Opinion of Democratic Socialists of America among Democrats

Views of DSA among Democrats are driven more by ideology than age or urban residence

(June 25: By popular request I’ve added tables about DSA favorability among all adults at the bottom of this post, which is among Democrats. The comparison of adults with Democrats is useful. Thanks for the suggestions.)

A quick review of what my Marquette Law School Poll national surveys find about opinion of Democratic Socialists of America among Democrats and independents who lean to the Democratic Party. A question for future research is if people react differently to “Democratic socialists” than to “Democratic Socialists of America”.

The data pool the April and May Marquette Law School Poll national surveys.

The DSA question is

[Democratic Socialists of America] Do you have a favorable or an unfavorable opinion of the following or haven’t you heard enough yet to have an opinion?

All tables are for Democrats and Democratic leaners only.

Topline favorability

Note a lot of Democrats are unfamiliar with DSA. I use those favorable to DSA and lump both unfavorable and haven’t heard enough into “non-DSA” Democrats.

By this measure, 40% of Democrats are also favorable to DSA, while 20% are unfavorable and 40% say they haven’t heard enough to have an opinion.

DSA favorability by age, among Democrats

Young Democrats are more favorable, but so are 45-59s. The age gradient here is not very strong across age groups.

DSA favorability, by ideology among Democrats

The big supporters of DSA are Democrats who call themselves “very liberal”. There are few conservative Dems so I’ve combined them with moderates for this table.

A sizable majority of very liberal Democrats are favorable to DSA, and somewhat more likely to have an opinion of them than either moderate or somewhat liberal Democrats.

DSA favorability, by urban-rural residence among Democrats

Favorability to DSA is only a little greater among Democrats living in central cities than elsewhere, and those in the suburbs of metro areas but outside the counties containing central cities, are at least as favorable as those in the central cities. Rural residents are less positive, but not dramatically so.

DSA favorability, by ideology and age among Democrats

The very liberal people under 45 look like the older very liberal Democrats, though there are fewer very liberal older respondents. To provide more cases for comparison age is collaped into two categories.

As this table shows, it is more ideology than age that drives DSA opinion.

Ideology by age among Democrats

Just to close the loop, the young are more likely to describe themselves as “very liberal” by a smidgen compared to 30-44 and by a lot compared to those 45 and over. Moderation is higher among the older Dems and less among the young.

To the extent the young are more positive to DSA it has more to do with the number of very liberal Democrats under 45 than to age per se.

Addendum: DSA favorability among all adults

Among all adults, 20% are favorable to DSA, half the rate as among Democrats above.)

Across party lines there is an expected gradient. Independents are not very favorable, while independents who lean Democratic are almost as favorable as are Democrats. Note the table above combines Democrats and leaners, so Democrats here do not match the combined Dems+leaners in the tables above.

The ideological gradient among Democrats shows up strongly among all adults as well. Here there is a sizable gap between somewhat liberal and very liberal, which reinforces my point above that the DSA appeals is closely tied to thinking of oneself as especially liberal, a +45 net favorable versus a +10 net favorable among those somewhat liberal.

A reminder of the topline distribution of ideological self-placement among adults.

Very liberal and very conservative groups are almost identical in size, but somewhat conservative outweighs somewhat liberal, a over a third call themselves moderate.

So let’s close with ideology by party for that context as well.

Independents are solidly moderate, and independents who lean Democratic are almost 50% moderate. Very liberal Democrats are not quite a quarter of Democrats, with about a third moderate and a third somewhat liberal.

Republicans, whether partisan or leaners, are more solidly conservative, with fewer moderates than the corresponding Democratic groups. And for partisan Republicans, those very conservative is notably larger than those partisan Democrats who are very liberal.

If I have to end with a moral of the story it would be don’t judge the political environment, or the Democratic Party, from the vote in Manhattan. The DSA performance there is genuinely impressive, and a wing of the party is developing strength. But don’t let that dominate how you understand the party nationally. As I’ve posted in the past, the liberal and very liberal wing of the Democrats have grown over the past decade, but to a quarter of Democrats, which is still less than the size of moderates in the party. It is a heterogeneous party, and therein lies the uncertainty about where it is headed.