'The Stakes Couldn't Be Higher': Report Gives Dems a Roadmap to Winning Back Working-Class Voters

As Democrats conduct an autopsy of their devastating 2024 election defeat at the hands of billionaire President Donald Trump, new research offers a possible way forward for a party whose favorability recently hit rock bottom.

The report released Monday by the Center for Working-Class Politics uses decades of polling to compare the views of working-class Americans with those of wealthier Americans. The analysis defines working-class Americans as "those without a college degree and who fall within the bottom two-thirds of the income distribution."

The research finds that working-class Americans are "broadly egalitarian in their economic attitudes" and "show stronger support than their middle- and upper-class counterparts for many redistributive policies tied to popular programs and direct material relief."

While the analysis shows working-class Americans are "more conservative" than wealthier Americans on sociocultural issues—a category defined as including abortion, LGBTQ+ rights, and immigration—they have in some cases become more progressive on such issues in recent years, undercutting simplistic narratives of an increasingly conservative U.S. working class.

"Across all categories, the working class has not exhibited any substantial movement toward conservatism," the report states.

More specifically, the report shows that working-class Americans are strongly supportive of minimum wage increases, robust union protections, and other measures aimed at boosting worker power. Working-class Americans are also solidly in favor of expanding Social Security and Medicare, boosting spending on aid to the poor, and increasing taxes on higher earners.

Though the analysis shows some "skepticism" among working-class Americans when policies "are explicitly tied to increased government spending or taxation," the full results "reveal a working class that remains committed to economic fairness."

"The second Trump term has combined authoritarian populist rhetoric with a slash-and-smash approach to the federal government that threatens to undermine democracy as we know it."

The report explicitly characterizes its findings as a potential way forward for Democrats seeking direction in the aftermath of their crushing loss to Trump and Republicans in last year's election, during which the Democratic Party continued to shed working-class support.

"Our findings suggest that the Democratic Party would be wise to capitalize on the working class' strong preference for policies that are economically egalitarian—particularly predistributive policies that involve strengthening worker rights and leverage as well as existing universal social insurance and healthcare programs—while deemphasizing potentially divisive social policies," the analysis states. "Several of the economic policies we analyzed here, such as those concerning increased job security, wages, and worker power, would make a strong foundation for a successful campaign."

Such an approach could even win over some working-class Trump voters, the report suggests.

"We found that a substantial proportion of working-class respondents who voted for Trump in 2020 held favorable views of progressive economic policies like a higher minimum wage (38%), increased Social Security spending (59%), increased public
school spending (50%), a tax on millionaires (39%), and more," the report states.

"While these economically progressive Trump voters hardly amount to a MAGA majority," it continues, "they represent a meaningful slice of the electorate (around 5%) that could easily tip elections in key working-class-heavy swing states."

The report comes as Trump's approval rating slides and his Republican Party plows ahead with a deeply unpopular agenda that includes tax breaks for the ultra-rich and massive cuts to Medicaid, federal nutrition assistance, and other key programs—presenting an opening for Democrats to embrace the kind of progressive economic populism bolstered by the new research.

"The stakes couldn't be much higher," the report says. "The second Trump term has combined authoritarian populist rhetoric with a slash-and-smash approach to the federal government that threatens to undermine democracy as we know it and can only result in a greater concentration of wealth at the top and a hollowed-out state incapable of solving our biggest national problems."