According to a November 2017 YouGov poll, a majority of Americans aged 21 to 29 prefer socialism to capitalism and believe that the American economic system is working against them. In the same month, 15 members of the DSA were elected to various local and state governmental positions around the country in the 2017 elections. Tracing its lineage from the New Left to Norman Thomas and Eugene Debs, the DSA was the largest Socialist organization in the United States by 2017. As of September 2018, membership stood at 50,000, and the number of local chapters had increased from 40 to 181.