[[link removed]]

NEW REPORT: WORKING-CLASS SOCIAL AND ECONOMIC ATTITUDES  
[[link removed]]


 

Editors
July 21, 2025
Jacobin
[[link removed]]


*
[[link removed]]
*
[[link removed]]
*
*
[[link removed]]

_ A new study from the Center for Working‑Class Politics and
Jacobin reveals where working-class voters stand on key issues and how
they differ from wealthier Americans. The message: economic populism
must be the core of progressive appeals to workers. _

"Construction workers", by AstridWestvang (CC BY-NC-ND 2.0)

 

The Democrats’ working-class problem is not going away. In fact,
it’s only getting worse — expanding beyond Donald Trump’s base
of working-class whites to now include working-class Latinos and even
a significant share of black men.

Debates rage about how the Left can win back these workers.
Influential pollster and Democratic consultant David Shor and the
prominent liberal think tank Third Way have argued that the working
class is simply more culturally and economically conservative than
other voters. They advocate that the party ought to pivot to the
center to appeal to them. With this in mind, liberal journalists like
Jonathan Chait have argued
[[link removed]] that
progressive economic populism offers no real electoral benefit for
Democrats.

Yet others counter [[link removed]] that
while the working class may hold more conservative views on a variety
of sociocultural issues, they do not hold more conservative economic
views. These advocates argue that economic populism is key to winning
back working-class support.

To adjudicate these claims, a clear accounting of working-class
attitudes is needed — not only for the present but over time. How
have working-class attitudes changed? And critically, how do they
compare to the attitudes of wealthier Americans?

What We Did

To answer these questions, we analyzed 128 public-opinion questions
from three of the most trusted and comprehensive surveys in US
political science: the American National Election Studies (ANES), the
General Social Survey (GSS), and the Cooperative Election Study (CES).
Our data spans from 1960 to 2022, allowing us to track long-term
shifts in working-class attitudes across six issue domains:
immigration, civil rights, social norms, environmental policy, and two
categories of economic policy — predistribution (like wages and job
protections) and redistribution (like taxes and social programs).

To supplement this historical analysis, we dug into the 2020 ANES to
isolate working-class Trump voters and measure how many hold
progressive views on economics and moderate views on culture. The
result: a small but decisive bloc that could swing close elections.

This is one of the most comprehensive empirical portraits of
working-class public opinion available — and challenges conventional
wisdom in both liberal and left circles.

Top Takeaways

* WORKING‑CLASS VOTERS OVERWHELMINGLY SUPPORT A RANGE OF BOLD
PROGRESSIVE ECONOMIC POLICIES.
From raising the minimum wage to protecting Social Security,
working‑class Americans showed broad approval of a wide range of
progressive economic policies.
* WORKING-CLASS VOTERS HOLD MORE PROGRESSIVE VIEWS THAN MIDDLE- AND
UPPER-CLASS VOTERS ON A HOST OF ECONOMIC ISSUES.
Working-class Americans showed stronger support than wealthier
Americans for many predistributive measures like minimum wage hikes
and job protections, and were also more favorable toward
redistributive policies such as expanding Social Security and Medicare
spending — though they express greater skepticism when those
policies were explicitly tied to increased taxation.

[[link removed]]

[[link removed]]

* CULTURAL CONSERVATISM ISN’T A BRICK WALL.
While less progressive than middle- and upper-class Americans,
working‑class views on civil rights, LGBTQ rights, and immigration
have shifted to the left over the past two decades.

[[link removed]]

* THE REAL GAP? MIDDLE- AND UPPER-CLASS VOTERS HAVE MOVED LEFT MORE
QUICKLY THAN WORKING-CLASS VOTERS.
Other voters have rapidly gone progressive on social issues —
creating the impression that working-class voters are more
conservative than they are.

[[link removed]]

* THERE’S AN OPENING WITH SOME TRUMP VOTERS.
Over 10 percent of 2020 Trump voters are working‑class,
economically progressive, and cultural moderates. With the right
messaging and messengers, they are persuadable.

[[link removed]]

You can read the full report here
[[link removed]].

_CONTACT:_

_Authors: [email protected]
[[link removed]]
Press: [email protected]
[[link removed]]_

_Jacobin [[link removed]] is a leading voice of the American
left, offering socialist perspectives on politics, economics, and
culture. The print magazine is released quarterly and reaches 75,000
subscribers, in addition to a web audience of over 3,000,000 a month.
Subscribe [[link removed]] to Jacobin magazine._

* Politics
[[link removed]]
* Left Politics
[[link removed]]
* progressive populism
[[link removed]]

*
[[link removed]]
*
[[link removed]]
*
*
[[link removed]]

 

 

 

INTERPRET THE WORLD AND CHANGE IT

 

 

Submit via web
[[link removed]]

Submit via email
Frequently asked questions
[[link removed]]
Manage subscription
[[link removed]]
Visit xxxxxx.org
[[link removed]]

Twitter [[link removed]]

Facebook [[link removed]]

 




[link removed]

To unsubscribe, click the following link:
[link removed]