What 2024 Non-Voters Told Us About Why They Didn’t Vote – and What Democrats Can Do to Win Them Back
In focus groups specifically with working class voters who didn’t vote in 2024, we heard disaffection and defiance – and belief that government and politicians have stopped working for them.
We’re back this week with another update from the largest research effort to understand why working class voters are trending away from Democrats.
We know it’s the middle of summer, and you’ve been reading our Substack posts for months now. We appreciate you being a loyal subscriber, and we’re going to take a few weeks off from hitting your inbox the rest of August. We’ll be back in September with new findings and research.
But first – this week, we want to share some unique insights from focus groups we’ve conducted specifically with working class Americans who did not vote in 2024.
In these groups, we’ve heard the strongest expressions yet of being disaffected by and defiant of the current political status quo. These are individuals who care a lot about their communities, and really want to see progress in their daily lives (especially economically) – but feel completely left out and left behind by the system and by politicians they don’t believe will fight and deliver for them.
These working class Americans are folks that Democrats ought to be earning support from (and in many instances, used to vote for Democrats). But they aren’t. And while their disgust with the status quo hurt Democrats in 2024, there are signs this could shift in 2026 and 2028. They don’t really like what they’re seeing from Trump, like on his spending priorities or tariffs, but they need to see an authentic and believable alternative.
Listening to their views, in their own words, can help us better understand how Democrats could win them back.
WHY DIDN’T THEY VOTE IN 2024?
These focus group participants were deeply disaffected by the status quo of government and politics. They expressed strong beliefs that the system is broken and that politicians play games to try to earn votes, instead of delivering results that help regular people’s lives.
Just listen to what some participants in a Colorado Hispanic focus group this spring had to say.
You can hear how disaffected by politics and politicians they are.
As one man succinctly put it: “I think our system is completely and utterly broken, and I have nothing positive to say about it.”
For another woman, it was how no politicians had ever seemed to deliver for her economically: “The same thing over and over, promises made really not kept. No real change.”
A second woman couldn’t support the Democrats because of what she saw as inauthenticity, specifically citing contradictions between pronouncements that America should be a strong, clear, moral global leader and a failure to speak out forcefully enough about the situation in Gaza: “If they are saying that they care about the people, if they're saying that they want to help, that they want to be a strong leader in the world, and then they do the opposite, then I can't vouch for them. Either take a strong stance on something or don't don't contradict yourself.”
In all these comments, there’s an overriding sense that the status quo has failed them, that politicians are phony and put their own political interests above the people’s, and that – no matter who they vote for – they have little expectation that their vote will make a difference to their daily lived experience.
Despite this defiance of our political status quo, they did share candid views of what could change their minds and get them to vote again.
WHAT DO THEY WANT TO SEE FROM OUR POLITICS AND POLITICIANS?
Despite their defiance and disaffection, many of the non-voters we heard from wanted politicians to more squarely focus on getting more money into their pockets. They consistently said this was something that could get them to support a Democrat or other politician.
In Colorado this spring, one woman stressed how important it would be for politicians to raise wages or cut taxes for the working class.
In July, another focus group of Black non-voters in Ohio expressed the same thing – naming raising wages and more income as their priority.
One man’s comments indicate that some working class people who didn’t vote in 2024 may sour on economic actions by President Trump and Republicans in Congress, giving Democrats an opportunity. For example, he pointed to the recent budget bill that exponentially increased funding for ICE to express frustration that that money could be better used to help working Americans economically.
But to really seize the moment to regain support from these working class non-voters, Democrats have to understand that these Americans aren’t inclined to trust them to fix these problems – because they feel like the Democratic Party has been good at promising them economic improvements in their lives, but they aren’t seeing and feeling them.
DEMOCRATS NEED TO OVERCOME PERCEPTIONS OF INEFFECTIVENESS AND INAUTHENTICITY
Back in Colorado, one woman summed up something we’ve heard from both 2024 non-voters and those in other focus groups who backed Trump after previously supporting Democrats: Democrats need to actually deliver on the economic ideas they promise during campaign season.
And there is a direct connection between these Americans’ perception of effectiveness and authenticity. As another woman put it: “If I don't see a correlation between what you have done in your political career and what you're asking, I'm not going to believe you.”
One man in Colorado similarly argued that Democrats need to be authentic and stick to their beliefs, instead of chasing political winds.
Many of the working class people who didn’t vote in 2024 have the same issues with politics and politicians that we’ve heard in other focus groups so far. But their distaste for politicians and the system is often more intense, using words like “corrupt” to describe Democrats as well as Republicans, and feeling that no one is actually going to make a positive difference in their lives.
It was striking how many of these voters named higher wages as one thing politicians could deliver that may change their mind. Democrats would be wise to make a higher minimum wage and lower working class taxes central to their economic plans going forward – but they cannot turn a blind eye to the harsh reality that most working class voters may not trust they would get it done. They’ll have to communicate these economic ideas with focus and intensity, but also make sure to actually follow through on what they say.
Unfortunately the Democratic leadership when in power constantly gaslights the working class. There is now a huge, historic opportunity to reach the people who in desperation placed their hopes in Trump, and are now disillusioned. But there is such a huge credibility gap, even on the far left of the Democratic Party, that it’s difficult to see how the voters will ever trust them again. It may need rapid advances by the DSA to finally bring the Democratic Party to its senses so it finally cuts the ties to its donor class and purges itself of corruption. Even then - turkeys don’t vote for Christmas.
We need higher taxes on the ultra-wealthy and large corporations, we need social service programs that benefit everyone and not only a select group, we need an increase in wages across the board where one person working 36 hours can meet their needs and put away some savings for the future, we need government to stop allowing corporations to have a bigger seat at the table and increasing costs for the working class to only line their pockets more, etc. and we need democrats that have the teeth and spine to do these things. There is too much money from special interest groups that are allowed to basically buy elections and then force policies that don't help the people, but only the rich.