A new survey from the Center for Working-Class Politics finds that running as a Democrat can cost candidates 11 to 16 points compared with independents delivering the same message.
Ashley Bishop spoke with Jared Abbott, the center’s director, about what the group’s Rust Belt Survey reveals about working-class voters’ growing disillusionment with the Democratic Party. Abbott breaks down what they’ve called the “Democratic penalty” — the steep drop in support candidates face simply for carrying the party label — and traces it to decades of corporate-friendly policymaking and broken promises that have eroded trust among working people.
Produced with the Labor Institute, the Labor Education Action Research Network at Rutgers University, and the Jacobin Foundation, the survey also finds strong support for independent, worker-led politics outside the two-party system. Rust Belt voters, it suggests, are hungry for economic populism — a politics that reins in corporate power and puts working people first.
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