A string of primary victories by democratic socialist candidates has prompted a pushback from some Democrats, who argue the party must more forcefully defend capitalism and resist what they see as a leftward drift.
Rep. Tom Suozzi (D-NY), who represents Long Island, said many Democrats are uneasy about the growing influence of the Democratic Socialists of America but have not built a coordinated response. “There’s a lot of us that don’t like what’s happening with the DSA — nobody’s organized,” Suozzi said, adding that critics often “go to cocktail parties and wring their hands” while democratic socialist candidates continue to win elections.
Those concerns were sharpened by another upset involving a DSA-backed contender, who defeated Rep. Diana DeGette (D-Colo.), a 30-year veteran of Congress.
“We’re for capitalism, not socialism. Capitalism has lifted more people out of poverty than any system in the history of the world,” Suozzi said. “It’s created better outcomes for people, but that’s not to say that we’re supportive of just the status quo.”
DeGette lost last week’s primary to 29-year-old Melat Kiros, a DSA member backed by Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.). Kiros drew attention during the campaign after accusing Israel of committing “genocide” in Gaza and standing by previous remarks describing the Sept. 11 attacks as “inevitable.”
Kiros is not the only candidate from the party’s left flank gaining ground.
Suozzi said Democrats need to refocus on the voters and values that have traditionally defined the party. “Democrats have got to get back to traditional Democratic values about looking out for working men and women and trying to improve their lot in life,” he said.
To that end, Suozzi and Rep. Adam Gray (D-Calif.) helped organize a “Promise to America” pledge for lawmakers, stating that Democrats “want safety, not lawlessness” and are “proud of America — not ashamed of America.”
Suozzi spoke while driving to the new Theodore Roosevelt Presidential library in North Dakota. He said he went on his own to check it out, not as part of President Trump’s visit that came a few hours earlier.
“I couldn’t hitch a ride on Air Force One,” he quipped, as he comments come days after Sen. John Fetterman (D-Pa.) blasted what he called an “orgy of socialism” in the party.
The nation’s most prominent democratic socialist, Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY), on Thursday shook up the US Senate when she threw her support behind Abdul El-Sayed, the left-wing Senate candidate in Michigan. El-Sayed is battling Senate Minority Leader Charles Schumer’s choice of Rep. Haley Stevens (D-Mich.), and her loss could foil the Dems’ chances of retaking the Senate.
Suozzi and his brethren may have their work cut out for them. A Gallup poll last September showed just 54% support for capitalism — down from 61% in 2010 and a shock poll last week showed a third of Democrats want democratic socialists in office.
Former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) in 2021 even questioned captalism: “In America, capitalism is our system, it is our economic system, but it has not served our economy as well as it should,” adding that the US should “not depart from that, but to improve it.”
Five years later, she didn’t betray any panic when she spoke to The Post after socialist candidates swept a trio of New York congressional races.
“I wouldn’t make so much of it. Nobody makes a big deal when a left-wing person wins in San Francisco and all of a sudden, New York … I loved our incumbents. I wish they had won. But in terms of what it means, it’s what it means for New York – it isn’t what it means for the rest of the country,” she said.
“It turns out capitalism is alive and very well,” then-President Joe Biden declared as the nation added 850,000 to payrolls during the recovery from COVID-19 in 2021.
Vice President Kamala Harris, who picked up the baton after Biden’s 2024 debate disaster, has been conducting her own outreach to socialists, it was revealed last week. She has been phoning and texting Mayor Mamdani, and met one-on-one with AOC at an event on empowering black women in Chicago.
That was taken as a sign of her presidential ambitions.
During her failed sprint to the White House two years ago, she told the Economic Club of Pittsburgh she was “a capitalist.”
“I promise you I will be pragmatic in my approach,” she vowed then.
