“I think in reality, what it actually means in the American context is that you want to replace American workers with foreign workers and you want boys to play in girls’ sports,” said Vice President JD Vance this week when asked to define “socialism.”
His comment was met with backlash and confusion.
While The New Republic noted that “there are quite a few different definitions and perspectives on socialism,” none of those definitions includes anything about “boys playing in girls’ sports.”
In his answer to the question, Vance – a Yale-educated lawyer – also said that socialism is “a hard term to define these days,” and said “classically, you would think socialism is about prioritizing workers.”
Democratic Socialists of America-backed candidates are currently vying for seats in elections across the country in the upcoming midterm elections. Polls show that Americans’ attitudes towards democratic socialism are more positive than ever, Time reported last month. At the same time, President Donald Trump’s approval rating has dropped amid inflation, increased interest rates, foreign wars, controversial Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) actions and more.
“Across 107 primary elections in 2026, DSA-endorsed candidates (either by the national organization and/or a state or local chapter) won 61 elections (57%) and lost 46 (43%),” Ballotpedia noted.
Merriam-Webster defines socialism as “any of various egalitarian economic and political theories or movements advocating collective or governmental ownership and administration of the means of production and distribution of goods.” It also said that social democracies like Sweden and Denmark feature democratically elected governments that employ some socialist practices.
According to the Democratic Socialists of America, it advocates for capitalism being replaced by “democratic socialism, a system where ordinary people have a real voice in our workplaces, neighborhoods, and society.”
In a press release issued this March, the DSA condemned attacks on transgender youth and transgender athletes. However, that issue is not listed as one of its main program platforms. Instead, the DSA lists healthcare for all; housing for all; ending mass incarceration; feminism for all; the Green New Deal; ending police immunity; ending the U.S. war machine; freeing Palestine; ending blockades, embargoes and sanctions; abolishing ICE and Democracy for all as its main policy points.
Regarding ICE, the DSA said it wants an end to “ICE detention and deportations,” and to “punish federal agents’ brutality.” It also wants to legalize migration, grant amnesty for all immigrants regardless of status, provide a path to citizenship for all permanent residents, and end visa caps and quotas.
During the current midterm election cycle, Republicans have been focusing on transgender issues in competitive campaigns, according to an August article published in PolitiFact from the Poynter Institute. It explained that “the messaging is an effort to tap into a strategy that was successful for President Donald Trump in 2024.”
“In the closing weeks of that campaign, Trump hammered former Vice President Kamala Harris on transgender issues to paint her as outside the cultural mainstream,” PolitiFact added. “Terry Schilling, president of the conservative group American Principles Project, said in a podcast earlier this year that the ads were a decisive factor in Trump's victory.”
MS NOW noted that the GOP often depicts potential Democratic victories (from both Democrat and Democratic Socialist candidates) as something that will “usher in a dystopian era of socialism, communism or perhaps some combination of the two.” In that light, libertarian outlet Reason found Vance’s recent comments on socialism interesting.
“In reality, I guarantee that most of the self-described socialists running across the United States of America are going to howl about this announcement today, which is prioritizing American workers over foreign workers,” said Vance, referring to the Trump administration suspending an H-1B visa program that allows people from foreign countries to work in the U.S.
Vance added that he thinks these “socialists” have a “hatred of native-born citizens.”
“The vice president was, in some sense, saying he was adhering to good socialist principles with his immigration announcement,” said Reason, which pointed out that the Trump administration has taken stakes in dozens of private companies while criticizing socialism.
Polls often show Vance as the top contender to be the GOP presidential candidate in 2028. Things are more fluid on the Democratic side at this point, but Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) – one of the most prominent DSA-backed candidates in the U.S. – has been rumored to be a potential contender.
