Can you build social democracy without workers? This question would have been unthinkable a few decades ago. Today it captures a central challenge that left-of-center parties face around the world.

In the United States, even as the Democratic Party has moved leftward on domestic policy, it has less working-class support than ever. Both Center for Working-Class Politics surveys that use occupational data and CNN exit polls that use education as a proxy for class (an imprecise but helpful marker) show increasing distance between Democrats and workers. In 2020, Joe Biden lost non-college-educated voters by 4 points. This general election, Kamala Harris lost them by 14 points.

The shift in the party’s appeal is evident even among unionized workers. In 1992, they favored Bill Clinton by 30 points. Donald Trump got within 19 points in 2020 and whittled the gap to just 8 points this month.