A Napolitan News survey of 5,157 voters conducted in July 2026 shows that, given a choice between 4 candidates of equal skills and temperament, 29% of registered voters would prefer a candidate who advocates policies like President Trump's. This is the same as June, and remains a single point above the lowest number since the president returned to office.
The Four-Way Breakdown
The July 2026 survey showed identical results to June. The breakdown looks like this:
Policies like President Trump: Supported by 29% of voters
Traditional Republican Policies: Just 19% favor traditional GOP policies.
Policies like Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (AOC): One in 5 (19%) prefer the progressive agenda.
Traditional Democratic Policies: About 1 in 4 (23%) prefer policies of a Traditional Democrat.
Historical Trends
Since 2020, a plurality of voters have always prefered Trump-like policies. However, support fell each month from a high of 37% in June 2025 until it reached 28% in April and May. During that time, support trickled up for the traditional wings of both parties, with Traditional Democratic policies peaking at 25% in May. Support for AOC-like policies has stayed stagnant, coming in between 19% and 20%
When President Trump won the election in 2024, 37% of voters supported a candidate advocating his policies. The support peaked at 38% from December 2024 to January of 2025.
The False Rise of Progressives
Many in the political bubble are concerned with the "rise" of Democratic Socialism as candidates like Zohran Mamdani take office. However, the more voters learn about DSA platforms, the less enthusiastic they are.
Our 4-Way Choice history bears this out: In every monthly survey since AOC was used in place of Bernie Sanders*, more voters have supported traditional Democratic policies over their Progressive counterpart. Similarly, AOC has consistently polled slightly lower than Sanders did.
*Since 2020, we have asked this question, but about a candidate supporting Bernie Sanders' policies, rather than AOC's. August was the first complete month using AOC's name in place of Sanders. Now, AOC has taken on that role. It is appropriate, therefore, to make changes to our question wording to reflect that reality. The change from Bernie Sanders to AOC had no impact on Trump or Traditional Republican policy numbers.
When we started this series in 2020, Bernie Sanders was the leading voice of the progressive wing of the Democratic party.
This data is from a Napolitan News Service survey of 5,157 Registered Voters conducted online by Scott Rasmussen in July, 2026. RMG Research, Inc., conducted the field work for the survey. It has a margin of error of +/- 1.4%.
