Eighty-four percent. That's the share of Gen Z Democrats who told pollsters they have a favorable view of socialism — not "progressive values," not "economic fairness," not whatever euphemism the campaign consultants would prefer. Socialism.

The Democratic Party's official position is that they're a big-tent party with room for moderates. Their voters didn't get the memo.

The numbers come from an OnMessage poll of 800 American voters conducted via text-to-web interviews from July 12 to 16, with a margin of error of ±3.5%. The survey deliberately oversampled voters under 45, pulling in roughly 600 Gen Z and Millennial respondents for deeper analysis. What pollster Henry Parkhurst found wasn't subtle. "Embracing socialism is no longer a fringe talking point for Democratic voters," he told the Daily Signal. "Our data shows that a majority of Democrats of all ages hold favorable views of socialism, including 84% of Gen Z Democrats."

Of all ages. Not just the kids who learned economics from TikTok.

More than 30% of Americans overall reported a favorable view of socialism — a number that would have been politically radioactive a decade ago. Among the 35% of respondents who identified as Democrats, the enthusiasm wasn't even close to ambiguous. Parkhurst put a fine point on it: "While the national Democratic Party may claim to be divided on how far they're willing to lean into socialism, their voters clearly show they're encouraging the party to move in that direction."

And the party is listening. Zohran Mamdani, a 33-year-old democratic socialist, took over as mayor of New York City on January 1. The next day, Katie Wilson — an activist who ran a small nonprofit called the Transit Riders Union — was sworn in as mayor of Seattle after defeating incumbent Democrat Bruce Harrell. Both campaigned on rent freezes, free transit, city-run groceries, and expanded public housing. Both won.

In Florida, state Rep. Angie Nixon, a Democratic Socialists of America candidate, beat moderate Democrat candidate Alex Vindman in the Senate primary by double digits — despite raising just $975,000 to Vindman's $16.3 million. She had endorsements from Rashida Tlaib and Ilhan Omar. She's now the Democratic nominee against Republican Ashley Moody in the November 3 general election.

The usual defense is that young people don't really mean "socialism" when they say socialism. They just mean universal healthcare and student loan forgiveness. They'll grow out of it. Except they're not growing out of it — they're electing people who call themselves socialists to run the two largest cities on opposite coasts and sending one to a Senate race in a state Trump won twice. At some point, taking people at their word stops being alarmist and starts being basic literacy.

Parkhurst's poll was conducted in July. Since then, nothing about the political landscape has made socialism a harder sell to these voters. The midterms are four weeks away, and every Democratic primary this cycle rewarded candidates who moved left, not toward the center. The pattern isn't new. What's new is the margin. Eighty-four percent doesn't leave much room for the "big tent" theory.

The Democratic establishment spent years insisting the socialist wing was a noisy minority that didn't represent the base. The base just handed them a number. Eighty-four percent of their youngest voters, polled with a ±3.5% margin of error.

That's not a fringe. That's the future of the party, and it already has mayors.