How working-class voters of color can seize the midterms for Democrats

On Aug. 2, I watched as a majority of voters in the county where I grew up (Seward County) in rural Kansas — a county that went for Trump by 29 points in 2020 — voted against the proposed constitutional amendment that would allow for an abortion ban. Statewide, voters rejected the ban by a stunning double-digit margin.

I am part of a new generation of Latina leaders in Democratic politics, and there’s buzz in progressive circles about that vote in Kansas. It boosted optimism for the 2022 election, with good reason — if we understand the right lessons.

Working people are the ones who decide who holds power in this country. While more than 9 in 10 members of Congress may have a college degree, that’s not at all representative of our country as a whole. Voters without a college degree make up 65 percent of voters nationwide and a whopping 70 percent in rural areas. The existential challenge facing Democrats is that we’ve been losing strength with those voters across race and geography. 

Between 2012 and 2020, support for Democrats dropped by about 20 points among working-class voters and 18 points among working-class voters of color. How can Democrats reverse this trend? The Kansas abortion vote and a major research project I have helped lead for more than a year called the Winning Jobs Narrative Project help point the way. 

I don’t have to look any further than my own working-class Latino family to see Democrats’ challenges. My dad worked as a janitor in a hospital, a meatpacker, and dozens of other backbreaking jobs in between, and my mom sometimes worked multiple jobs at once to provide for our family while also holding down everything at home; through it all, they understood the importance and value of hard work, but didn’t feel either political party spoke to them as of late. They’re the kind of voters who should be solidly in the Democratic base, but who Democrats have struggled to turn out.

They struggle to see their values or priorities reflected in either political party. They reject the extremism of “MAGA” Republicans and the right’s obsession with tax cuts for the ultra-rich at our expense. They feel like Democrats look out for the poor and, while they’re not angry about that, they do wonder who is looking out for working people in the middle.

When voters feel like their hard work and priorities are overlooked, they’re less motivated to vote at all. With increasingly close elections, persuasion and motivation are equally important. Lack of motivation can cut Democrats’ margins more than vote switching, preventing us from expanding our base in places like rural Kansas — putting long-term electoral success even more out of reach.

That’s why we pursued the Winning Jobs Narrative Project: to explore why Democrats have been losing ground with working-class voters focused on jobs and the economy, which voters consistently say is their top issue. It’s a deep dive into 20 years of past research and expansive new research, including over 63,000 new conversations with and survey responses from voters across the country.

We saw voters across backgrounds and locations say the same things I’ve heard from my own rural Latino family. These voters reported that being hardworking is core to their identity. They value personal autonomy, responsibility and contribution, and they see work as closely connected to those values. Work is how they are able to build a good life for themselves and their families.

And they want political leaders to value and respect that hard work and focus on the things that are central to their well-being. They don’t expect anything to be given to them and don’t want a politician or our government to rescue them. What they do expect is a solid foundation and the tools and opportunities they need to build a good life for their families and contribute to their communities. 

Most people we talked to rejected Republicans’ “trickle down” vision of the economy, centered on tax cuts for the ultra-rich. Rather, they see working people as the engines of the economy and would prefer that billionaires and wealthy corporations pay their fair share so that we can invest in the foundational things that people need to build their own lives — like lower costs, critical infrastructure, and good-paying jobs. 

Most of all, they want their leaders to see them, understand them and respect their hard work and their autonomy.

After a year of listening to working-class voters across the country, I see familiar themes and lessons in the campaign that led to the groundbreaking Kansas vote. 

First, we must stop making false distinctions between “cultural,” “social” and “economic” issues. “Economic” issues are also about society, culture and identity. Safe access to abortion and the freedom to make that decision for oneself is central to every aspect of our lives — personally, socially, culturally and yes, economically.

Second, focusing on the issues and core values central to working people’s lives is incredibly potent. When we do that, we win.

Third, it can’t just be about messaging; it has to be about the right kind of investment, too. 

Much has been said about recent shifts in Latino voter turnout. Republicans are targeting Latinos with an economic message that touts promises of prosperity, while conveniently leaving out how their version of the American Dream relies on the exploitation of the hard-working people they claim to value. Some were shocked by the consecutive Democratic losses in Florida, but the 23-point shift in support of Republicans in Miami-Dade stands out as an example of the power of investment.

Republicans were on the ground and the airwaves in Miami in 2016. And rather than convincing a huge swath of longtime Democratic voters to switch their allegiances, they reached out to and motivated new voters to turn out and vote for former President Donald Trump. The key here is that they never left. Republicans had a consistent presence talking to voters about economic issues ever since.

Democrats can reverse the trend by communicating an economic vision that respects hard work. They’re already delivering wins for working people across the country, like the Inflation Reduction Act and student debt modification. But we have to match these policies with an investment in carrying a values-based economic message that centers on working people as our heroes. 

The question of investing in communicating to our base to boost turnout or using persuasion to win over voters like my family is a false choice. For the long-term health of our democracy and our economy, we have to be able to do both.   

And we have to do it ahorita — right now.

Melissa Morales is the founder and executive director of Somos PAC and research lead for the Winning Jobs Narrative Project.