This past spring, Representative Jim Banks of Indiana, chairman of the House Republican Study Committee, wrote a curious policy memo, with the subject line “URGENT: Cementing GOP as the Working-Class Party.” He argued that Republicans should look to nail down working-class support through tough immigration policies, a crusade against “Wokeness,” and attacks against tech companies that “censor” Donald Trump and other conservatives, among other policies. The memo honored a time-tested Republican tradition: Wooing working-class voters by focusing not on economic issues like higher pay and runaway health care costs, but on polarizing social issues, like abortion and same-sex marriage.
Ahead of the 2022 midterms, Democrats may be inclined to dismiss such Republican attempts to appeal to working-class voters. Backed by President Biden’s 21st Century New Deal, which includes an infrastructure plan that he says would create millions of middle-class jobs, the facts are on his party’s side, dating back to F.D.R.’s New Deal, that the Democrats are far more the party of the working class. Yet in an era when politicians often woo blue-collar voters by staging photo ops at coal mines and wearing hard hats, style and theatrics have often trumped substance and policy.
To many Democrats, including Representative Tim Ryan and Robert Reich, it is preposterous that Republicans, long viewed as the party of corporate America, suggest theirs is the party of the working class. Even so, Democrats must resist complacency. They can’t stop fighting for the support of workers, no matter how ludicrous the Republican attempts at rebranding may seem. To do so, Democrats must deliver on their promises to workers — or else hammer home the point that Republicans blocked their efforts.
When Republicans attempt to style themselves as the party of working people, it can be awkward. In 2019 when the House voted to raise the federal minimum wage to $15 an hour from $7.25 — a move supported by 62 percent of Americans — only three Republicans backed the increase; the then-G.O.P.-controlled Senate, led by Mitch McConnell, refused to allow a vote on the increase. But the G.O.P. continues to maintain its chosen fiction: “The uniqueness of this party today is we’re the workers party,” Kevin McCarthy, the House Republican leader, said in an interview early this year. Senator Ted Cruz, Republican of Texas, agreed, tweeting, “The Republican Party is not the party of the country clubs, it’s the party of hardworking, blue-collar men and women.”
Yet Mr. Biden and company remain vulnerable to Republican attacks that they have become the party of Silicon Valley, Wall Street and “the coastal elite.” Republicans point to Democratic support for free-trade agreements that have sent U.S. jobs overseas, never mind that Republican lawmakers voted overwhelmingly to approve such pacts. Republicans also try to score points by maintaining that Democrats care more about helping immigrants than down-on-their-luck factory workers in the Midwest.
Such attacks helped Trump beat Mr. Biden, 50- 48, among voters without a college degree, a group that many pollsters define as working class. But using a different definition of working class — households with income under $50,000 — Mr. Biden bested Trump, 55 percent to 44 percent. For many of these voters, Republican overtures to the working class ring hollow.
To make their case to workers, Democrats need only point to Republican attacks on Mr. Biden’s agenda. Senator Marsha Blackburn, a Tennessee Republican, has compared his plan to boost subsidies for day care to Soviet-era Communism. Senators Mike Lee of Utah and Marco Rubio of Florida derided his $300-per-child per month allowance as “welfare assistance.”
Republicans have also attacked the PRO Act, a Biden-backed measure that would increase workers’ bargaining power by making it easier for them to unionize. Democrats ask: How can Republicans claim to be a party for workers while opposing the very institution, unions, that fights for workers?
When Republicans do offer pro-worker measures, they are usually far less generous than Democratic proposals. Senator Josh Hawley of Missouri, one of the most vocal Republicans advocating a pro-worker pivot, backs a $15 minimum wage, but only for workers at corporations with annual revenues of $1 billion or more. Senator Mitt Romney has proposed a monthly child allowance of up to $350 per child, but some Democrats criticized his proposal for eliminating many welfare grants and tax credits for children.
What explains the G.O.P.’s halfhearted attempt to rebrand? The reason is the success of Donald Trump, who vaulted himself into the White House by casting himself as a billionaire best friend of workers. But Trump didn’t really walk a pro-worker walk. Instead, he pushed a $1.5 trillion tax cut that favored corporations and the rich, tried to gut health coverage for millions of Americans and slashed health and safety enforcement in the nation’s workplaces, while appointing judges who favored business over workers and unions.
On paper, the party of F.D.R. is clearly more pro-worker than Republicans. But the Democrats’ big problem, time and again — one that has long rankled many blue-collar voters — is their failure to enact policies that will uplift workers (usually because of Republican filibusters).
So what can the Democrats do to cement working-class support?
Mr. Biden can use his executive authority, beyond what he’s already done, to make federal contractors increase workers’ pay and benefits. His Labor Department and National Labor Relations Board can also help boost worker pay and bargaining power.
In Congress, Nancy Pelosi and Chuck Schumer would do well to enact Mr. Biden’s ambitious infrastructure plans and pass the PRO Act. Pushing through his $3.5-trillion spending plan would also deliver big-time to workers — not only its vast ambitions on physical infrastructure, but also its provisions guaranteeing paid parental leave and stepped-up subsidies for child care.
If Republicans block these measures, that will speak loudly as to which party does corporate America’s bidding and which one goes to bat for workers. For the Democrats, the pressure is on to deliver.
Steven Greenhouse, who was the labor and workplace reporter for The New York Times for 19 years, is the author of “Beaten Down, Worked Up: The Past, Present, and Future of American Labor.”
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