I truly never thought I’d be able to suggest the Democratic Party might have potential to turn for the better, however, it seems this is no longer a pipe dream. Hope for the Democratic ticket can be found in an insurgent movement that has captured the attention of the American left: the democratic-socialist movement kick-started by Zohran Mamdani.

Those who’ve been reading my columns for some time will know my attitude toward the party has been less than kind, and for the most part, that remains true. In a period when the Republican Party is taking active steps to dismantle what semblance of a welfare system we may have had, Democrats have room to launch a counterattack against Republicans, but they can’t help but trip over themselves at every turn.

While Republicans seek to dismantle Medicaid, California’s Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom sat down with Charlie Kirk earlier this year for a podcast episode. The current Dictator-in-Chief Donald Trump is actively sending troops to Blue cities in the latest of his power grabs and Democrats debate among themselves whether or not trans people deserve rights. In a moment when Republicans seem poised for an internal civil war over the fate of the Epstein files, Democratic leaders remain united behind the very economic policies that’ve brought them to their current position.

With all this in mind, none of my political optimism comes from the direction the party’s leadership wishes to take. Even the Democrats’ recent move to shut down the government has come far too late to be meaningful. Ultimately, what’s given me hope is the nationwide surge of democratic socialism and Mamdani’s platform. While there have been democratic-socialist candidates in the past, Mamdani’s victory in the New York City mayoral primary has forced the discussion of socialism into the Democratic establishment.

A recent poll conducted by Jacobin, DSA Fund, Rosa Luxemburg Foundation and Data for Progress shows Democratic voters prefer socialist candidates like Mamdani, Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Sen. Bernie Sanders and Minnesota State Sen. Omar Fateh. The poll also found most voters blame America’s current trajectory on corporations, the ultra-wealthy, landlords and banks. Perhaps most surprisingly, 15% of Trump’s voters said they prefer socialism to capitalism. The results of this poll tell a clear story: the overall trend among U.S. voters points toward a socialist future.

As expected, this surge has made its way to Michigan, where another rising socialist star is preparing a Senate run. Abdul El-Sayed, a leading voice in public health, is leading a campaign with much of the same focus and rhetoric as Mamdani’s mayoral run in New York. The former is putting an emphasis on the cost of living, survival and thriving of social programs, and an egalitarian future that centers the working class. If El-Sayed’s is anything like Mamdani’s run, this surge of the left will be impossible for mainstream Democrats to ignore much longer.