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Pa. Democrats have mostly positive view of socialism as progressive candidates secure wins

With Philadelphians set to elect their first democratic socialist to Congress, most Pennsylvania Democrats have favorable views of socialism. Still, it remains broadly unpopular.

State Rep. Chris Rabb and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez during a May 15 rally in support of Rabb’s progressive campaign for Pennsylvania’s 3rd Congressional District at the Garden of Prayer church in Philadelphia.
State Rep. Chris Rabb and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez during a May 15 rally in support of Rabb’s progressive campaign for Pennsylvania’s 3rd Congressional District at the Garden of Prayer church in Philadelphia.Read moreElizabeth Robertson / Staff Photographer

With recent victories by democratic socialists nationwide prompting a fierce debate about the future of the Democratic Party, most Democrats in Pennsylvania have a positive view of socialism — and nearly 40% consider themselves to be a democratic socialist, a new poll found.

Still, socialism remains broadly unpopular among all voters in the key swing state, according to the poll, conducted by Siena University on behalf of The Inquirer and the New York Times.

About one-third of likely voters in the midterm elections this fall have a favorable view of socialism and 56% have an unfavorable view. That result closely mirrors a recent national poll from the New York Times and Siena University, raising questions about the appeal of socialism to a wider swath of voters.

But as Philadelphians prepare to send a democratic socialist to Congress for the first time — and also as talk builds of a larger wave of progressivism across the state — 57% of Democratic likely voters in Pennsylvania have a favorable view of socialism and 24% have an unfavorable view, the poll found.

“We’re more popular than ever,” said Dan Parker, cochair of Philadelphia’s chapter of the Democratic Socialists of America (DSA). “But we still have a long way to go.”

The survey of 615 likely Pennsylvania voters conducted from Sept. 15 through 21 comes amid a surge of leftist victories both locally and across the country.

State Rep. Chris Rabb defeated a pair of more moderate candidates in Philadelphia’s highly competitive congressional primary in May. A democratic socialist, Rabb is highly favored to win in the general election and has spent the months since his primary campaigning for other like-minded candidates.

Nearly all of those candidates — from Abdul El-Sayed in the high-stakes Michigan U.S. Senate race to a pair of New York candidates boosted by Mayor Zohran Mamdani — have also won their primaries as Rabb and his allies look to grow the ranks of progressives starting on Capitol Hill in January.

Beyond the next Congress, the leftist wing of the party is hoping for momentum heading into the 2028 races for president and Pennsylvania’s U.S. Senate seat held by Democratic Sen. John Fetterman, who has antagonized socialists and made appeals to Republicans.

“The mainstream Democratic establishment candidates are telling us time and time again to settle for less, to expect nothing other than the status quo,” Parker said. “People are looking for a different set of politics that speaks to their material needs and to the values of freedom that many are striving for.”

Parker said Philadelphia DSA has been “exploding” since Rabb’s victory. The group mobilized hundreds of volunteers to knock between 75,000 and 100,000 doors during his campaign, and more than 750 new members have joined since May to put the chapter’s total ranks at about 3,000, he said.

Rabb’s success follow that of Pittsburgh’s U.S. Rep. Summer Lee, who was first elected to Congress with DSA support in 2022. Other DSA-backed elected officials include Philadelphia City Councilmembers Kendra Brooks and Nicolas O’Rourke, as well as State Sen. Nikil Saval, while new primary victories this year include Mark Pinsley and Ce-Ce Gerlach in Lehigh Valley-based legislative races.

Further growth, Parker said, will come with DSA-backed candidates working in office to “prove that government can exist to serve ordinary people.”

On that agenda: Advocating for universal healthcare, affordable housing, progressive tax policies, defunding and ultimately abolishing ICE, and ending the wars in Iran and Gaza.

“What makes DSA distinct — and democratic socialism as a political movement distinct — is that it’s not really just about who has the right ideas,” Parker said. “It’s about a theory of change that puts the vast majority of society in the driver’s seat.”

As Democrats look to retake control of Congress and the White House, how much influence that movement will yield remains an open question.

Moderates like Gov. Josh Shapiro, a potential 2028 Democratic presidential candidate, have acknowledged the energy on the left while advocating for a more centrist approach. Shapiro said this summer that the progressive candidates were practicing “performative politics” and would need to deliver if elected. He has also said he expects the party to have the most significant “battle over what we believe in” in more than three decades as the next presidential race gets underway.

The latest poll shows the party’s base remains divided in Pennsylvania.

While Democrats in the state remain split in their views of socialism, 38% consider themselves to be a democratic socialist while 57% do not, the poll found. Just over half of Democrats see their party as divided and 45% believe it’s united.

‘A tiny, tiny fraction’

Some observers also cautioned that the number of self-identifying democratic socialists across all of Pennsylvania — a swing state that has largely elected moderates to statewide office — may appear larger than reality. The poll did not define democratic socialism, for one. And progressives have been overrepresented in other polling this year, including in Wisconsin and Michigan, said Lew Irwin, a political science professor at Duquesne University in Pittsburgh.

“A lot of people will claim an affiliation when they actually have an affinity,” Irwin said, adding that it’s still become “increasingly mainstream and acceptable inside the Democratic Party” to identify as socialist.

J.J. Balaban, a Philadelphia-based ad maker for more moderate Democrats like U.S. Rep. Brendan Boyle, pointed to the fact that even with the additional energy on the left, the vast majority of Democrats in Washington next year will not be socialist.

“We’re talking about a tiny, tiny fraction of the Democratic caucus,” he said.

Balaban said that is one of the reasons why Republicans’ campaign messaging may also not be effective as they try to defend their majorities in the November midterm elections. Republicans have branded all kinds of Democrats as socialists — repeatedly denouncing the entire party as far left and “communist” in its agenda.

One of the main characters featured in those attacks has been Hasan Piker, the controversial leftist streamer who campaigned with Rabb and other candidates this year. His visit to Philadelphia in April drew hundreds of young progressives but was condemned by Rabb’s opponents and Jewish groups who consider his views antisemitic.

Piker’s support of El-Sayed has become a dominant issue in the Michigan race, but the poll of Pennsylvania voters shows he is mostly unknown in the Keystone State.

Among Pennsylvania likely voters, 23% had an unfavorable view of Piker and 6% had a favorable view. Two-thirds said they had not heard of him — and a higher share of Republicans knew him compared to Democrats.

“He is a much greater part of the discourse in the Fox cinematic universe than he is in actual Democratic discourse,” Balaban said.

With polls increasingly showing Democratic momentum this fall, even some conservatives appear to be pushing for Republicans to shift their messaging away from socialism.

Former U.S. Rep. George Santos, a Republican who has reportedly lived at least partially in the Poconos since President Donald Trump commuted his sentence last year, posted a video Thursday in which he criticized a mailer for U.S. Rep. Rob Bresnahan, a freshman Republican in a tight reelection campaign. The mailer claims Bresnahan will “stop the socialists” and lists his Democratic challenger, Paige Cognetti, alongside the “socialist dream team” of progressives Mamdani, U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders (Ind., Vt.), and U.S. Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D., N.Y.).

“Please stop sending me this. It’s silly,” Santos said in the video, adding colorful language to say Pennsylvania Republicans should be focusing on the cost of living.

“No more rhetoric!” he added.

Staff writer Joe Yerardi contributed to this article.

    Sam Janesch
    Bluesky
    I cover national politics from Washington, D.C., focusing on Pennsylvania’s congressional delegation, campaigns, and how federal policies impact the Keystone State and Philadelphia region.