Over 75% of registered Democrats would vote for a socialist candidate, according to a recent poll.
The poll, conducted by Gallup and released earlier this month, found that 76% of Democratic voters would vote for a socialist candidate compared to 17% of Republicans who said they would do the same.
The data comes as Bernie Sanders has taken the lead in the race for the Democratic Party’s nomination for president. Sanders, who is polling ahead of all his 2020 opponents, was widely criticized over a Sunday interview with 60 Minutes in which he touted the literacy program of Fidel Castro’s communist regime in Cuba.
The comment was slammed by Republicans as well as several Democrats, particularly in the critical swing state of Florida, where a large Cuban population resides.
“Florida Democrats condemn dictators who toppled democracies across the globe and stand in solidarity with the thousands of people who have fled violent dictatorships in Cuba, Venezuela, and Nicaragua,” Florida Democratic Party Chairwoman Terrie Rizzo said regarding Sanders’s comments.
“Candidates need to understand our immigrant communities’ shared stories, as well as provide solutions to issues that matter to all Floridians, including access to affordable healthcare and rejecting a Trump economy that works only for the very rich,” she added.
Sanders has refused to apologize for the comments and instead doubled down, saying, “Truth is truth.”
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, a Democrat, was asked this week if she could support Sanders as the nominee, to which she replied, “Yes.”
Sanders has admitted to being a socialist in the past, but he most commonly refers to himself as a democratic socialist.
“I am a socialist, and everyone knows that,” Sanders said after being elected to Congress in 1990.
While Democrats may be on board with a socialist candidate, a majority of the public would not back such a candidate, with just 46% of all respondents saying they would.
