Mindy Isser has a clarifying read in her “If You Want to Win Working-Class Votes, Run On Working-Class Issues. A new report lays out how to bridge the educational divide to bring non-college voters into the progressive fold” at In Thee Times. As Isser writes, “If the Left is serious about winning elections across the country, working-class voters must be at the center of this project. And yet, too many campaigns don’t make these voters’ priorities their focus. In a new report from The Center for Working Class Politics (where I am a research associate), scholars Joan Williams and Jared Abbot analyze the results of a recent Class Gaps Poll, which compares the political attitudes of working-class people with those of liberal upper-middle-class voters, who, like it or not, have steered the modern progressive movement and its agenda…While the definition of working-class has been debated since Karl Marx himself began writing about it back in the mid nineteenth century, for the purposes of their report, titled ​“The Left’s Coalition Crisis: Understanding the Massive Divide Between Working Class and College Educated Voters, and How to Bridge it,” Williams and Abbott define the working-class as non-college educated, middle income workers (with incomes ranging between $40,000-$100,000 per year), and the liberal upper-middle-class as Democratic-leaning college graduates with a household income in the top 25%. Williams and Abbott found that ​“precarity, not poverty, drives far-right populism,” and focused their study on working-class voters who ​“are playing by the rules – budgeting responsibly, providing for their children’s futures, paying their taxes, giving back to their communities. But they’re losing ground in a rigged economy and corrupt political process.”…This failure to secure the American Dream despite doing everything ​“right” has caused resentment towards ​“elites,” which, for some, may include college graduates with different political priorities. While many college graduates are downwardly mobile and would describe themselves as working-class, they are culturally distinct from the non-college-educated working class — and their political focuses differ, too…” More here.

In “Sherrod Brown bets again on working-class voters” Harri Leigh writes at Spectrumnews1: “Out of office but back on the campaign trail, former Sen. Sherrod Brown is maintaining his decades-long focus on the working-class, betting voters will give him a different answer than they did two years ago, when Brown lost to Republican Sen. Bernie Moreno…Brown spent his entire career building a political brand around the working class and workers’ rights. In his four previous Senate campaigns, Brown’s “dignity of work” message helped him secure the endorsements of dozens of labor unions…Unions represented 11.6% of Ohio’s workforce in 2025, according to data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics. However, the power of endorsements has not necessarily aligned with the voting behavior of union rank-and-file…Historically, union members have tended to align with the Democratic Party. In recent elections, union members have still favored Democrats, but by a much smaller margin. For example, Barack Obama won 66% of Ohio’s union vote in 2012, according to exit polls, while Kamala Harris won 51% of Ohio’s union vote in 2024…That smaller margin of union support contributed to Brown’s 2024 loss to Moreno. That year, 55% of union members voted for Brown, according to exit polls….“I think workers, overwhelmingly union and non-union workers alike, know the system is rigged. They know that they’re working harder than ever. They’re more productive than ever. Corporate CEOs are getting bigger bonuses, making more profits, doing more stock buybacks,” Brown said. “People, regardless of whether they carry a union card, whether at this church, whether they work on a farm or own a small farm, they know overwhelmingly the system is rigged against them.”…Ohio Democrats are also hoping the same message will land better this year amid a pessimistic national mood…A Pew Research poll from July 23 found 76% of Americans rate the economy negatively, and 60% said President Donald Trump’s policies have worsened economic conditions.” More here.

“Two-thirds of college students likely to vote in midterms amid economic motivations, CIRCLE study finds” by Eli Brigham at The Tufts Daily sheds some light on the intentions of educated young voters: As Bigham explains, “A Tufts Center for Information & Research on Civic Learning and Engagement survey conducted last semester in anticipation of the 2026 midterm elections found that college students are largely likely to vote, shifting leftward and focusing on the cost of living…Researchers conducted the 30-question survey with 5,549 adults aged 18 to 29 with oversamples of Black and Latino Gen-Z adults, allowing researchers to draw more informed conclusions about diverse populations according Alberto Medina, CIRCLE’s Communications Manager and one of the survey’s authors…The survey found differing concerns and political ideology across demographic groups, with white men most likely to have shifted conservative, while other demographic groups like Asian American and Pacific Islander men and white women were most likely to have shifted progressive…Overall, 35% of college students reported shifting left, while just 14% said they shifted rightward. Junior David Seaton, executive vice president of the College Democrats of America, attributed this purported shift to a lack of action from party leaders.” More here.

“Can blue-collar Democrats win back blue-collar voters?” by Ron Brownstein at Bloomberg Opinion probes for answers to a question that will be answered on November 3rd. As Brownstein writes, “November’s election will test whether Democrats can address one of their greatest electoral challenges — winning over more working-class voters — by nominating more working-class candidates. Improving among voters without a four-year college degree is crucial to expanding Democrats’ prospects this year and beyond. Working-class white voters represent an outsized share of eligible voters in about two-thirds of the House seats, and most of the Senate seats, that Democrats hope to flip…The “blue-collar brigade,” as the candidates on the text chain call themselves, includes Forstag, who works as a smoke jumper fighting wildfires and is now running for an open House seat in western Montana. Bob Brooks, who is looking to unseat a first-term Republican in northeast Pennsylvania, worked for 20 years as a firefighter before becoming a union official…Their common conviction, Forstag said in a recent interview, is that the best way to recover ground among working-class voters who have moved away from the party, especially in the President Donald Trump era, “is by running people from the groups we just lost who can speak to the problems of the people in them.”…Legislators with working-class backgrounds have always been “extremely rare,” usually not more than 2% of the total in the House and Senate, says Nicholas Carnes, a Duke University political scientist. Vastly more representatives and senators emerge from backgrounds in law, business or banking, according to the Brookings Institution’s Vital Statistics on Congress…” More here.