“A spectre is haunting America ― the spectre of socialism.”
Socialism is on the rise in the United States.
But its trajectory in Arizona is less clear.
In recent years, self-styled socialists or ultra-progressive candidates have notched multiple high-profile election victories. Zohran Mamdani, the mayor of New York City, is of course the most prominent. He's an official member of the Democratic Socialists of America (DSA) and since taking office, he has pushed for government-owned grocery stores, universal government-funded child care, government-funded public transit and a favorite failed policy of New York City: rent control.
Katie Wilson, now the mayor of Seattle, campaigned on government-owned housing, aggressive new taxation policies and for
"much more land and wealth to be owned and stewarded by communities instead of corporations." If she looked, I think she'd find that corporations are collections of people, just like communities.
Melat Kiros, a DSA-backed socialist, beat incumbent U.S. Rep. Diana DeGette in the Democratic primary for Colorado's 1st Congressional District. Donavan McKinney, also DSA-supported, unseated congressional incumbent Rep. Shri Thanedar in the Democratic primary. Ultra-progressive Peggy Flanagan defeated moderate Rep. Angie Craig in Minnesota's Democratic primary for U.S. Senate. And three New York candidates endorsed by Mamdani triumphed over establishment Democrats in New York primaries.
And so on, and so forth.
A recent poll by CNBC found that, "46 percent of Americans between the ages of 18 and 34 now hold either a 'favorable' or a 'very favorable' view of Democratic Socialism." Research by the Cato Institute (where I’m a legal fellow), produced similar findings: Gen Z is more supportive of socialism (53%) than capitalism (45%). The Washington Post reported that "three in four Democrats say they would be open to supporting a democratic socialist for president."
But socialism's success in Arizona is mixed.
In May, Tempe voters elected Bobby Nichols, a Democratic Socialist, to City Council, making him the first openly socialist candidate elected in Arizona. Like many socialists, Nichols has seemingly never worked for a private, for-profit employer (in fairness, he only recently graduated from Golden Gate University School of Law). But equipped with endorsements from Mamdani and U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders, he proudly announced that he "was elected as a Democratic Socialist [and] will govern as a Democratic Socialist."
Down in Tucson, Miranda Schubert has served on City Council since getting elected in November 2025. She’s less outspoken than Nichols about socialism, but she, like Nichols and Mamdani, is a member of the DSA. Her policy agenda mixes the sensible ("safer streets for all") with the socialist ("housing is a human right").
Perhaps most significantly, the state legislature is on track to welcome its first socialist member in January 2027 after 31-year-old Miranda Lopez beat incumbent state legislator Stephanie Stahl Hamilton in the July Democratic primary. Lopez has also never worked for a private, for-profit employer (she calls capitalism an "oppressive system"). But she is currently "#OpenToWork" on LinkedIn, so perhaps that will change. In the meantime, I guess it’s just other people’s taxes that will fund her socialist dreams.
So yes, socialism has had its victories in Arizona. But it's also had its losses.
Kai Newkirk, an insurgent community organizer whose professional highlight is being "arrested over 25 times," challenged Rep. Greg Stanton in the Democratic primary for Congressional District 4. Newkirk criticized Stanton for being a "corporate Democrat" and for supporting Israel in its war against Hamas. Newkirk also thought Stanton erred by not supporting Medicare for all and the abolition of ICE.
Stanton won, 68.1% to 31.9%.
In the state legislature, incumbent bipartisan dealmaker Alma Hernandez defeated socialism in the guise of former Tucson city councilman Roque Perez. Perez embraced a wide range of socialist-friendly policies, but he also had to run from his history of violent, sexually explicit and antisemitic social media posts.
Perhaps the best indicator of socialism's limited foothold in Arizona is Gov. Katie Hobbs. Hobbs is a liberal, yes. She’s pro-choice; she supports the expansion of government-funded health care and she has the endorsement of the labor unions and the teachers union (Arizona Education Association).
But she's no socialist. Far from it. The website listing her "key accomplishments" begins with job growth, manufacturing and tax cuts. Next up is "lowering the cost of housing," which includes, "cutting red tape and lowering costs" ― hardly the language of a socialist. Third on the list is "keeping Arizona families safe and secure" by "combatting violent crime," "cracking down on drug traffickers" and "securing the border and keeping communities safe."
If you listen to Hobbs on the radio or local television, she usually talks about foreign direct investment in manufacturing, training for skilled jobs, tax cuts and business loans. Some of her critics complain that she can’t take full credit for these successes. But the point is that, unlike Mamdani and Wilson, Hobbs isn't publicly fantasizing about overthrowing the proletariat and seizing the means of production. Or, more prosaically, she's not talking about raising taxes or government-owned grocery stores.
Want further proof that Hobbs isn't plotting the progressive revolution? She just chose former Mesa mayor John Giles as her lieutenant governor. Giles is a longtime Republican turned Independent. He’s male, white, Mormon, mild-mannered, heterosexual, married 43 years and he has five kids and 10 grandkids ― hardly the profile of a leftist revolutionary.
While mayor of Mesa, Giles mostly crowed about the growth of Mesa's downtown, new businesses and new restaurants in the city and expanded educational partnerships with Arizona State University and Mesa Community College. His 2024 campaign website bragged that Mesa "continually balances the budget and has no primary property tax" and "Mayor Giles has attracted new companies to Mesa and created thousands of jobs… without increasing taxes or utility rates." This sounds a lot more like Doug Ducey than it does Karl Marx.
And despite changing his partisan affiliation, Giles insists that he largely hasn't changed his policy preferences. He recently told KTAR radio, "I continue to identify with a lot of the principles that the Republican Party says it identifies with." This is the person Gov. Hobbs chose as her running mate.
So is socialism on the rise in America? Yes. Definitely. But in Arizona, it has a long way to go, even within the Democratic Party. And the socialist revolution certainly isn't going to happen in a Hobbs-Giles administration.
Stephen Richer is a lecturer at the Harvard Kennedy School, a legal fellow at the Cato Institute, and a former Maricopa County recorder. Contact him at Stephen@StephenRicher.com.
This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: Socialism is rising. Arizona Democrats aren't there yet | Opinion
