'Socialism in all its forms' denounced by the House

Savannah Behrmann, CQ-Roll Call on Sep 1, 2026

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WASHINGTON — The House on Tuesday adopted a resolution denouncing “socialism in all its forms,” boosting a Republican messaging push just two months before the midterm elections.

It also calls for passage of a GOP-backed voter ID bill — language that further diminished Democratic support for the measure, even among lawmakers who otherwise agreed with its underlying premise.

The final tally was 220-192, with eight Democrats voting in favor. Among them were Rep. Marie Gluesenkamp Perez, D-Wash., and others facing tough bids for reelection.

Sponsored by Republican Rep. Jeff Crank, who is himself in a competitive reelection race in Colorado, the resolution is a largely symbolic gesture that would make no changes in law. It warns against “implementation of socialist policies in the United States,” noting the win by New York Mayor Zohran Mamdani last fall and that other candidates associated with the Democratic Socialists of America are gaining ground across the country.

The vote was seen as an attempt to put moderate Democrats in purple districts on the record.

“This is a chance for them to stand firmly with the American people and oppose this insidious movement within their own party,” Crank told Fox News.

On the floor Tuesday, Republicans lined up to decry socialist ideas and their inroads in American politics. House Administration ranking member Rep. Joe Morelle, D-N.Y., pushed back, slamming the measure as a way to distract from skyrocketing prices in the grocery aisles and at the gas pumps. He also noted the House passed a similar resolution last year that he supported.

Brookings has found that socialist candidates may have hit a ceiling this summer and that “the number of DSA candidates who actually won a Democratic nomination is well under 1%.” But the headlines and social media attention surrounding Mamdani in particular have shined a spotlight on younger, more progressive politicians.

Mamdani’s popularity in the city has only grown since he took office, according to a recent Siena University poll, which found that 69 percent of residents in the Big Apple now view him favorably. But those numbers dropped significantly upstate and in the suburbs.

Last November, a separate resolution from Rep. María Elvira Salazar, R-Fla., “denouncing the horrors of socialism” earned the support of 86 Democrats. That resolution, however, did not explicitly name the DSA like Crank’s does, and instead focused on international and historical examples.

Crank’s version also contains language calling for enactment of the so-called SAVE America Act, the sweeping voter ID package backed by President Donald Trump that has caused an inter-chamber feud as it hits a seemingly immovable wall in the Senate.

That election security bill received the support of just one Democrat in the House during a February vote, and the language was a tough sell Tuesday for Democrats, even though some of them have been decrying the DSA for months. A group of centrist members and candidates this summer signed a pledge initiative dubbed “Promise to America” that says: “We are capitalist, not socialist.”

Morelle said at a Rules Committee meeting Monday, “In an ironic twist that would be comical if it weren’t so sinister, this legislation stokes fears of a repressive, totalitarian dictatorship, while in the same breath affirms the Republicans’ obsession with destroying Americans’ right to vote.”