Left turn: More Dems identifying as liberal

More Democrats are identifying as liberal than at any point in the past 14 years, according to a new Gallup poll, presenting an increasingly left-leaning political landscape for Democratic presidential contenders. 

Forty-seven percent of Democrats and Democratic-leaning independents say they are socially liberal as well as either liberal or moderate on economic issues, the Gallup poll released Thursday found. 

{mosads}That’s up 5 points from the last presidential cycl0,e in 2012, and up 9 points since Hillary Clinton, the current Democratic presidential fron-trunner, ran against Barack Obama for the party’s nomination in 2008. 

Democrats and leaning independents expressing liberal views on social and economic issues has increased steadily since 2001, when Gallup first polled on the topic. Back then, 30 percent identified as liberal in the categories. 

On one metric in particular, more than half of Democrats, 53 percent, now identify as socially liberal in the poll, compared to 35 percent in 2001.

A quarter of those Democrats surveyed, 25 percent, identified as liberal on both social and economic issues, compared to 7 percent who identified as conservative in both areas. 

The remaining Democrats identified in moderate variations of the two categories.  

The leftward progression represents a shifting landscape for Democrats staking out liberal positions in 2016.

Clinton, who announced her White House bid in mid-April and ratcheted up her campaign this past week, has signaled she plans to stake out more liberal positions this cycle than she did in her previous presidential campaign.

While she leads all Democratic challengers by around 40 points in recent polls, she has become more vocal on issues such as social inequality and immigration.

Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) is mounting a challenge to Clinton from the left, decrying income inequality and calling for a shift of wealth away from Americans in the top tax bracket.

Another declared Democratic candidate, former Maryland Gov. Martin O’Malley, has similarly focused on income inequality and social issues such as same-sex marriage and climate change since launching his bid.

The survey of 1,024 U.S. adults was conducted May 6-10 via landlines and cellphones with a margin of error of 4 points.