Working Class Weekly: An Initial Snapshot of Views of the Republican Party

This is Working Class Weekly -- our weekly post of new research on key topics from The Working Class Project

We’re back this week with another update from the largest research effort underway to understand why working class voters have trended away from Democrats over the past 15 years.

Last week, we shared initial impressions of the Democratic Party from our focus groups and online qualitative research so far. This week, we’re offering up the same about Donald Trump and the Republican Party.

You might be asking yourself: Why is this project, which is supposed to be getting to the bottom of Democrats’ issues with the working class, spending time on Trump and Republicans?

Well, elections are a choice. If we aren’t understanding how these voters view the alternative, how can we fully comprehend how they view us? This knowledge helps offer insight on how working class voters – the key demographic powering the rise of Trump and reshuffling partisan loyalties – have been drawn to Trump and the GOP, while drifting away from Democrats, in order to help us map out exactly where we need to make up ground.

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THE UPSHOT »

1. Working class voters see Trump and Republicans as strong, with a known agenda, while Democrats are seen as weak and ineffective.

2. The Trump/GOP brand is strongly connected to the issue of the economy — and working class voters see Trump/GOP as intensely focused on it, unlike Democrats.

3. Trump is seen as taking decisive action to shake up a broken system.

4. Working class voters identify more with Republicans culturally and see them as less judgmental.

5. The GOP’s biggest vulnerability? Perceptions that they are looking out for the rich.

Here is what we’ve heard:

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WORKING CLASS VOTERS SEE TRUMP AS STRONG AND THEY RESPECT IT

Throughout all our focus groups and surveys so far, we’ve heard working class voters admire Trump’s strength. They often use more colorful language for it … but they respect what they describe as his brash, tell-it-like-it-is, decisive leadership. This gives him some room for error when he does things that make them uneasy, like drastic cuts to government, because they appreciate that he’s trying to shake things up. This lends credence to the sense that he is fighting for them.

“Trump just puts his foot down and whatever he says, it just happens. He just puts his dick on the table and says, ‘Yo, this is what we're doing. That’s what it is.’ I’ve always been a person of action. We have a handful of wars. And I don’t even think I remember hearing Biden’s voice in the last four years, and I voted for Biden to be there. For me, I don’t look at it like Democrat or Republican; I look at it as who is the person who is going to take the lead, and take charge, and head us in the right direction.” – Latino man from New Jersey

“Just the fact he has the balls to do that - to go to war with these other countries – because he’s trying to bring companies and money and all that shit back to us. Just how bold he is – the shit he’s doing the past 100 days.” – Latino man from Nevada, asked what he likes about Trump’s presidency so far

“I like the way he’s just standing up. The image. He’s upkeeping our image. That’s what I would want to see my president look like.” – Black man from Georgia

“I love that President Trump was getting things together before he was inaugurated, so everything was ready to go, and he just jumped on it. Started getting things done. A man of his word. And he’s going on what he ran on, getting things done, especially the border. And so I just love that he’s a go-getter, and it’s all the people working with him are too.” – White woman from New Mexico

“Straight shooter. What I think of the Republican Party now have changed from how I viewed them back in the day… I think the Republican Party, they going to tell you how it is. If you like it, you know, it is what it is. It’s not like the Democrat Party that’s going to sugarcoat something and try to pacify you in some kind of way. When I think Republican Party now, I think they’re raw and uncut. This is how it is, and this is how it’s going to be.”– Latino man from Arizona

This perception of strength carries over into how voters feel about the governing actions of Trump and Republicans. Even on tariffs, where in recent weeks these voters are more frequently expressing trepidation and concern, others have said he was at least trying to reset a harmful and unfair manufacturing and trade imbalance. On this issue and more, they respect Trump for doing what he said he was going to do, unlike other typical politicians.

“Strong, forceful. They are trying to thin our government. They're not afraid to do it, and they're going to do it. So I like that, because there's been a lot of government waste, and the government is not for the people. So I like what they're doing there.” – Hispanic woman from Arizona

“Republicans are tackling the wasteful spending, that should be the biggest priority.” – White man from Michigan

“What I can say is: Trump is doing everything that he said he was going to do. Generally, they stand behind their work. They do what they say they’re gonna do. Democrats, not so much.” – White woman from North Carolina

“I believe [the economy] will be doing better [in a year]. I think this due to the decisions the current president is taking such as removing wasteful spending within government and reallocating those funds, making electricity more efficient and less costly, stopping all wars that will affect our economy due to spending in military funds, among other things.” – 29-year-old Latina woman from Florida

“I am not an economist and don’t have full knowledge of how things work, but as a layman I can see how the things were already heading. I am willing to try this approach out even if it means pain now. I think America might have one last chance to actually create things again. Tariffs might work in doing that even if the markets go into panic in the short term.” – 33-year-old white man from Arizona

In an online qualitative research discussion, voters were asked to paste in images that represent Republicans, and this one stuck out as representing a lot of the sentiment we’ve heard.

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WORKING CLASS VOTERS SEE THE TRUMP/GOP AGENDA AS CLEARER THAN DEMS’ – AND TEND TO AGREE WITH IT

We showed you last week that our new poll found the GOP well ahead of Democrats on a variety of positive attributes.

Our focus groups and qualitative exercises have reflected this, too.

Working class voters associate themselves more culturally with Trump and Republicans. They not only see the GOP as stronger, more patriotic, more supportive of self-reliance and upward economic success, and less judgmental, they also can readily identify the major goals of the GOP agenda (unlike with Democrats). They know that Republicans want to lower taxes, tackle crime, decrease spending, and generally limit the role of government. They describe the GOP generally as the party of “freedom” and align with its broad stances on immigration and securing the border.

“I see Republicans as not just wealthy, but proud of the fact they can become wealthy by the opportunities afforded to them by living in the United States. Republicans are not afraid of success, and not ashamed to flaunt it.” – 55-year-old white man from Nevada

“We have yet to see any of this happen, but it seems like they’re going to be tougher on crime. It seems they wanna bring jobs back to the United States, have more fair trade with other countries – these tariffs are basically trying to match the tariffs that other countries give to us. It just seems they’re trying to build a little less on the social issues – little less like dozens of different genders – and more focus on let’s build a strong country, where everyone has money and freedom to live.” – White woman from North Carolina

“They have traditional values. I am old enough where every morning in elementary school we stood, put our hands on our hearts, and recited the Pledge of Allegiance. Republicans have a sense of pride in God and country. I follow in line with those beliefs.” – 55-year-old white man from Nevada

REPUBLICANS’ BIGGEST VULNERABILITY IDENTIFYING WITH THE WORKING CLASS? ASSOCIATION WITH THE RICH AND CORPORATIONS

Undoubtedly, across our first two months of research, the biggest vulnerability Trump and Republicans have in identifying with working class voters is an abiding sense that they’re too close to the wealthy and big corporations and may focus too much on helping them.

“I think there is too much love for corporations in general from the Republican side. I think working-class people are the most important bloc to appeal to in a nation. We get all the work done, but we ask for very little. I think Republicans are a little bit too anti-union as well.” – 33-year-old white man from Arizona

“They are all billionaires and disconnected from real life.” – 37-year-old white man from New Jersey

“They’re well-off in income. They come from a richer, richer community. That’s how I see them.” – Hispanic woman from Arizona

“Major American corporations will get tax cuts to ensure their power status. I am not surprised at all that Trump will give major companies tax cuts, because he has admitted many times he himself has taken advantage of tax cuts in the past.” – 55-year-old white man from Nevada

And as we shared last week, this breaks through in our polling of working class voters, too:

This presents an opportunity for Democrats, if we can seize it.

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WHAT IT ALL MEANS

Perhaps the biggest takeaway so far is how working class voters see Trump and Republicans as strong, and Democrats as weak. Trump actually does stuff, Democrats are ineffective. Republicans actually stand for something, Democrats do not. That is the pervasive sentiment. Even when they disagree with Trump on issues or his personal style, they appreciate his command. He seems different from many politicians by shaking up systems they have long believed are broken and actually doing what he says he’ll do.

Trump has also been incredibly effective at associating his brand with the economy. Maybe it was all those years on The Apprentice, but voters also recall his first-term economy fondly, associate the GOP brand with an economy-oriented agenda, and see Trump as taking strong economic actions, even when they are disruptive. All this combines to make these voters feel like Republicans are at least focusing on the biggest issue in their lives.

To be sure, there are chinks in the armor. Over the past month, these voters’ perceptions of the tariffs have started to sour – as we laid out in analysis of our new poll last week. They are starting to worry that Trump and Republicans may be too focused on helping the very wealthy and big corporations. They have begun to express concerns with his focus on amassing power and creating chaos. His national numbers are tanking, as poll after poll after poll after poll after poll has shown in recent days.

But at a deeper level, he has an abiding brand that carries strength with working class voters. Listening to them describe it in their words, it’s easy to see how they have drifted away from Democrats and toward Trump and Republicans, as they have consistently expressed admiration for Trump’s perceived strength and disgust for Democrats’ perceived weakness. And clearly, Democrats have work to do to rebrand ourselves away from social and cultural issues and toward the economy.

We will have more on all these topics in the weeks ahead.