The United States has long been ruled by billionaires. In 2020, more than half of all members of Congress were billionaires. almost two-thirds of the Senate. Applies to over 80% Percentage of people who have served as president, adjusted for inflation.
Since 1789, seats in Congress have changed hands tens of thousands of times, with lawyers succeeding lawyers, millionaires succeeding millionaires, and millionaire lawyers succeeding millionaire lawyers. became. However, as Duke University political science professor Nicholas Kearns writes in his 2018 book The Cash Ceiling, “Two former blue-collar workers have never served in the same U.S. House of Representatives consecutively. ”.
Progressives often advocate greater representation of women and minorities in government.But it is rarely recognized working class This is true even though the percentage of women and people of color who run for (and hold) public office far exceeds the percentage of rank-and-file workers who do the same. If working-class members were elected to parliament on a proportional basis, they would hold 60% to 70% of seats, rather than the 2% to 5% that they have historically held.
Unfortunately, it seems unlikely that Democrats will quickly increase the number of working-class members of Congress. A new study I co-authored for the Center on Working Class Politics found that of the 925 Democratic candidates running in the 2022 midterm elections, only blue-collar jobs in manufacturing, construction, and service industries were held. Only 2.3% of them were. to enter politics. If you extend this to pink-collar workers such as elementary and high school teachers, librarians, social workers, and nurses, that percentage increases to just 5.9 percent.
(Don't count on the Republican Party to field more working-class candidates, either. Even as the Republican Party tries to rebrand itself as worker-friendly, it increasingly draws support from the ultra-wealthy.) Several of this year's Republican Senate candidates are millionaires (Jim Justice of West Virginia). )
The lack of representation of the working class is significant. That means that while the wealthy drive the cars, the political, economic and social interests of workers are relegated to the back seat. As CWCP's upcoming research will show, only 18% of Democratic political ads in 2022 mentioned jobs. Less than 2% mentioned the need for good, high-paying living wages and union jobs, and issues like reshoring manufacturing and implementing bold industrial policies were virtually absent.
Even President Biden's own signature economic policies went largely unrecorded. Candidates were 6.5 times more likely to talk about abortion than the Inflation Reduction Act, CHIP legislation, or bipartisan infrastructure legislation. It's no wonder that many working-class voters don't think the Democratic Party represents their interests on the campaign trail.
In 2020, Democrats lost the college-educated and working-class vote by 4 percentage points, and recent polls suggest the budget deficit could worsen in November. Restoring a party's reputation among working-class voters will not be easy, but recruiting working-class candidates to run can be a good first step for three reasons: be.
First, good politics. Democrats need wins in battleground states, especially Michigan, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin, which have a disproportionate share of working-class voters. Our research shows that such voters prefer working-class candidates over those from elite backgrounds. These candidates are more likely to emphasize working-class interests in their campaigns, such as jobs, wages, and large investments in marginalized areas. And our findings show that Democrats can win in key working-class battlegrounds if they deliver a strong pro-worker message.
Second, working-class officials are good policy makers. Compared to elite politicians, politicians from working-class backgrounds are more likely to pursue the kind of progressive economic policies that Biden seeks to support. They can provide a necessary counterweight to the enormous influence that the wealthy have in the halls of power.
Third, working-class candidates are surprisingly well suited to challenge Republicans in their home states. Democrats repeat the cycle, funneling energy and money into their own liberal backyards, home to some of the wealthiest congressional districts in the country. By focusing on improving its scores in safe, affluent blue districts, the party has ignored vast swathes of America's small towns and rural areas, where many working-class voters struggle to make ends meet. Ta. These voters rarely hear political appeals from the left, but there's no reason why working-class Democrats can't go head-to-head with Republicans in Trumpland. Who better to take on hedge fund corporate executives than a working-class candidate?
The good news is that efforts to recruit and run working-class candidates with a pro-labor election message have been successful. The New Jersey chapter of the AFL-CIO has helped develop and run more than 1,000 working-class candidates from city hall to Congress, with an impressive 77% success rate. Democrats should emulate that model if they have any hope of reclaiming democracy from the control of the wealthy.
