Who owns the working class?

PUBLISHED: August 15, 2026 | www.baltimoresun.com

For generations, the Democratic Party presented itself as the natural political home of working Americans: factory workers, union households, Black families, immigrants, teachers, tradesmen and people living paycheck to paycheck.

The progressive left still speaks passionately in that tradition. But something fascinating is happening: The voters most enthusiastic about the new progressive movement are not always the people its rhetoric might lead us to expect.

Consider Michigan.

Abdul El-Sayed won the Democratic Senate primary running unapologetically to the left, championing Medicare for All, abolishing ICE and eliminating corporate money from politics, with support from Sen. Bernie Sanders and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez.

Yet El-Sayed lost Detroit by more than 20 points.

That matters.

Detroit is overwhelmingly Democratic, majority Black and steeped in organized labor. Generations of its families have experienced industrial decline, racial discrimination and the disappearance of good-paying manufacturing jobs.

If modern progressivism represents a working-class revolt, Detroit would seem fertile territory.

Instead, El-Sayed performed particularly well in communities with younger and college-educated voters.

That does not diminish his victory. Nor does it mean Detroit voters are uniformly moderate or that educated voters cannot genuinely champion working people.

It raises a more interesting question: Who exactly is the modern American left?

We have seen similar tensions elsewhere. New York Mayor Zohran Mamdani built an extraordinary movement around affordability, inequality and economic populism, energized significantly by younger voters. Yet many lower-income and Black voters proved less receptive to his candidacy than the movement’s broader rhetoric might have suggested.

The deeper story is that America’s political coalitions are being rearranged.

Education may increasingly rival income as one of the defining fault lines in politics.

Consider a 29-year-old graduate student earning $38,000 and a 58-year-old electrician earning $90,000. Their incomes tell us something, but hardly everything. Their cultural experiences, relationship with institutions and expectations of government may be radically different.

Who is more working class?

The answer is no longer obvious.

Many younger, highly educated Americans sincerely believe the economic system has failed them. Some carry substantial student debt. Others cannot afford homes despite earning degrees and building careers. They watch housing and healthcare costs rise while wealth accumulates elsewhere.

Those anxieties are real.

But economic anxiety and generational poverty are not identical experiences. Worrying about ever affording a condominium is different from wondering whether the electricity will remain on. Discussing inequality in a university seminar is different from working two jobs while raising children.

Neither experience makes someone’s political judgment morally superior. But politicians should recognize the distinction.

Working people themselves are politically complicated.

They may want affordable healthcare while opposing Medicare for All. They may support unions while favoring stronger immigration enforcement. They may believe corporations possess too much power while aspiring to own businesses. They may need government assistance during difficult times while distrusting government bureaucracy.

They can be economically liberal, culturally conservative and politically homeless.

America’s working class has never been ideologically pure.

Both parties forget this.

Republicans sometimes assume working-class voters moving toward the GOP have become doctrinaire conservatives. Many have not.

Democrats sometimes assume that because their programs are intended to benefit working people, those voters are obligated to support them.

They are not.

Voters are human beings, not ideological categories.

That is why advocacy requires humility. You cannot demand that America listen to marginalized communities and then dismiss those same communities when their votes produce an inconvenient answer.

Republicans should not celebrate these Democratic tensions too quickly. The GOP increasingly depends upon working-class voters while many of its traditional economic instincts remain rooted in tax cuts, deregulation and corporate growth. If Republicans intend to become a durable working-class party, they too must demonstrate that the transformation involves more than rhetoric.

The old coalitions are dissolving.

College-educated professionals who once leaned Republican increasingly vote Democratic. Working-class voters who inherited Democratic loyalties increasingly consider Republicans. Younger progressives are building an energetic movement centered rhetorically on workers even as some of its strongest support comes from highly educated communities.

Meanwhile, Black voters, Latino voters, union members and young voters are increasingly resistant to being treated as predictable political blocs.

Perhaps that is healthy.

Political parties should have to earn voters rather than inherit them.

The lesson from Michigan is not that progressivism failed. El-Sayed won. The lesson is that victory and mandate are not synonymous.

A candidate can win an election while still needing to persuade the very people whose cause that candidate claims to champion.

The progressive left may be constructing one of America’s most consequential new political coalitions. It is young, educated, energetic, digitally sophisticated, idealistic and increasingly powerful.

Whether it truly becomes a working-class movement will ultimately be determined by something more meaningful than slogans, endorsements or social-media enthusiasm.

Working people themselves will decide who speaks for them.

And in a democracy, they always get the final word.

Armstrong Williams (www.armstrongwilliams.com; @arightside) is a political analyst, syndicated columnist and owner of the broadcasting company, Howard Stirk Holdings. He is also part owner of The Baltimore Sun.

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