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Approximately one-third of Democrats and Democratic-leaning adults now identify as “democratic socialists,” a shocking CNN poll revealed, as once-fringe groups like the Democratic Socialists of America (DSA) are now gaining huge influence on the national scene.
Polling data shared with Fox News Digital revealed that 34% of CNN poll respondents who lean Democrat said they think of themselves as democratic socialists. In total, 15% of all poll respondents said they identify as democratic socialists.
Democratic-aligned respondents who identify as democratic socialists were primarily young White Americans, according to CNN. The poll found that 59% of democratic socialist-identifying respondents were younger than 45, while 57% were White.
This comes as concern grows over the rising influence of socialism and the DSA on American politics.
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According to the poll, which was conducted by public opinion research firm SSRS in conjunction with CNN, Democrats identifying as democratic socialists are less likely to have a college degree and more likely to earn less than $100,000 a year.
Democratic socialists also signaled that they are more motivated to vote this year than other Democrats. CNN said that 66% of democratic socialists signaled they are “extremely motivated” to vote this year compared to 57% for other Democrats.
This comes as democratic socialists have notched significant victories at the ballot box in the last year.
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In America’s largest city, New Yorkers elected a DSA-backed candidate, socialist Zohran Mamdani, as mayor, and in Seattle, voters also elected a self-identified socialist Democrat as mayor, Katie Wilson.
On the federal level, several DSA-backed candidates have recently won Democratic primaries for Congress in New York, Pennsylvania and Colorado. DSA-endorsed candidate Abdul El-Sayed favored to win the Democratic nomination for U.S. Senate in Michigan.
Many have expressed concern about the DSA’s rising influence due in part to its platform calling for radical transformations to America’s governance system.
National Republican Congressional Committee spokesman Mike Marinella remarked to Fox News Digital that “Americans have every reason to be concerned when one of the most influential forces inside today’s Democrat Party is pushing to abolish ICE, defund the police, get rid of prisons, grant mass amnesty to illegal immigrants, eliminate the Senate, pack the Supreme Court, and raise taxes in every way possible.”
“Those aren’t mainstream ideas, and voters are seeing in real time how the Democrat Party is bending the knee to these radical socialist lunatics,” said Marinella.
The DSA recently rolled out an updated policy platform that includes eliminating the U.S. Senate and replacing the president and the Supreme Court with an executive branch and judiciary chosen by and subordinate to Congress.
Additionally, the updated platform includes mass amnesty for all immigrants and defunding the Department of War. DSA’s platform already called for an “immediate end to all deportations,” free migration between countries without restrictive immigration controls, and “extending full voting rights to people with criminal convictions and noncitizens.”
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The platform also advocates establishing a 32-hour work week “with no reduction in pay or benefits,” the passage of Medicare-for-all, canceling all student loan debt, the elimination of cash bail and universal rent control.
Natalie Baldassarre, a spokesperson for the Republican National Committee, reacted to the poll by telling Fox News Digital that “the left’s embrace of these toxic policies and candidates will come back to haunt them in key races this November.”
“Socialism may be taking over the Democrat party, but the majority of Americans are nowhere close to adopting this extreme ideology,” she said, adding, “Americans overwhelmingly reject the Democrats’ radical socialist agenda.”
Fox News Digital reached out to the DSA and the Democratic National Committee for comment.
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