That's probably the most urgent reason Democrats lost in November. The party has lost solid support from working-class voters across the country and has no solid sense of how to get them back.
Now, a group of democratic researchers, strategists and operatives are beginning a new effort to communicate with the rest of their party to best deal with concerns before the 2026 election cycle.
The working-class project, led by former Democratic middle governor of Louisiana and former mayor of New Orleans, Mitch Landryu, will provide guidance on how to build a “more sustainable majority” in future elections over the coming months.
Their challenge is difficult. In November 2024, Trump not only brought together the white working class base of voters who first elected him in 2016, but he also supported Trump (nearly one in five), who supported nearly half of Latino voters and the historic share of black voters. The exit vote from November also shows that Trump has won new support from both low- and middle-income voters, especially those who earn less than $50,000 a year, especially those who earn less than $50,000 a year. Last year, for the first time in nearly 60 years, the lowest-earning American voted for the Democratic presidential candidate for the Republican presidential candidate.
Some of this can be explained by pointing out the confluence of factors that made last year's election unique. The incumbent president's historic times and unpopularity, the switch-up of late candidates in the game, high inflation, mal lazy post-pandemic, and the concrete appeal of Trump. However, Landrieu and the working class project hope Democrats will resist these excuses.
“Since President Obama was first elected in 2008, Democrats have seen more than 25% of net losses among working-class voters,” explains Landry in the project's launch announcement. “In other words, for 20 years, Democrats have been sliding downwards among voters we defend and benefit most from our policies.”
What does this effort look like?
Liberal opposition research firms and Super PAC American Bridges, the Working Class Project, housed in the 21st century, focuses primarily on research, voting and focus group works. They focus on reaching and listening to voters in 21 states. It is a seven traditional battlefield state, seven safely democratic states with large stocks of white and non-white working-class voters (which drifted out last year), and seven solid Republican states.
Some of these focus groups have already been implemented – the group began this work in February after Trump took office – and they plan to interview labor, faith and local leaders as well. The group is also planning long-term research, focusing on the few dynamics inherent in the 2024 election, where most parties still seem to be drifting away. That includes following and finding out the motivations of young white, black, Latino, and AAPI men who Trump won, as well as what their media consumption habits look like. They also say they will conduct longitudinal studies of working class people in these states to track their actions over Trump's second period to track their reactions to things like tariffs, taxes, immigration and more.
“With a deep listening to working class voters in 21 states, we will identify messages, messengers and new mediums to rebuild democratic brands and create a winning blueprint that will unfold using all the tools,” the group said.
Of course, their efforts are not the only efforts to identify and resolve party branding, messaging and policy issues on the left. But their framing is a bit different.
Democrats face numbers issues since 2028
The group's memo says they chose these 21 states as they are growing most rapidly in 2030 to get the most out of Congressional redistributaries. They include seven “growth” states where Democrats are no longer competitive across the state. And it's a state where Democrats need to seriously compete if they want to win presidency or hold the Senate after 2030.
It also lies in states that Trump's 2024 interests (if they hold) make it impossible for Democrats to be competitive without regaining more working-class voters. Certainly, Trump himself has already done some of this work for his opposition. His approval rates swayed sharply from him in at least nine of these 21 states, according to estimates of the vote conducted by economist data journalists. And his tariffs, inflation, and the chaotic treatment of the general economy may have contributed to this frustration among his 2024 coalition.
But Democrats need to do more to capitalize on this skepticism with Trump. The 2030 Brennan Center for Justice's reallocation forecast suggests that population losses of solid democratic nations and swing countries will lead to future democratic presidential candidates facing the difficult odds of victory at election colleges after being readjusted to census estimates. From 2030 onwards, the center estimates that “even if Democrats in 2032 carry both the Blue Walled State and Arizona and Nevada, the result is a narrow victory of 276-262 people.”
