Journalist Katie Couric warned about Democrats losing their hold on working-class voters during a Thursday podcast.
Pollster Frank Luntz on Friday said former President Donald Trump picking Republican Ohio Sen. J.D. Vance as his running mate could make his ticket even more appealing to “paycheck to paycheck voters,” whom the pollster described as “the most important segment of the population” for the election. Couric on “Hysteria” said Democrats “have kind of lost the working class” and that they need to improve their messaging to regain them. (RELATED: The Massive Populist Wave Taking Over America Can Be Explained With One Stat)
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Katie Couric Sounds Alarm On Dems Losing ‘Working Class’ pic.twitter.com/0P9xcBKuMr
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“I think that there needs to be a greater connection between the working-class and the Democratic Party because, let’s face it, Alyssa, the Democrats have kind of lost the working-class. And it was never that way during all my years of covering politics,” Couric told host Alyssa Mastromonaco. “You had the head of the Teamsters at the RNC, you have people buying into this notion that Republicans care about dinner table issues much more than Democrats. And these narratives, I think, have become too deeply entrenched about liberal college-educated elites who are condescending, probably started with the ‘deplorable’ comment that Hillary Clinton, I’m sure, regrets saying now.”
Trump has persistently endeavored to woo typically Democratic-leaning union workers with his populist trade policies and has been reportedly gaining traction in polls among the group. The former president met with the International Brotherhood of Teamsters’ president Sean O’Brien in January, and he invited the union president to deliver a speech at the July Republican National Convention.
“But I feel like they can’t just give up on that voting bloc; they need to make a much stronger connection to … working-class men and women,” she continued. “The middle class has been obviously gutted, but saying, ‘Hey, we care about you, we care about your issues, we know a lot of things have really been hard, globalization, manufacturing … but this is what … we’re going to do and this is how we’re going to help.’ I just want to see [Vice President Kamala Harris] with a welding hat on, working with regular Joes.”
A key element of Trump’s economic policy is trade protectionism, which includes imposing tariffs on imports, especially from foreign competitors like China, and boosting American manufacturing.
Democratic strategist Julian Epstein warned Monday that Harris may be losing supporters in the Rust Belt as working-class voters shift toward Trump.
“The significant change that we’re seeing is that Kamala Harris seems to be attracting more young voters that were leaving the Democratic Party and more black voters that were also leaving the Democratic Party under Biden and that’s good for her,” Epstein said. “On the other hand, older voters and working-class voters seem to be moving towards Trump, that’s bad news for her.”
“The reason that’s bad news for her is because most voters in the Midwest states, the rustbelt swings, Pennsylvania, Michigan and Wisconsin are older and working-class,” he added. “So, essentially what has happened, as you return to the pre-debate norm, but you’ve traded a California voter for a Pennsylvania voter, which is not so good for Harris.”
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