Socialist surge: On the rise of democratic socialism in the U.S.

As the Trump administration persists with its blunderbuss reshaping of American foreign policy — a marriage of hyperimperialism, with wars in West Asia, a de facto capture of power in Venezuela and the strangling of Cuba’s fuel trade, and isolationism, seen in withdrawals from multilateral institutions and tariffs imposed on a whim — the world has been waiting for a political alternative to Trumpism to take shape. After 2024, when a vapid Democratic Party displayed little ideological gumption on foreign policy, welfare or taking on the plutocrats reshaping American democracy, the prospects looked slim. Then, in November 2025, Zohran Mamdani won New York City on a platform of decommodification — placing citizens’ needs above market shibboleths — while openly calling Israel’s war on Gaza a genocide. His victory did more than capture New York’s imagination. It set off an insurgency by democratic socialists within Democratic Party ranks. In Michigan’s August 4 primary, Abdul El-Sayed, a progressive backed by Independent Senator Bernie Sanders, won the Democratic nomination for the Senate despite pro-Israel groups spending heavily against him. Angie Nixon, a three-term State legislator who joined the Democratic Socialists of America in June, has won Florida’s Democratic Senate nomination, having spent merely $60,000 on advertising as opposed to her moderate opponent’s $2.2 million. Such results matter in a country where socialism has been used to evoke the Red Scare, even decades after the Cold War.

Mr. Sanders, whose unabashed democratic socialism is closer to European social democracy than to state ownership of the means of production, ran two presidential campaigns that prepared this ground while the likes of Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and others showed its electoral viability in Democratic strongholds in House elections. In 2026, a new generation of democratic socialists has sharpened its methods and its reach. The focus on affordability in childcare, rent freeze, Medicare for All and taxing the rich while breaking with the Democratic Party’s foreign policy consensus, including on funding Israel’s military, has carried them beyond strongholds such as New York. The new cohort has not only won primaries but also registered a shift in the political outlook of many Americans. But caution is warranted. Taking on the Republican machine in November will be a far tougher task, especially if the Democratic establishment does not rally around its insurgents against Trumpism. Yet, supporters point to a deeply unpopular Mr. Trump, and a welfare-first message that could cut across the U.S.’s culture wars the Republicans will keep stoking. For the Global South, including Indians, the rise of democratic socialism as a viable force in the U.S. will be welcome, as its emphasis rests on fair trade and multilateral engagement, besides an end to Washington’s forever wars.