Nearly half of American voters say they would vote for a socialist candidate, a Gallup poll revealed.
Forty-seven % of American voters said they would vote for a socialist candidate, according to a May 2019 Gallup poll that interviewed a random sample of 1,024 adults over the phone with a margin of sampling error of plus/minus 4 percentage points at the 95% confidence level. The poll asked voters about a variety of hypothetical candidate qualities surrounding faith and ideology and found that out of 12 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% in both 2015 and 2019. (RELATED: Bernie Sanders Explains Why He’s A Millionaire)
Democratic U.S. presidential candidate U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) speaks at a news conference, April 10, 2019. REUTERS/Aaron P. Bernstein
Americans are almost universally open to voting for a black, Jewish, or Catholic candidate, with 96% of voters saying they would vote for a black candidate, 95% saying they would vote for Catholic candidates, and 93% saying they would vote for Jewish candidates. Seventy-six % of voters said they would vote for gay or lesbian candidates, 66% said they would vote for Muslim candidates, and 60% said they would vote for atheist candidates.
The only significant differences from 2015 to 2019 were a 7% increase from 2015 in the number of voters willing to vote for evangelical candidates (73% in 2015 and 80 % in 2019) as well as a 6% increase in the number of voters willing to vote for Muslim candidates (60% in 2015 and 66% in 2019).
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