Democrats have been losing working-class voters. Here's one playbook to win them back.
A new report commissioned by a labor-backed group is examining a problem many Democrats might rather ignore: the exodus of working-class voters from the party they used to call home.
A new report commissioned by a labor-backed group is examining a problem many Democrats might rather ignore: the exodus of working-class voters from the party they used to call home.
Republicans under former President Donald Trump have been making inroads in the working class, including among Black and Hispanic voters, while Democrats have been gaining suburban moderates and highly educated professionals that used to vote Republican.
“Increasingly, Republicans are the party of working class people,” Ohio Sen. JD Vance, Donald Trump’s running mate, said during a recent podcast interview, while noting that CEOs and other wealthy professionals have shifted toward Democrats.
Some voices on the left have downplayed the significance or even denied the loss of working class voters, but the data is increasingly clear and signs of realignment are everywhere.
“I’ve watched as MAGA flags have encroached into my community, which used to be a solid deep-blue working-class suburb of New York made of ethnic whites and people of color,” said Maurice Mitchell, the national director of the Working Families Party, a labor-backed group that aims to organize a multiracial working-class coalition. “Republicans are making inroads into the working class, and it’s not just white working class people.”
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