Socialist Nominee Blasts Democrats Who Condemned Socialism

Avila Chevalier, in her post on X: "Democrats love talking about a 'big tent', but then they vote with Republicans hell-bent on destroying our democracy and stripping Black and brown people of the right to vote."

She went on: "A big tent doesn't pay your rent, lower your grocery bill, or take on the corporations bleeding our country dry. Democratic socialism does." She described democratic socialism as "working people deserve power over their own lives — in their wages, their housing, their healthcare, and their communities. That's not radical. It's what my neighbors Uptown and in the Bronx ask for every single day."

Soave, a senior editor at Reason and co-host of The Hill's "Rising," took the opposite view in his column, writing that he commends the Democrats who voted to condemn socialism and calling her economic ideas fundamentally wrong. Socialism, he argued, "is a system that gives some people power over other people's lives."

An unnamed Florida Democratic strategist told The Hill that "socialism is a nonstarter in places like Florida, where there are big swaths of Hispanic voters," adding: "The word in and of itself is toxic."

Luis Miranda, who directed Hispanic media in the Obama White House and was born in Colombia, told The Hill: "I saw what the extremes did in the country I was born in, both the far right and the far left. For a lot of latinos, they're going to feel that intrinsically." He said the election of New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani, a self-proclaimed democratic socialist, has "helped to ease some concerns," but that Democrats will need to stand up to what he called the "extreme" views of the Democratic Socialists of America, including abolishing the Senate and the presidency.

Stephanie Valencia, CEO of Equis Research, urged caution: "Socialism isn't just one issue. It can and does mean different things to different people." She added: "Will a socialism attack be effective against Democrats today, when many latinos can't afford to fill up their gas tanks and see Trump deporting their neighbors? We don't know the answer to that question yet."