Winning with White Working-Class Target Voters on Jobs and the Environment
White working-class voters in the Midwest were a critical component of Donald Trump’s victory in the 2016. However, a new poll of 752 white working-class voters released by the BlueGreen Alliance tells the story of a new landscape.
The poll focused on white registered voters with less than a four-year college degree in Michigan, Minnesota, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin who are not hardline Trump supporters and are therefore persuadable. The poll found that there is significant opportunity for Joe Biden to earn the support of a critical mass of these voters—particularly the segment that voted third party or did not vote in 2016—with a focus on economic recovery, good jobs, and a clean environment.
Concerns around Trump’s environmental and worker safety rollbacks were strong. In particular, rollbacks on clean air, clean water, and worker safety gave voters doubts or concerns about supporting Donald Trump. In addition, 55% of voters surveyed said ensuring people have clean air to breathe and clean water to drink was a topic they were very interested in hearing presidential candidates speak about during the campaign, with 85% very or fairly interested.
Economic recovery was the top priority for most voters. The BlueGreen Alliance poll also asked prospective voters to rank the jobs that should be prioritized for rebuilding the economy. Manufacturing jobs and clean energy jobs are critical components of economic recovery and rebuilding the economy, with 49% and 47% respectively rating them as top priorities.
Click the link below to view the synopsis of the poll.