Nearly Half Of Americans Said They Could Vote For Socialists: POLL

Nearly half of American voters say they would vote for a socialist candidate, Gallup poll results reveal.

47 percent of American voters said they could vote for a socialist candidate, according to a May 2019 Gallup poll. The poll asked voters about a variety of hypothetical candidate qualities surrounding faith and ideology and found that out of twelve hypothetical candidate qualities,  the only quality in the minority was a socialist candidate.

The poll, which compared 2019 results to 2015 results from a similar poll, revealed that voters are overall more open to religious and personal identities now than they were in 2015, a promising trend for the diverse array of Democratic 2020 presidential candidates. However, though socialism has become more popular with Democratic candidates, American voters remain disinclined to vote for socialist candidates, polling at 47 percent in both 2015 and 2019.

Americans are almost universally open to voting for a black, Jewish, or Catholic candidate, with 96 percent of voters saying they would vote for a black candidate, 95 percent saying they would vote for Catholic candidates, and 93 percent saying they would vote for Jewish candidates.  76 percent of voters said they would vote for gay or lesbian candidates, 66 percent said they would vote for Muslim candidates, and 60 percent said they would vote for atheist candidates.

The only significant differences from 2015 to 2019 were a 7 percent increase from 2015 in the number of voters willing to vote for evangelical candidates ( 73 percent in 2015 and 80 percent in 2019) as well as a 6 percent increase in the number of voters willing to vote for Muslim candidates (60 percent in 2015 and 66 percent in 2019).