Working Class Weekly: How Working Class Voters Respond to Non-Cost Messages

We’re back this week with findings from the largest research effort in the Democratic Party to understand how working class voters are thinking about the 2026 midterms — and what Democrats need to do to earn their votes.

Earlier this year, we returned to working class voters across battleground states who have been part of this research effort since 2025. We discussed the issues impacting them and tested a range of messages to gauge what, if anything, has shifted.

Anyone who has followed this page knows our research continues to point to the centrality of costs. Tariffs and the war in Iran are raising prices at the grocery store and gas pump, and cuts to Medicaid and the expiration of ACA tax credits have made healthcare increasingly hard for working class voters to afford. Corruption is also a salient issue with this group, particularly when it’s tied to the cost of living and healthcare cuts.

But we’ve also tested non-cost messages to gauge which, if any, other Republican negatives move these voters. This week we’re highlighting some of our findings on other messaging across the battleground — and what Democrats should do with it.

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OUT OF TOUCH

Across our battleground focus groups, the White House ballroom resonated as a symbol of Trump’s misplaced priorities. Much like the Iran war, participants saw it as an example that politicians in Washington are spending money in the wrong places while other needs go unmet.

“That was considered unnecessary to me. I feel like we had better things to spend our money on… This Iran war, we could have saved some of that money from the ballroom to help protect us.” — White voter in Georgia

“Our government spends a bunch of money on a bunch of waste, and so this is just the new cycle, piece of waste… It’s just not necessary.” — White voter in Georgia

In both Georgia and North Carolina, “A Republican who supports spending hundreds of millions of dollars to build a new White House ballroom while Americans can’t afford gas and groceries” ranked as one of the top-performing non-cost messages tested.

The reason for this is the contrast it creates. It’s not the ballroom itself that bothers these voters, but the fact that money is being spent on it while their own needs go unmet. It’s yet another sign of Trump and Republicans’ misplaced priorities and their lack of understanding about what voters really need. Messaging around the ballroom should be grounded in this framing — that Republicans cut healthcare and services working families rely on while focusing on and funding the ballroom.

Non-cost messages such as the ballroom landed broadly as demonstrating how Republicans are out of touch. In Iowa, infrastructure cut sharply with the men in our focus groups. The top performing non-cost message among these men was “A Republican who opposed billions of dollars in investments to repair bridges, roads, and rural broadband projects, even though Iowa’s infrastructure is ranked among the worst in the country.” This message was potent specifically with these voters given Iowa’s distinct infrastructure challenges.

“Our roads are f***ing horrible. They’re so bad...For someone to not see that there’s a glaring need is not something that I would be supportive of that person’s stance at all.” — White Man from Iowa

In the same vein, avoiding town halls also resonated as a sign of Republicans being out of touch, particularly with men in Iowa, where town halls and infrastructure are a generally more meaningful part of the political culture than in other places.

“Elections are about getting to know the candidate. How are we supposed to be able to vote for you if we don’t know shit about you?” — White Man from Iowa

Men in these groups were more impervious to non-cost messages generally — they don’t hit as hard as cost messages, and don’t land as a major priority moving their votes. But several noted that the cumulative effect of these messages is meaningful.

“I don’t think there’s like one or two that are deal breakers. But I think when you read them in a list like that, the cumulative impact of them can kind of make a big impact.” — White Man from Iowa

“I wouldn’t necessarily say deal breaks, but I mean, if the candidates have every one of those you know behind them, probably gonna lean less towards that candidate.” — White Man from Iowa

These messages aren’t deal breakers on their own, but together they can be effective at creating a narrative framing Republicans as disconnected from the real struggles facing working families. In an environment where voters are struggling to keep up with rising costs, there’s an opportunity to connect “out of touch” messaging directly to costs — that Republicans are out of touch and that’s why the needs directly touching these voters’ lives are being unmet. These messages shouldn’t replace cost messaging, but they can be effective at reinforcing it.

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ABORTION

Abortion remains a salient issue, particularly among women, and especially in states where local Republicans have attempted to further restrict access in the wake of the Dobbs decision. In Iowa, the top performing non-cost message described “A Republican who supports a complete abortion ban with no exceptions for rape, incest, or the life of the mother, and could ban common forms of birth control.” Georgia women ranked this as one of the top messages as well.

For many of these women, the reaction isn’t about their own personal views on abortion. Rather, it’s about autonomy and the right to make their own decisions.

“[Democrats] don’t want to tell me what to do with my uterus. I don’t care. That’s the thing. Whatever you want to do is your business and your decision. That’s your life.” — White woman in North Carolina

“I just had a lot more info on it, like with the abortion and that type of thing. It’s just taking our rights away from us and turning us more into an almost Hitler-type area. We have our own amendments — we have freedom of speech and freedom of this — and it just seems to be taken away from us.” — White woman in North Carolina

“The abortion act has just been very part of the forefront of the Republican Party that I don’t agree with. I don’t say that I would do it myself, but I just want the opportunity to say — for people that incest and rape and what other things, you know, and just even women who have to have a D&C and have to go and do it at home because their doctors are too afraid. That’s wrong.” — White woman in North Carolina

In Colorado, abortion was also a negative that hurt Republicans with some working class voters. Despite Colorado voters approving a constitutional amendment guaranteeing abortion rights in 2024, many of the state’s Republican congressional candidates continue to push restrictions — including Jeff Crank (CO-05) who co-sponsored a national abortion ban, and Gabe Evans (CO-08) who has stated that abortion should be banned. The issue isn’t just about voters’ personal views on abortion, it’s about their representatives voting against the people who elected them.

Democrats have largely pulled back from abortion in paid communications since 2024. But it remains a salient issue for working class women, who see it as a stark and personal divide between themselves and the Republican Party.

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REDISTRICTING

Even before the Supreme Court’s Callais decision, redistricting and voter suppression tested as powerful messages with Black voters. Several participants found redistricting persuasive on its own, or cited it as a reason to follow the election closely.

“With all the redistricting and all that kind of stuff going on, it’s pretty clear what’s going on. I think he knows that there’s a good chance he’s going to lose the House, potentially even the Senate. And so now, instead of letting the voters decide, they’’re just kind of going about it in a roundabout way.” — Black voter in Georgia

“It’s just unjust. Unfair.” — Black voter in Georgia

“Those whose votes should matter, those who are probably going to be at the receiving end of a lot of the decisions that are made…their votes don’t count because they’re being thrown away.” — Black voter in Georgia

“When they start to redistrict things, or they try to do other things to suppress certain voters, I just kind of lost faith in it.” — Black voter in Georgia

This sentiment has shown itself at the polls since the Supreme Court’s Callais decision. Black voters in primaries and special elections, particularly in the south, have turned out in larger numbers, pushing their counties further left in nearly every instance. Majority-Black counties that voted after Callais saw clear surges in participation, outpacing statewide turnout.

Redistricting resonates with Black voters as an attempt by Republicans to take power away from voters. That’s a powerful message Republicans have sent, and one that we’ve seen directly drive Black voters to the polls. Democrats should consider this particularly in battleground races where Black voters make up a crucial share of the working class electorate, such as Georgia and Mississippi.

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HEALTH

While healthcare and its rising costs remain a salient issue for voters across the country, health in the “Make America Healthy Again” (MAHA) sense also resonated with working class voters, particularly in Iowa. The state has one of the nation’s highest cancer rates, driven largely by poor water quality. Across our focus groups there, water contamination and cancer have loomed large as major concerns for working class voters, which MAHA has tapped into. So far, though, the results on what MAHA has actually delivered are mixed.

RFK Jr.’s appointment as Secretary of Health and Human Services stood out as the health decision voters most closely associated with Trump — and the men in our Iowa groups largely viewed the MAHA agenda favorably.

“The appointing of Kennedy was probably the best thing that he did as far as healthcare goes. Kennedy’s negotiated drug prices with pharmaceutical manufacturers, so drug prices are down. Looking at the food pyramid — that defines what foods get served in school lunches across the country — that’s a huge change.” — White man from Iowa

“With Kennedy and his other appointees, really focusing on the MAHA movement, looking at chemicals in foods, ease of access to healthy foods — I would say that’s really good promotion. I wish that would have been done tens of years ago, get a lot of the processed junk out of our diets.” — White man from Iowa

Women in our focus groups were more skeptical of RFK Jr., as MAHA hasn’t yet delivered on the water quality and cancer issues that matter to them.

In our earlier focus groups in the Hawkeye State, we heard from voters that they were frustrated with Republican Governor Kim Reynolds for not focusing enough on “practical” problems like the state’s water contamination issues.

Because Iowa’s water and cancer rates pose such a large challenge to the state and its residents, these issues carry real weight with voters. They’re local and hit close to home, exactly the type of issues that voters want to hear their representatives prioritizing. We’ve seen this play out on different health issues in other states as well.

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WHAT THIS MEANS FOR DEMOCRATS

Costs remain the single most important issue, but localized issues matter too. As we talked about last week, voters value candidates showing up locally and speaking to the issues that directly impact their own communities. The strongest non-cost hits are the ones that are grounded in the specific challenges communities face. Democrats should still lead with costs and corruption, but this additional set of messaging provides a window for them to bolster these arguments.