NEW YORK — The Democratic Socialists of America wing of the Democratic Party, which stirred excitement by producing New York City's first Muslim mayor in his 30s, is running into limits on its national reach in this year's midterm elections. Analysts say it is premature for the movement to emerge as a mainstream force, as moderate voters turn away from hard-left values.
According to major foreign news outlets on the 24th, seven candidates backed by democratic socialists won Democratic nominations for U.S. House seats: Darialys Avila Chevalier (New York's 13th District), Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (New York's 14th), Claire Valdez (New York's 7th), Donavan McKinney (Michigan's 13th), Rashida Tlaib (Michigan's 12th), Melat Kiros (Colorado's 1st) and Chris Rabb (Pennsylvania's 3rd). As many as 25 candidates with democratic socialist backing ran in the Democratic primaries, but 18 of them failed to advance to the general election.
In Senate races, Angie Nixon of Florida and Abdul El-Sayed of Michigan are classified as democratic socialists in a broad sense. But El-Sayed, an Egyptian American Muslim, has repeatedly described himself as "a capitalist, not a democratic socialist," straining to shed the label. Nixon, meanwhile, trails Republican Ashley Moody 40% to 48% — outside the margin of error of plus or minus 3.1 percentage points — according to a Coefficient poll conducted Oct. 18-20.
No candidate in this year's gubernatorial races identifies as a democratic socialist. Francesca Hong, a Korean American, ran in the Wisconsin gubernatorial primary but lost.
The democratic socialist camp was a minor faction within the Democratic Party until it drew attention last November by producing New York Mayor Zohran Mamdani. In New York, where young, highly educated residents are concentrated, it succeeded in emerging as an alternative force, but in this national election it has run up against broad public aversion to socialism.
The Brookings Institution, a center-left U.S. think tank, said progressive candidates who won their primaries are deleting their own left-wing remarks from social media, including posts praising Marxism. "If left-wing candidates lose districts they thought they could win, their influence will diminish," it said.