Launching the Biggest Project in the Democratic Party to Listen to the Working Class – and Win Them Back

We have a long hill to climb. The Working Class Project will be the go-to resource for how to do it.

It’s been a long few months.

Donald Trump’s victory in November was decisive. By winning the popular vote and making gains in nearly 90% of counties, Trump’s coalition shattered expectations. And three months into his presidency, it’s clear that elections do indeed have consequences.

Trump first empowered an unelected billionaire to break the federal government, with Elon Musk’s DOGE shutting off key services and canceling programs that communities rely on. We’ve abandoned allies to curry favor with enemies. The rule of law is breaking down, from his pardoning of January 6th rioters to major law firms and businesses bending a knee to prevent business interference from Trump himself.

Trump’s tariffs are also resulting in the largest working class tax increase in modern American history, with prices rising on everything from clothes to cars and groceries to gas. It’s spiraling into a massive man-made economic crisis. And he and his Republican majorities in Congress appear dead set on giving massive tax cuts to the rich at the expense of working families. The kitchen-table economic and cost-cutting promises of his campaign have not trickled down to his governing priority list. In fact, he’s doing the opposite.

Despite this political gift, Democrats have mostly remained shell-shocked, struggling to find our footing in the opposition wilderness. There have been glimmers of hope, from the Supreme Court victory in Wisconsin to millions of Americans from big cities to small towns across the country taking to the streets to make their voices heard. But we shouldn’t be deluded to believe those events are a sign of good health. On the whole, we’re still trying to work our way out of a wet paper bag.

Below I’ll tell you about a new project I’m leading with American Bridge 21st Century to conduct the biggest investment in listening to the working class this year in the Democratic Party. But first, we have to take a look at why we are where we are.

How did we get here?

Many have asked, “How did we get here?” One could look at the dynamics of the 2024 election in isolation – a late candidate shakeup, a 70% wrong track electorate and higher inflation — to note that our challenges in 2025, 2026 and 2028 will be different.

But the numbers show something much more serious underneath it all.

Exit polling suggests Trump drew significant new support from voters making less than $100,000 per year, with the sharpest shift among those earning under $50,000. For the first time since the 1960s, a majority of Americans in the lowest-income bracket voted Republican. This change spanned racial and ethnic lines. Since President Obama was first elected in 2008, Democrats have seen over 25% in net loss of support among working class voters. In other words, for two decades, Democrats have been on a downward slide among the very voters whose interests we champion and who benefit most from our policies.

Post-election polling by Navigator Research on the Democratic brand found that 58 percent of Americans believe the party “prioritizes other groups of people that don't include me.” Our Democratic brand was also seen as too elite and coastal. This election ran a freight train through the idea that demographics alone will determine our political destiny.

Population shifts could exacerbate our electoral disadvantages, with consistent Republican states set to gain electoral votes and congressional districts following 2030 redistricting, with most of the growth this decade occurring in the South (Texas and Florida, in particular). These gains come at the expense of places that have been reliably Democratic.

We have a math problem, plain and simple.

The political question before us – beyond the basics of whether our very democracy will remain intact – is whether this electoral victory was an aberration or the start of a larger political realignment. Democrats have to act urgently to find our pathway back.

We cannot win consistently without making gains with working class voters. We cannot win without making gains with men. And without a plan for competing and winning in the South and the Heartland, a Democratic governing coalition may cease to exist.

Listening: A key next step to winning back the working class

As a Democrat who twice won statewide convincingly in a conservative state, I believe the solution to our challenges lies outside Washington. But diagnosing the problem is one thing; crafting a prescription requires listening. I’m certain the only way we’ll find a pathway forward with working class voters is if we talk to people and go meet them in their communities. That is why I have joined with American Bridge 21st Century to conduct the largest set of research and investment in the Democratic Party this year to identify what working class voters want and need.

We began The Working Class Project in February, soon after Trump took office. Today we will start sharing our findings across the party and with the public as we continue to listen to these voters over the coming months.

We have embarked on the most extensive set of qualitative and quantitative research to understand (1) what happened, (2) how and why, and (3) how we build a more sustainable majority in the future, starting in the 2025 and 2026 election cycles.

Our research design includes:

• Dozens of focus groups with self-identified “working class” voters, with different makeups organized by age, gender, race, and language across nearly two dozen states;

• Roundtables and in-depth interviews with labor, faith and other local leaders in key areas;

• Specific research of young white, Black, Latino and AAPI men who voted for Trump the first time in 2024;

• Extensive study of working class voters’ media consumption habits, contactability, and audience mapping; and,

• Qualitative and quantitative longitudinal research from a panel of working class individuals across the country to monitor shifts in behavior over time over the course of the Trump presidency, reacting to major current events on tariffs, taxes, immigration, and other issues.

With this deep listening to working class voters across 21 states, we’ll identify messages, messengers and new mediums to rebuild the Democratic brand and write a blueprint for victory that we’ll deploy using every tool in our toolbox.

Our 21 states include the seven 2016-2024 presidential battlegrounds, seven defense states where we must protect our narrowing margins, and seven growth states where we must compete in down-ballot, state and federal elections to be competitive longer-term.

We have completed focus groups in about 10 states thus far, and the early results confirm we have a long hill to climb.

Starting next week, our team and I will send regular updates on our research, along with resources for the field. We’ll share things like:

• How working class voters feel about the Democratic and Republican parties and top leaders from both;

• Vulnerabilities for Republicans on tariffs, Medicaid cuts, Elon Musk and more;

• Reaching working class voters in the media;

• Messages and messengers that seem credible or believable.

And more.

The first step is recognizing we have a problem. The harder work lies in developing a solution, which is why this listening is so important. We are not claiming to have all the answers. But I am confident we can help find a pathway forward.

And I want to be clear: we’re not going to like everything we hear. But The Working Class Project isn’t going to hold back.

We think it’s important to be honest about our weaknesses. We think we have to properly diagnose the illness before we can begin treatment. And that means telling it like it is about what we’re hearing, even when it’s unpleasant.

Despite the tall task ahead, I believe Americans share more in common than we realize: love for family, country, and a desire for our kids to have a better life than we did, something that feels out of reach for too many right now. That the American Dream feels unattainable for too many is unacceptable.

If the Democratic Party wants to win back power, we also have to build a party that more people want to come to and be a part of.

Voters sent a clear message—we must hear it. The future of the Democratic Party, and our country, depends on it.

Please join us along this journey.

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Mitch Landrieu is a co-chair of American Bridge 21st Century. He was a national co-chair of the Harris-Walz campaign, a senior advisor to President Biden overseeing implementation of the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, and a former Mayor of New Orleans and Lieutenant Governor of Louisiana. He is also the founder of E Pluribus Unum.