SOURCE

Washington Post-Ipsos Poll July 2026 — Trend Topline

Properties1
tagspolling, democratic-socialism, elections, question-wording
OUTLET
Ipsos / The Washington Post
AUTHOR
Ipsos and The Washington Post
PUBLISHED
2026-07-16
LEAN
center-left
GENRE
polling
ORIGINAL
view original

2 min read

Washington Post-Ipsos Poll July 2026 — Trend Topline

Author: Ipsos and The Washington Post | Published: 2026-07-16 | Source: polling topline

Summary

This is the primary topline behind the previously secondhand claim that three-quarters of Democrats would consider a democratic-socialist presidential candidate. The probability-based Ipsos KnowledgePanel surveyed 2,648 US adults from July 8–13, 2026 (full-sample margin of sampling error ±1.9 points). The exact question was: “Would you consider voting for a candidate for president who identifies as a democratic socialist?” Overall, 39% said yes, 55% no, and 6% skipped. The published subgroup table reported 75% yes among Democrats.

Two adjacent questions give the label context. Asked openly what democratic socialists stand for, respondents split among economic equality, government control/anti-capitalism, helping ordinary people, redistribution, healthcare, communism/Marxism, dependency, and authoritarianism; 16% were unsure. Asked whether democratic socialism is similar to communism, 30% said similar, 32% different, and 36% were unsure. On party influence, 30% said democratic socialists have too much, 12% too little, 15% the right amount, and 41% were unsure.

Key Claims

  • Exact candidate wording uses “would you consider voting,” measuring openness rather than support for a named nominee.
  • Overall result: 39% yes, 55% no, 6% skipped.
  • Democrats: 75% yes; the primary/general asymmetry is real but the broad paraphrase “open to” is essential.
  • 36% were unsure whether democratic socialism differs from communism.
  • 41% were unsure how much influence democratic socialists have over the Democratic Party.
  • KnowledgePanel uses probability/address-based recruitment, making this less vulnerable to opt-in-panel participation bias than the Morning Consult/Cato survey.

Direct quotes worth preserving

“Would you consider voting for a candidate for president who identifies as a democratic socialist?” — Question 31

Why citable: Resolves the exact-wording gap and prevents “consider” from being overstated as affirmative support.

Connections

Entities mentioned: Democratic Party, Democratic Socialists of America (DSA)
Concepts referenced: Democratic Socialism, polling methodology

Contradictions / Tensions

The 75% Democratic openness figure coexists with only 39% overall openness and high uncertainty about the ideology’s meaning. It measures willingness to consider, not vote intention.

Notes

Primary polling document. This resolves the WaPo-Ipsos wording gap.