The Democratic Debate Over Winning Back Trump’s Base
White working-class voters’ share of the electorate may be shrinking even faster now than in recent years, new data suggest. But that dynamic shows no signs of dampening the growing debate among Democrats about how heavily the party should focus on recapturing the blue-collar whites who have become the foundation of Donald Trump’s electoral coalition.
No choice in 2020 divides Democratic activists more than the question of whether the party needs a nominee best suited to winning back these white voters, who have been drifting away from the party for decades, or one best positioned to mobilize the party’s new alliance of minorities, young people, and white-collar whites, especially women.
The issue has crystallized around former Vice President Joe Biden’s entry into the 2020 race. His supporters and detractors alike have taken his candidacy as a proxy for the larger question of how Democrats can best rebuild a winning
