In 2016 and 2024, working-class voters played a crucial role in Donald Trump's victories over Democrats. Trump, both years, successfully convinced many voters that Democrats were out of touch with blue-collar Americans. But according to Politico reporters Erin Doherty and Anna Wiederkehr, both of the United States' two major political parties have a big problem with working-class voters in the 2026 midterms — which are a little over two months away.
Doherty and Wiederkehr stress that although "Republicans and Democrats are fighting over working-class voters," Americans "don't believe the rhetoric" — and a poll conducted by Politico in August underscores that distrust.
"Republicans and Democrats are fighting over working-class voters," the Politico journalists explains. "Americans don't believe the rhetoric. Fifty-five percent of Americans think politicians are just trying to win votes when they say they will help the working class, according to new results from The Politico Poll. It's a view held by majorities of people who voted for President Donald Trump, who voted for Kamala Harris and who self-identify as working class. Only one in four Americans who self-identify as working-class say politicians genuinely want to help them."
Doherty and Wiederkehr add, "That wariness comes as both parties increasingly see working-class voters as key to their winning coalitions. But The Politico Poll results show both parties face serious challenges to doing so. Neither party does particularly well with Americans who identify as working class: 38 percent of them say Democrats best represent them, while 32 percent say Republicans. Americans, broadly, are almost identically split, with a 37 percent plurality saying Democrats best represent the interests of the working class, while 30 percent say Republicans."
Democrats, according to Doherty and Wiederkehr, are "wrestling with how to win back voters who have drifted toward the GOP" — and are debating "which wing of the party, progressives or moderates, best speaks to" working-class voters.
Jim Kessler, executive vice president for policy at Third Way (a centrist Democratic think tank), told Politico, "We've struggled with the working class for quite a while and it's been a combination of being out of touch with working-class values on a lot of culture issues and being seen as either not helpful or not helpful enough on economic issues."
But Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vermont) is doubling down on his progressive message.
Sanders told Politico, "It is not just traditional Democrats or independents. There are a lot of working-class Republicans who understand that there's something wrong when we are the only major nation on Earth not to guarantee health care to all people."
Meanwhile, conservative former Rep. Jim Renacci (R-Ohio) acknowledges that Trump, ahead of the midterms, has a problem with working-class voters.
Renacci told Politico, "With the (Iran) war, with gas prices, with cost of food, the working class is not happy with the president, and many who are independents and even some Republicans have said that he's forgotten about them."
