Certain cohorts get fetishized in American politics.
Listen to any presidential campaign speech over the last half-century. Everything the candidate is proposing will benefit “the middle class” or “the working class” or will pump up “small business.” And won’t voters please consider that children are our future?
Read more US Justice Department Pauses Cooperation With Canadian Government, WSJ Reports
There’s no universally agreed-upon definition of lower, working, middle, upper-middle or upper class. And that suits politicians just fine: They want as many voters as possible to think the policies they’re promoting will benefit them.
In 2026 America, that means promising the world to the “working class,” if a new poll from the nonpartisan Pew Research Center is any guide.
Why? Because 60% of Americans say that label describes them. That’s up six percentage points from 2024.
The Rich Are ‘Working Class’ Now
Yes, 66% of Americans without a college degree say “working class” fits them well, as do 67% of middle-income folks and 57% of the lower-income bracket.
But 50% of Americans who consistently pay their bills in full, have several months of emergency savings and say they can comfortably meet their expenses – folks under relatively little economic stress, in other words – report themselves to be working class. It’s also over 50% for those with a bachelor’s degree who are designated as upper-income.
Americans with a blue-collar job are likeliest to identify as working class – 77% of them do. But so do a majority working in other occupations (61%).
If the same sociological term can be claimed by a shift worker in Scranton and a six-figure software engineer in San Francisco, maybe it’s not a question of economics anymore. Maybe it’s more of a cultural signifier?
Of Working-Class Politics
Politicians often cloak themselves in working-class personae, even those born on the economic equivalent of third base. Especially in Republican politics, it’s sometimes articulated in opposition to the dreaded “Coastal Elites.”
I got a dose of this early on in my first tour as a White House correspondent, when I spent a large chunk of August in sweltering Waco, Texas, covering President George W. Bush. He poked fun at journalists not accustomed to the heat and perhaps longing for other locales.
Read more Analysis-Musk Pushes Regulatory Limits With Tesla’s Cybercab Robotaxi Service
“I know a lot of you wish you were in the East Coast, lounging on the beaches, sucking in the salt air,” he said. “But when you’re from Texas – and love Texas – this is where you come home.”
This was obviously not an economic point – the man was a millionaire – but a cultural one.
The Partisan Gap
Dig into the Pew poll, and you find that there is a pretty deep partisan gap: Many more Republicans than Democrats claim they are working class.
The divide is especially striking among the relatively affluent.
What about Americans who report being under financial stress?
Once again, the partisan divide is deepest among the most comfortable. Among Americans with few stressors, 60% of Republicans say they are working class, compared with 39% of Democrats.
The split is smaller among Americans who say they are under substantial financial stress: 67% of Republicans vs. 58% of Democrats.
‘Affordability’ and Working-Class Politics
The shift in self-perception and the partisan gap can make the politics of appealing to the “working class” a bit tricky.
It’s not all straight economics because we’re talking about a broad majority of the American electorate spanning income brackets. And it’s not just cultural issues because the watchword for this cycle is “affordability” – indicating broad concerns about the cost of living.
But if everyone is “working class,” then no one is. That may suit some politicians just fine: They can promise almost everything to almost everybody. And everyone seems prepared to believe that the system is rigged against them.
Read more Latino Voter Backlash Puts Texas Governor’s Race on Democrats’ Midterm Map
