New polling data shows the Democrat Party facing its weakest national standing in more than three decades, with support collapsing most dramatically among voters under 30, which is the very group the party once relied on as a reliable engine of turnout and cultural momentum.
A Gallup survey conducted in late November 2025 reports Democrat Party favorability at just 27% among American adults, down from 31% in 2024 and the lowest recorded since 1992, when the party briefly hit 26% during internal disputes early in Bill Clinton’s first term.
The new numbers reflect a longer post-2024 slide after Kamala Harris’ defeat to Donald Trump a perception that the party’s leadership has become insulated and unresponsive.
Among young voters, the picture is even bleaker.
Data for Progress polling shared with Politico in September shows net approval for the Democratic Party at -28% among voters ages 18 to 29, with only 36% viewing the party favorably and 64% expressing unfavorable views. That generational split marks one of the sharpest divides in modern party polling.
While some commentary has labeled the shift a “youth revolt,” the reality is closer to a realignment than an organized uprising. Younger left-leaning voters are not abandoning progressive politics; instead, some are abandoning the Democrat Party brand. Surveys and membership rolls indicate those voters are gravitating toward “democratic socialism,” which is socialism light — an ideology they see as offering bolder answers on inequality, housing, climate, and foreign policy.
The Democratic Socialists of America, the nation’s largest socialist organization, has seen its membership increase from around 6,000 in 2015 to more than 90,000 by mid-2025, with the average member now in their early 30s. Alaska has an active chapter: Anchorage Democratic Socialists of America.
Youth chapters have expanded from a few dozen campuses to well over a hundred. The growth parallels the influence of figures like Sen. Bernie Sanders, who has won Democrat primaries for president in Alaska in 2016, when he defeated Hillary Clinton, and again in 2020, when he defeated Joe Biden in Alaska.
Polling suggests the ideological shift is no longer fringe. A Rasmussen Reports survey in November found that 51% of voters under 40 would support a democratic socialist candidate in 2028, compared to 38% who prefer a traditional Democrat.
Among voters under 30, Data for Progress reports that 62% view “socialism” favorably, up from 49% in 2018. A majority say they prefer leaders aligned with Sanders or Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez over establishment figures such as Sen. Chuck Schumer.
This shift has translated to electoral gains in some states. Socialist-aligned candidates have won more than a dozen Democrat primaries for state legislative seats in 2024 and 2025, including Zohran Mamdani’s victory in the New York City mayoral race. Those victories have fueled internal debates within the Democrat Party about strategy and messaging, with some officials warning about the risk of alienating moderates. DSA itself debated, and rejected, launching a third-party effort in 2025, opting instead to continue working inside the Democratic tent.
The party faced similar turbulence in the mid-1990s, when Republican gains under Newt Gingrich’s “Contract with America” pushed Democrats into their last major period of favorability decline. They rebounded then, but they did so in a political environment far less fragmented, and without an organized youth-driven socialist movement competing for ideological space.
Younger voters have not abandoned the party entirely. In 2024, 52% of voters under 30 still cast ballots for Democrat candidates, though that share was significantly lower than the 60% support level the party enjoyed in 2020.
DSA continues to endorse Democrats in general elections, seeing them as the only viable national vehicle for policy influence.
5 thoughts on “Democrat Party saddled by Socialism, as under-30 voters embrace the extreme left”
Headline is a testament to the success to the core mission of the NEA and the public indoctrination system.
When the realities of the policies that Democratic Socialists advocate for are instituted it will lead to a rejection of these policies, leftists policies have failed each and every time they have been instituted because they are not based upon reality.
Millennials or GenY and GenZ coupled with poor education and fear for their futures; these two are desperate to be taken seriously by current leaders they are not only ignorant of history but Also desperate they will vote for the loudest and most radical to get the attention of average leaders that our country is in trouble and our futures do not look good.
Three radical extreme leaders in a row: Biden and the far left in 2021, Trump in 2025, and now Mumdani of NYC in 2025.
Rightwing politicians love to decry socialism while enthusiastically voting to support it for everyone but Americans. American men are told they have to work hard and pay taxes, be self supportive and independent or else you’re a commie. Then Dan Sullivan and Lisa Murkowski vote to import a million unvetted Afghans. Greg Abbot has imported 1.5 million foreigners into Texas and the federal government has paid them almost a billion dollars to do so. That is how the Republican party pays back it’s constituents.
DOGE exposed billions of dollars worth of fraud. No one went to jail, no spending was cut, and our representatives all voted for it to continue. They all folded on SNAP, and they all voted to continue importing 1600 H1-b’s a day.
The disgusting thing is that America could absolutely afford universal healthcare and fully funded social security that had returns based on what we put into the system, if we hadn’t been bled dry sending our money to foreign countries, starting wars to enrichen the military industrial complex, and importing millions of foreign invaders to leech off our system.
We the people have been betrayed by our political parties and their greed. Meanwhile we the people are tricked into squabbling over scraps.
It’s time to put America First
The personal risks taken by Mamdani in his political career are significant.