The Socialist Revolt Inside the Democrats

AOC and Mamdani are the public faces of a deeper class struggle. Socialist organizers are challenging the donor class’s control of Democratic politics—and building power beyond individual candidates.

Zohran Mamdani at a Taxi Workers Alliance rally, August 3, 2022. Photo: InformedImages / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 4.0.

Opinion | By Luigi Vanzetti

The socialist advance inside Democratic politics exposes a conflict the party establishment would prefer to manage quietly: workers need gains that challenge the power of the people financing their representatives. Housing becomes cheaper when landlords lose leverage. Higher wages cut into employers’ profits. Public provision threatens businesses that make basic necessities profitable.

Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Zohran Mamdani are the most visible faces of that conflict. Their prominence reflects a movement with organizers, local chapters and an expanding electoral presence. The personalities matter because they can help mobilize people. The lasting question is whether that mobilization becomes an independent force capable of confronting capital.

Gallup’s September 2026 report found that 65% of Democrats viewed socialism positively, against 35% for capitalism. Among Americans aged 18–34, socialism led 57% to 43%. Nationally, socialism reached 43%, while capitalism remained ahead at 55%.

These figures measure attitudes, rather than organized class consciousness. But they reveal fertile ground for socialist politics: the word capitalism commands less loyalty among Democratic voters than socialism does. The leadership’s attachment to the existing economic order increasingly sits in tension with its own constituency.

That opening demands organization. A favorable opinion in a poll does not give a tenant bargaining power, sustain a strike or make an elected official accountable. Those capacities have to be built through institutions that working people control.

The Democratic Socialists of America’s electoral strategy, updated September 17, sets out the goal of an independent mass socialist party and an end to capitalism. It expects endorsed candidates to identify openly as socialists, grow the organization and maintain a relationship with it in office. Its emphasis on volunteer organizers and political training gives that ambition a practical foundation.

The important development is a movement learning to reproduce itself. A candidate can win an office and leave little behind. A campaign that develops organizers, strengthens a chapter and draws people into collective action can expand the movement’s capacity even after election day.

There are electoral gains to build on. Reuters reported in June that Mamdani-backed Brad Lander, Claire Valdez and Darializa Avila Chevalier won New York congressional primaries. Goldman and Espaillat lost their contests. The November general election remains ahead.

An August YDSA account reported 49 DSA electoral wins nationwide in 2025, citing the organization’s campaign tracker. It described local campaigns and efforts to train a new generation of socialist organizers. The movement’s infrastructure extends beyond the figures dominating national coverage.

The strategic danger is absorption. A socialist elected through a Democratic primary enters institutions organized around donor access, leadership discipline and bargaining within the existing order. Pressure to preserve a career can gradually replace the commitment to build a movement. Electoral success has to be judged by what it enables workers to win and organize.

That is why AOC and Mamdani should be treated as public faces of a larger struggle, with representatives answerable to the people who made their victories possible. A movement organized around personalities becomes vulnerable to their compromises. A movement with its own institutions can debate tactics, enforce commitments and develop new leaders.

The Democratic Party is likely to encounter this pressure first because socialist organizers already have a receptive constituency within its electorate. But changing the DNC’s language or personnel is an inadequate horizon. The objective is to weaken capital’s command over political life and build working-class power capable of surviving an election cycle.

America’s growing openness to socialism gives organizers an opportunity to make the economic argument concrete: workers produce the wealth, while owners retain the power to decide how it is used. Public ownership, social provision and democratic control offer a way to challenge that relationship.

The socialist advance becomes consequential when it changes who can exercise power. Its measure will be stronger unions, organized tenants, durable socialist institutions and representatives prepared to confront the donor class. The next stage belongs to the people building those capacities.