a socialist? 27% of Americans say they would, 45% say they would not, and 28% are not sure
  • How many Democrats in Congress do you think support socialism? 33% of Americans say almost all or most do — and the same share say almost all or most Democratic voters support socialism
  • Does publicly supporting socialist policies help or hurt the Democratic Party? 30% of Americans say it hurts the Democratic Party's ability to win elections, 19% say it helps, 16% say it doesn't really affect the party's electoral prospects, and 35% are not sure
  • What do you consider examples of socialism? We asked whether Americans consider 24 things to be socialism. The two most widely identified as socialism are free healthcare for all (65%) and free college tuition (61%)
    • Democrats are far more likely than Republicans to apply the label of socialism to public libraries (47% vs. 18%), national parks (40% vs. 17%), fire departments (39% vs. 17%), and public transportation (43% vs. 22%)
    • The reverse is true for rent control and free college tuition: Democrats are somewhat less likely than Republicans to apply the label of socialism to these
  • Who do you consider to be a socialist? Among 11 people asked about, Bernie Sanders is called a socialist by the highest share of Americans (61%), followed by Zohran Mamdani (54%) and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (51%)

— Carl Bialik contributed to this article

See the results of this poll

Methodology: The August 13 - 16, 2026 poll was conducted among 1,100 U.S. adult citizens. Respondents were selected from YouGov's opt-in panel to be representative of U.S. adult citizens. A random sample (stratified by gender, age, race, education, geographic region, and voter registration) was selected from the 2019 American Community Survey. The sample was weighted according to gender, age, race, education, U.S. region, 2024 presidential vote, 2020 election turnout and presidential vote, baseline party identification, and current voter registration status. 2024 presidential vote, at time of weighting, was estimated to be 48% Harris and 50% Trump. Demographic weighting targets come from the 2019 American Community Survey. Baseline party identification is the respondent's most recent answer given around November 8, 2024, and is weighted to the estimated distribution at that time (31% Democratic, 33% Republican). The margin of error for the overall sample is approximately 4%.

Image: Getty (Ryan Murphy)

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