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Democrats Have a Working-class Voter Problem That Progressives Like Abdul El-Sayed Are Still Struggling to Solve

by Nicholas Jacobs, Goldfarb Family Distinguished Chair in American Government, Colby College; Institute for Humane Studies

Published 2026-08-07 14:35:52+00:00

If a political party changes its values, how does it win back the voters who didn't?

0:00 / 10:57 · Narrator Charon

Context

Progressive politicians keep trying to win back the working class with promises to fight the oligarchy and rebuild the economy. But seventy years of voter surveys, laid out in a 7 August 2026 essay, point to a gap that wage policies cannot fix. The numbers map a slow, decades-long cultural drift between blue-collar voters and the Democrats hoping to represent them. The tension centers on entirely different views of personal effort and whether government institutions actually work. It forces an uncomfortable question about who really abandoned whom.

Show notes

A review of 70 years of polling data tracking the steady split between working-class voters and the Democratic Party. The research measures shifts in public opinion on trade, social values, and trust in government since the 1950s, showing that the divide stems from the party moving left rather than workers moving right. The findings challenge the theory that economic populism alone can rebuild a blue-collar coalition.

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