In the past, Democrats rarely felt the need to explain their position on capitalism. They could campaign on fixing a rigged economy, reducing corporate power, or raising taxes on the rich without feeling compelled to affirm their belief in the economic system itself. This election cycle is different.

“I am a capitalist,” James Talarico, a Texas Democrat, told TIME last month, after complaining that Republicans were trying to paint him as a socialist in his bid for Senate against Ken Paxton.

“I’m not a socialist,” Dr. Abdul El-Sayed, his fellow Senate candidate in Michigan told TIME in May, who then praised the efficiency of capitalism to “allocate resources.”The two Democrats are among the most prominent examples of candidates in tight races making their support of capitalism crystal clear amid the growing visibility of the Democratic Socialists of America and a string of victories by candidates on the party’s left. Republicans in races across the country—and at the White House—have pointed to those trends as they increasingly embrace “socialist” and “communist” as catch-all attacks against all Democrats.

The defensive pose from Democrats is a broader trend than just a few Senate races: Sixty Democrats, including 10 sitting members of Congress, signed a pledge this summer from the newly formed Promise to America declaring, “We are capitalist, not socialist.”The collective was organized by centrist Democratic Reps. Tom Suozzi of New York and Adam Gray of California, the only two Democrats in 2024 to flip congressional districts won by President Donald Trump.

“We believe in a growing, fair, and competitive economy that rewards hard work, innovation, entrepreneurship, and ownership,” their pledge reads.

But not every Democrat facing the socialist label has gone so far as to embrace capitalism. In Maine, Troy Jackson, a former state Senator with ties to Bernie Sanders, replaced Graham Platner as the party’s Senate nominee in July with the support of the DSA. When asked by TIME whether Jackson views himself as a capitalist, Jackson’s campaign declined to answer but pointed to his past comments on socialism.

“I see myself as a Mainer and a working-class person,” he told NBC News in July when asked if he’s a socialist. “You know, we have socialism in the state with public schools, with plowing the roads, tiring the roads … I don’t see myself as anything but a guy that wants to make good change for people I care about.”Asked on Morning Joe on July 28 about whether he supported the DSA’s policies, Jackson said he didn’t. What he did support, he said, was “a government that works for everyday people, small business owners, workers” and others who depend on the government to work for them.

Jackson's approach illustrates the broader ambiguity Republicans are exploiting. A Democrat can campaign against concentrated wealth, corporate influence and economic inequality without necessarily rejecting capitalism, just as a Democrat can support universal health care or stronger labor protections without identifying as a socialist.

Vance wields ‘socialist’ charge in Florida Vice President J.D. Vance sharpened the Republican attack in Florida last week, accusing Democratic Senate candidate Angie Nixon of embracing socialism and not belonging in the country because of those views. The remarks came as Vance campaigned alongside Republican Sen. Ashley Moody, who is fighting to keep the seat she was appointed to when Marco Rubio became Secretary of State, and offered a blunt version of the argument Republicans have been making against Democrats around the country.

“Ladies and gentlemen, when Angie Nixon calls herself a socialist, I think the right response is to say: ‘Then get the hell out of here. You don’t belong in America if those are your views,’” Vance said.

Nixon presents a more complicated case than many of the Democrats facing the socialist label. The Florida state representative has been an unabashed progressive throughout her decade in state politics and joined the Democratic Socialists of America in June. But the DSA did not endorse her Senate campaign, and Nixon has said she does not agree with all of the group's positions. She has also resisted the idea that her affiliation with the organization determines her political identity.

“I’m a capitalist who believes that we need some strong regulations,” Nixon said on NBC's Meet the Press in August. She has separately described herself as a social democrat who believes in strong safety nets. Republicans have nonetheless made the DSA connection central to their case against her, and Moody has described the race as a choice between “freedom or socialism.”For Nixon, as for El-Sayed and Talarico, the question is therefore becoming part of the larger campaign conversation about what kind of economic politics Democrats are offering.

But Nixon’s case also shows why the labels can be difficult to apply cleanly: she has joined an organization that calls itself socialist and shares some of its policy goals, but describes herself as a capitalist and rejects some of its positions. Talarico rejects ‘crony capitalism’Talarico has perhaps taken the most expansive approach to the question. In an interview with TIME in September, the Democratic Senate nominee rejected the socialist label and offered his own definition of capitalism, one rooted in competition, private enterprise, and a stronger middle class.

“I think Democrats should reclaim the principles of capitalism, 'cause that's not what we have right now,” Talarico said. “We don't have capitalism. We have crony capitalism, where the people who succeed in this economy are those who can afford to pay for politicians, those who can pay for access and control.

Republicans have accused Talarico of backing a “Democrat Socialist agenda” and even saying that his policies would amount to “destroying capitalism.”The attacks are unfolding in a race that Democrats view as one of their most significant opportunities to compete in Texas in a generation.

“Dr. King once said that we have socialism for the rich, and rugged individualism for the rest of us,” Talarico told TIME. “If we're going to get back to real capitalism, it means that all of us are going to get compensated for our labor, for our work, for the wealth that we create.”

In Michigan, where recent polls show El-Sayed leading Republican Rep. Mike Rogers for an open Senate seat, the National Republican Senatorial Committee has called El-Sayed a “radical socialist.”Much like Jackson in Maine and Nixon in Florida, El-Sayed supports Medicare For All and believes corporate power needs to be curbed. But El-Sayed says those positions do not require a broader ideological commitment to socialism.

“I actually think that at the small and local scale, capitalism is a great way to allocate resources, as long as everybody has access to it,” El-Sayed told TIME.

—With reporting by Philip Elliott