PPI - Radically Pragmatic
  • Donate
Skip to content
  • Home
  • About
    • About Us
    • Locations
    • Careers
  • People
  • Projects
  • Our Work
  • Events
  • Donate

Our Work

Marshall Interview in LabourList: ‘Trump’s riding a working-class revolt’: Where should the Democrats go next?

  • January 20, 2025
  • Will Marshall

LabourList sat down with Will Marshall, president and founder of PPI, a US-based think tank once known as Bill Clinton’s “idea mill”. He said the continued erosion of the Democrats’ core voters, particularly among Black and Latino voters, was “disconcerting”.

He said: “What we have is a kind of general picture of a class-based politics, in which the Democrats increasingly represent upscale, affluent, college-educated voters, and the Republicans increasingly represent a kind of multi-ethnic working class. It looks like Trump is riding a working-class revolt against the political establishment.”

While Marshall said Democrats remained disoriented by the scale of their defeat to Donald Trump, he said there is consensus around some points as to why they lost in November.

“Cultural politics based on gender, immigration and crime were really damaging. They were major Democratic vulnerabilities for Kamala Harris and Joe Biden.

“We need to find a centre ground on many of these fraught cultural issues.”

Continue reading in LabourList.

Related Work

Op-Ed  |  July 3, 2026

Marshall for The Hill: Democrats Stand for Liberalism, Not Socialism

  • Will Marshall
Press Release  |  July 1, 2026

Democrats Should Learn From Colorado’s 20-Plus-Year Winning Streak, Not One Victory in Deep-Blue Denver

  • Will Marshall
In the News  |  June 24, 2026

PPI in News from the States: Get Ready for the Semiquincentennial: Americans Celebrate a 250th Anniversary

  • Richard D. Kahlenberg
Op-Ed  |  June 19, 2026

Marshall for The Hill: Trump’s Reign of Grift and Graft is Without Parallel

  • Will Marshall
In the News  |  June 16, 2026

Marshall and Kahlenberg in The New York Times: These are the Voters Who Can Keep Democrats From Going Off the Rails

  • Will Marshall Richard D. Kahlenberg
Op-Ed  |  June 15, 2026

Kahlenberg and Lin for Chronicle of Higher Education: Report’s Method Was Not a ‘Word Search’

  • Richard D. Kahlenberg Lief Lin
  • Never miss an update:

  • Subscribe to our newsletter
PPI Logo
  • Twitter
  • LinkedIn
  • Facebook
  • Donate
  • Careers
  • © 2026 Progressive Policy Institute. All Rights Reserved.
  • |
  • Privacy Policy
  • |
  • Privacy Settings