SPUSA describes itself as a multi-tendency socialist party which hopes to win socialism through a "democratic revolution from below".

[2] Notable members include David McReynolds, Frank Zeidler, and Dan La Botz.

[13] In its 1972 convention, the SPA changed its name to Social Democrats, USA by a vote of 73 to 34, supported by both Co-Chairmen, Bayard Rustin and Charles S.

The New York Times observed that the Socialist Party had last sponsored Darlington Hoopes as its candidate for president in the 1956 election, who received only 2,121 votes, in just six states.

[4] In 2008, SPUSA candidate for President Brian Moore vocally opposed the idea that Barack Obama was a socialist of any kind,[22] saying it was "misleading of the Republicans" to spread that message.

[24] In 2010, SPUSA Co-Chair Billy Wharton called Obama's 2010 State of the Union Address a "public relations ploy".

[25] Wharton criticized the Affordable Care Act as designed "to protect the profit margins of private insurance companies".

[2] SPUSA describes socialism as a radically democratic system which "places people's lives under their own control—a classless, feminist, socialist society free of racism, sexism, homophobia or transphobia," and in which "the people own and control the means of production and distribution through democratically controlled public agencies, cooperatives, or other collective groups"; "full employment is realized for everyone who wants to work"; "workers have the right to form unions freely, and to strike and engage in other forms of job actions"; and "production of society is used for the benefit of all humanity, not for the private profit of a few.

In 2009, Greg Pason's proposals included socializing the United States health care system, a steeply graduated income tax, universal rent control and the elimination of all educational debts and tuition fees.

[29] Moore supported economic democracy through social ownership and workers' control of our reigning industrial and financial institutions.

In the 1984 presidential election, SPUSA nominated the Citizens Party candidate for president, Sonia Johnson.

In the 2020 presidential election, the SPUSA nominated the Green Party nominee Howie Hawkins for president.