To Confront Trump and the Climate Crisis, Democrats Must Stand Up for Working People

The Democratic Party is at a crossroads. To defeat Trump and those who back him, the Democratic Party must change course and fight for working-class people. With the climate crisis bearing down, this task is incredibly urgent and important. The cost of failure is planetary catastrophe.

For the first time in years, Democrats won with voters who made over $100,000 and lost those making less than that. The Republican Party made huge gains among working-class people of color and those without a college degree. Youth turnout dropped eight points from 2020. Harris won only 54% of the youth vote and was the first Democratic nominee since 2004 not to win young voters by at least 60%.

The Democratic Party urgently needs to take the right lessons away from this election, or they risk handing elections to Trump-like candidates for years to come, and burning away any chance of stopping catastrophic climate change. In the first days after the election, I had a lot of hope this would be a turning point when the Democratic Party shifted to embrace populist, people-centered policies that took on corporate power and addressed voters’ economic pain. News coverage focused on how swing voters didn’t trust Democrats on the economy and how Senate candidates like Ruben Gallego and Sherrod Brown who ran on an anti-corporate message outperformed Harris. Mainstream politicians like Connecticut Senator Chris Murphy were echoing this argument.

The Democratic Party must loudly and vocally fight for populist, people-centered policies and take on corporate power in our democracy.

But, then the spin from corporate consultants and pundits began. They have flooded the opinion pages and podcasts with a medley of reasons why Democrats lost the election. They have argued that “woke politics” and groups like Sunrise pushed Democrats too far left on social issues. They have argued that the campaign was poorly run, or that Biden should have dropped sooner. Conveniently, this analysis often leaves out the economy and doesn’t challenge the corporate donors that bankroll many of the candidates and consultants.

This is an incredibly dangerous interpretation that misses the forest for the trees. If Democrats’ takeaway is: “be less woke,” they will continue to fracture their coalition and set the GOP on the path to electoral majorities for years to come.

For the sake of our democracy and our planet, Democrats must tackle the underlying reasons they are losing working-class voters, young voters, and voters of color. They need to proudly take on corporate interests and fight for an economy and politics that works for all of us.

That starts with listening to what voters are saying. This year, Sunrise made over four million voter contacts. Again and again, we heard young people saying they were struggling to afford groceries and rent, anxious about job prospects, and grappling with the economic uncertainty that has made the American Dream feel out of reach.

In 2024, simply being "Not Trump" wasn't enough to win, especially among young voters. If you turned 18 this year, you were just 9 years old when Trump first descended the golden escalator to launch his campaign. Trump in politics is all they know. So, Harris’ closing message of “I’m not Trump” didn’t hold up against Trump’s message about remaking the economy and upending business as usual.

Seeing this, we dug in with people, talking about the Inflation Reduction Act and capping of insulin prices. We pointed out Trump’s allegiance to his fellow billionaires. But, those conversations often only got so far — people didn’t trust that Democrats actually understood their struggles. They had seen Biden and Harris on TV for years celebrating how the economy was good, but that wasn’t how it felt to them in the day-to-day. If people don’t feel understood and respected by a political party, it’s hard to get them to believe that party will actually do something to help them.

For the sake of our democracy and our planet, Democrats must tackle the underlying reasons they are losing working-class voters, young voters, and voters of color. They need to proudly take on corporate interests and fight for an economy and politics that works for all of us.

Trump, on the other hand, hardly went a minute without talking about how prices were rising and the economy wasn’t fair. He managed to convince people he understood their pain and would act on it — despite being a billionaire championing regressive economic policies.

This isn’t to say that social issues were irrelevant in this election. However, Harris’ inability to gain the trust of voters on the economy made these attacks from the right more potent. When people can't afford rent or food, they look for people to blame. Trump and far-right politicians have told people to blame immigrants or trans people or people of color. That was a core part of Trump's closing message: “Kamala Harris is for they/them. Trump is for you.” Pundits are spending a lot of time talking about the first half and missing the 2nd half. If Democrats can’t convince working-class voters and young voters that they will fight for them, it’s going to continue to be hard to fight back against these attacks.

The Democratic Party must loudly and vocally fight for populist, people-centered policies and take on corporate power in our democracy. It’s the way to win back the trust of young voters, working-class voters, and disillusioned voters. And it’s the best defense against the divide-and-conquer strategy of the populist right. That means backing policies like Medicare for All, creating green union jobs, and raising the minimum wage. And, it means challenging Trump for the populist mantle by pledging to shake up the status quo and make it work better for everyday people.