I come from a country (France) where quite a few politicians declare themselves openly Marxists and where socialism is completely mainstream.

This is mainly due to the fact that socialists and communists here have been largely independent and unaffected with the USSR’s communist party in history.

Furthermore, socialists’ and communist’s contributions to society and policy making in our 20th century’s history are widely seen as positive.

This makes it uncontroversial for a Communist leader here to be a candidate to the presidential election for instance.

What’s the situation in the USA?

I know vaguely that famous public faces like AOC and Sanders have brought light to “Democratic Socialism” concepts and have more or less made them “popular”.

But is it common for politicians to declare themselves Socialists or Marxists, or does it immediately cast stigma on their career?