The numbers don’t lie. Young Americans are falling in love … with socialism

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The socialist takeover of the Democratic Party is no longer theoretical.

In New York, three radical candidates backed by Mayor Zohran Mamdani, a self-described socialist, recently won Democratic congressional primaries. The candidates — Brad Lander, Claire Valdez, and Darializa Avila Chevalier — defeated establishment-backed opponents and proved again that the far left’s influence is not confined to college campuses, activist organizations or online echo chambers.

Some conservatives will dismiss these victories as a “New York problem.” They shouldn’t. New York is just the tip of the iceberg. Across the country, self-described socialists have been gaining increasingly more power at the local, state and federal levels.

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For example, 29-year-old socialist Melat Kiros just defeated Rep. Diana DeGette in the Democratic primaries for Colorado’s 1st Congressional District. DeGette has been in Congress for nearly three decades.

Members of the Democratic Socialists of America rally in New York City

The disturbing truth is that socialism is becoming more mainstream. It is no longer viewed by many Americans as a failed ideology responsible for poverty, tyranny and misery. It has been effectively repackaged as the answer to housing costs, student debt, medical bills, corporate power, artificial intelligence, loneliness, inequality and nearly every other anxiety facing younger generations.

That does not mean young voters are experts in Marxist theory. They aren’t. But they do believe that the American Dream is slipping away, and the loudest voices on the left have convinced many that free-market capitalism is to blame.

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They are wrong, of course, but conservatives should not ignore why young Americans are attracted to socialism.

In 2025, The Heartland Institute and Rasmussen Reports conducted a series of national surveys of young American voters, and the results are both terrifying and deeply informative.

In the September survey, 53% of likely voters aged 18 to 39 said they want a Democratic Socialist to win the 2028 presidential election. Even more alarming, 76% agreed that “major industries like health care, energy, and big tech should be nationalized to give more control and equity to the people.”

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Those results were confirmed in another Heartland/Rasmussen survey, released in November. It showed 51% of young voters want a Democratic Socialist to win the presidency in 2028, including 27% of those who voted for President Donald Trump in 2024.

The same poll found that 52% of young voters have a favorable view of Mamdani, although his policies were even more popular. Sixty-two percent said they support expanding his proposals for more government housing and rent freezes nationwide, and 58% support expanding his plan for government-owned grocery stores to every town in America.

This is the part conservatives cannot afford to miss: Socialism’s appeal is driven less by abstract ideology than by a deep and growing belief that the U.S. economy can no longer deliver a decent life to younger people.

Aber Kawas and Claire Valdez attending a rent freeze demonstration in New York City

Housing is the clearest example. In the October/November poll, 74% of young voters said the cost of housing in America has reached a crisis level. In the September survey, when young voters who wanted a Democratic Socialist president were asked why, 31% said housing costs are too high, the most common answer.

That finding fits the broader pattern. In the September survey, 62% said the American economy is unfair to young people. Thirty-six percent said they are struggling financially or in crisis. And 55% support a law that would confiscate Americans’ “excess wealth”—including second homes, luxury cars and private boats — to help young people buy their first home.

The deeper issue, though, is not whether young people are embracing socialist ideas. They are. The real question is, where are these ideas coming from?

In many homes, workplaces, classrooms, churches and online communities, younger Americans are being told a simple and fallacious story: They cannot afford a home because capitalism failed. They cannot build wealth because capitalism failed. They cannot get ahead because capitalism failed. They cannot trust Congress, corporations, banks, employers, landlords, or even the Constitution because the entire American system is supposedly designed to benefit the rich and powerful at everyone else’s expense.

This is the part conservatives cannot afford to miss: Socialism’s appeal is driven less by abstract ideology than by a deep and growing belief that the U.S. economy can no longer deliver a decent life to younger people.

That narrative is false, but it remains powerful because it contains just enough truth to sound plausible.

Many young Americans certainly are struggling. Housing, health care, groceries and higher education are too expensive. Large corporations have benefited from cronyism, subsidies, bailouts, regulatory favoritism, and special privileges. And for many voters under 40, the promise that hard work will lead to the American Dream feels increasingly hollow.

The answer to these problems is not socialism. The solution is to restore the conditions that make the American Dream possible.

That means increasing the supply of housing by removing unnecessary zoning restrictions, streamlining permitting rules, and stopping state and local governments from using regulations to make homebuilding slow, expensive and politically impossible.

It means cutting reckless government spending, reducing inflationary pressure, lowering energy costs, reforming higher education and ending policies that have increased tuition, housing and everyday expenses.

It means attacking crony capitalism. Young Americans are right to be angry when powerful corporations use government to protect themselves from competition, secure special benefits, or impose political agendas.

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The political opportunity for both parties is astounding. In the October/November poll, 42% of young Democrats said they would vote for a Republican presidential candidate if he or she offered the best plan to reduce housing costs. Forty-five percent of young Republicans said they would vote for a Democrat for the same reason. That should be a wake-up call for both parties.

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Conservatives will never defeat socialism if they pretend everything is fine. It is not enough to repeat slogans about capitalism while millions of young Americans believe they will never own a home, build wealth or live better than their parents.

The way to defeat socialism is to prove that freedom still works.

Chris Talgo is a research fellow at The Heartland Institute and the managing editor of StoppingSocialism.com.

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