I don't think it matters what Democrat party candidates are put forth.
USA has dirty politics, it's a feature of your system.
Right wing media and Republican candidates are going to use relentless smear campaigning. Calling them "Radical Socialists" etc, and Right wing media are going to go to the elevens to hype up fear of the Democrats (they'll take your guns, they want socialism, they are suppressing religious rights, they are cancelling your rights to free speech etc) and also to downplay the insurrection, and to blame Fauci and the Chinese not Trump for the poor pandemic response.
That's why democrats like James Clyburn and Abigail Spanberger were so frustrated with certain democrats' own use of the word "socialism", as they're basically playing into the republicans' hand when they use that type of misplaced/inaccurate lingo to describe their own policies.
Many people on the farther end of the left side of the spectrum (particularly younger people) have incorrectly tried to use the word "socialism" as a way to describe "What Denmark has"
...since they've never lived it (by it's true definition), I think there are some blind spots there. You find just about any immigrant (or first-generation descendent of...) who grew up in places like Cuba, China, or Venzeuala...or that lived in any of the eastern bloc countries in the 70's or 80's... that word elicits a very different emotional response from them...and that very economic system could've been the driver behind their decision to pack up and leave their home country.
Immigrant Neighborhoods Shifted Red as the Country Chose Blue
NY Times did an interesting piece (with an interactive map) on it showing where neighborhoods in major cities (in blue states) had some stark shifts from blue to red over the past few years in areas with large immigrant populations - specifically immigrant neighborhoods with large Latino, Chinese, and Eastern European populations.
In Latino areas: "Mr. Trump received 45 percent more votes in these areas than four years ago. Mr. Biden still won, but the number of people who voted Democratic did not increase over 2016."
"In a belt of suburbs north of Chicago — precincts that are home to South Asian, Arab and Eastern European immigrants — there was also higher turnout, and a shift to Mr. Trump."
"In Chinatown, Mr. Trump’s vote increased by 34 percent over 2016, while Mr. Biden received 6 percent fewer votes than Hillary Clinton. Mr. Biden still won in precincts with a majority of residents of Asian descent, but the Democratic margin of victory fell 12 percentage points."
With the Latino community, it's a bit of a political riddle (as the article puts it). Because depending on the country they moved here from, they may have a very negative reaction to "socialism" (places like Cuba & Venezuela), but if you have an immigrant from Chile (who had to live under a far-right dictator like Pinochet), or someone from central America (where "free-market solutions" ended up equating to "allow US interests to come in and buy up your companies, and then price gouge you for your own resources"), then those folks are going to have a more negative response to some of the republican economic rhetoric.
However, I don't know that same dichotomy exists with regards to immigrants from Eastern Europe for a certain age group.
For instance, I think you'd be hard pressed to find an immigrant who lived in East Germany or Romania in 1980-1986 that has a positive view of the word "socialism"
That's one reason why I've made the suggestion to many on the farther end of the left to be more clear about what it is they want so that they don't just feed political ammo to the far right. Obviously I don't agree with their positions on several issues, but some of them I'd like to see happen (like universal healthcare)
Unless they're actually calling for a centrally planned economy with public sector size > 70% (with compulsory employment in the public sector), then they shouldn't be calling their plan "socialism" or "democratic socialism", etc...
If they want a market economy with an expanded welfare state (like Denmark has, and is very different from socialism), then they should be referring to their plan by the rightful name of "The Nordic Model" or "Nordic Capitalism".