'Kitchen-table policies': How Dems can steal this voting bloc back from the GOP

01 January

One of the groups of voters Democrats lost in the 2024 presidential election to Republicans, are union workers.

The Atlantic's Annie Lowrey explains in a report published this week by The Atlantic what the party can do redeem themselves in 2028.

Lowrey suggests, "The Democrats have more liberal economic policies than the GOP: They support higher taxes on the wealthy and more progressive spending. But this is not the same thing as being pro-worker. And the party has shed voters as it has become more corporatist, pro-globalization, and cosmopolitan."

She notes that on one hand, "The [President Joe] Biden administration increased tariffs on foreign steel and spent hundreds of billions on heavy infrastructure. It supported union drives, stocked the National Labor Relations Board with worker-friendly lawyers, banned noncompete clauses, expanded eligibility for overtime, cracked down on union busting, and extended protections for civil servants. Biden was the first president in history to walk a picket line."

On the other, Lowrey adds, "Donald Trump has supported 'right to work' laws, attempted to gut federal worker protections, and named union busters to lead the Department of Labor and the NLRB. He has also supported firing workers on strike, stiffed contractors for his campaigns and businesses, described American wages as “too high,” and bragged that he denied his own workers overtime pay."

Still, Richard Tikey — a steel worker who's been a union member in Pennsylvania for 26 years — told Lowrey last month, "Every time we have a Republican in office, things are better." So, he voted for Trump.

However, Lowrey notes, "History suggests" that Democrats can win workers like Tikey back.

"If past trends hold, the party will pick up five or more points in the midterms without doing anything," she writes. "The Republicans will start passing policies and instantly become less popular in the eyes of voters, left and right. And in the next presidential campaign, the Democrats will benefit from being able to run unencumbered by incumbency, against Trumpism, if not Trump himself."

Even with that hope in mind, Lowrey emphasizes, "pollsters and political scientists told me, the party needs to change. The 'Brahmin left' —meaning the educated elite that now makes up the Democratic Party’s base—is not a big enough bloc to defeat Republicans going forward. Democrats have to get back at least some members of the middle class, the working poor, and the unions."

The Atlantic writer concludes, "In terms of kitchen-table policies, well, the Democrats need to have some. Just a few. Big ones. Popular ones that are easy to understand. A bill that caps the price of all prescription drugs at $25 a month, say, rather than a 19-point policy white paper."

Lowrey's report is available here (subscription required).

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