[OC] Bevölkerung von Amerikanern mit einem sozialistischen Bürgermeister, 1989-2025

Neat idea, and also fun that the graph kinda looks like a city skyline

This plot shows the cumulative population of Americans each year who live in a city with a socialist for mayor. The data comes from [this Wikipedia article](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_elected_socialist_mayors_in_the_United_States), along with census population data. The highlighted cities are those with the highest number of person-years under socialist leadership (population multiplied by years with a socialist mayor).

I made some exclusions for clarity:

* The county executives listed on the Wikipedia page are not included.
* Brand Whitlock (Toledo, 1906–1912) is excluded as he was a Georgist and explicitly rejected the socialist label [(e.g. in this book).](https://www.gutenberg.org/files/67648/67648-h/67648-h.htm)
* David Dinkins (New York City, 1990-1993) is excluded. It seems that he was allied with socialists (the wiki cites a speech he gave at a DSA meeting while he was in office), and possibly a member of the DSA at some point (sources conflict), but it seems that he did not self-identify as a socialist while he was mayor.
* The mayors listed here from Rockford, IL are recorded as members of the local progressive or labor parties rather than a “socialist” party. I have kept them on the plot because I can not independently verify whether or not they were openly socialist (the wiki cites a book I do not have immediate access to).

For the highlighted cities that remain, the mayors were either self-identified socialists or members of explicitly socialist parties. I have not independently verified every entry from the „Other“ category.

Data was gathered and visualized using R / ggplot.

I think Burlington might be considered to currently have one.

Source? I think Ron Dellums was mayor during those Oakland years. While liberal, he was hardly a socialist.

[Edit: found the source buried in the comments. I stand corrected.]

A timewaster.
Usually Americans label anybody as a socialist if they oppose them.