If President Biden delivers on his promise to bring a new era of jobs and prosperity to blue-collar America, it could be a game changer with working-class voters in the U.S. and beyond.
The Democrats may hold the presidency and, narrowly, the Senate, but their declining vote share among working-class voters and places means they face a much narrower path to victory. Combined with their falling support among Hispanic voters, and an electorate not confident that the country is on the right path, the Democrats face significant challenges ahead of the 2024 presidential election.
Looking across the Atlantic provides some painful lessons in what happens when center-left parties overlook their working-class base. Working-class voters began to pull away from the British Labour Party during the New Labour government years. But it wasn’t until the arrival of Boris Johnson’s brand of Conservatives in 2019 that Labour lost working-class voters and constituencies in historic numbers. That delivered the Conservatives an 80-seat majority in the House of Commons, and for Labour, its worst defeat since 1935.
