A new analysis of the 2022 midterm election conducted by The Heartland Institute’s Socialism Research Center finds that socialist candidates in federal and statewide elections were overwhelmingly successful in their bids for elected office.
In total, 132 socialist candidates were tracked — 78 at the state level and 54 at the federal level. Our analysis found 120 of these far-left candidates were victorious (a 90.9 percent victory rate). Candidates were identified as “socialist” by examining endorsements by socialist organizations, such as Our Revolution and the Democratic Socialists of America.
The average margin of victory for socialist candidates was more than 30 percentage points over the second-place finisher, even after excluding uncontested races. This likely indicates that socialist and progressive groups targeted districts during the primaries that they knew Democrats would easily win in the general election, rather than sponsoring candidates and investing resources in races where Republicans were likely to run competitive campaigns.
Overall, the continued success of radical leftist politicians and the replacement of more moderate centrist Democrats is a cause for alarm and should serve as a wake-up call to both conservatives and the more moderate wing of the Democratic Party.
For more information about this report’s methodology and results, please refer to the study.
Chris Talgo is senior editor at The Heartland Institute and a research fellow for Heartland’s Socialism Research Center.
Justin Haskins is the director of the Socialism Research Center and editorial director at The Heartland Institute.
Jack McPherrin is a Research Fellow within The Heartland Institute’s Emerging Issues Center, and also serves as Heartland’s Research Editor.
