Republican pollster Conor Maguire said he “would not mind” if the 2020 Democratic nominee identified as a socialist, saying that they would be an easy candidate for President Trump to defeat.
“For me, anyone that classifies themselves as a socialist, I would not mind running against them, and holding them to that throughout the entire general election,” Maguire, a senior strategist at WPA Intelligence, told Hill.TV’s Jamal Simmons on “What America’s Thinking.”
Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), a 2020 hopeful who has come in second place behind former Vice President Joe Biden in a number of polls, identifies as a democratic socialist. Sanders was the runner-up for the 2016 Democratic presidential nomination.
Trump and Republicans have continuously worked to tie socialism to Democrats as a whole in an effort to make the party seem too far to the left.
Fifty-seven percent of voters said they believe socialism is incompatible with American values, according to a new survey from Monmouth University Poll released on Monday, while only 29 percent of respondents said socialism is compatible.
— Julia Manchester
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