In November, Democrats lost the presidency once again to Donald Trump due to huge defections from the traditional heart of their party. Exit polls suggest Trump won the working and middle classes in this election, winning households making under $100,00 by four points and voters without a college degree by 13. Harris, meanwhile, dominated with professionals. Her strongest levels of support came from voters at the top of the income ladder, as she won households with an income of $200,000 or more by six points. Most strikingly, Republicans came closer than they have in a generation to winning union members. Harris’s 53 percent among union households is even lower than Walter Mondale’s share in his 1984 drubbing by Ronald Reagan. Despite its continued ties to organized labor, the party eventually losing union voters outright now feels like an inevitability.
If Democrats hope to reverse their losses with working and middle-class voters, they must understand what drives the working-class voters who shifted from Biden to Trump. Increasingly, one answer appears to be Catholicism. As a strategist who consults with Democratic candidates, I believe members of my party have been too quick to overlook this explanation.