We’re all still sorting through the wreckage of the 2024 presidential election, but one thing has become impossible to deny: the Democratic Party has a serious problem with working-class voters and has increasingly become a party dominated by affluent middle-class professionals.

This problem is connected to the fact that Democrats are seemingly unwilling and unable to center populist economics in their messaging and governance. Outlets like the Center for Working-Class Politics have exhaustively documented how economic populist messaging is popular with working-class voters but was sidelined in the Kamala Harris campaign.

An examination of state-level ballot question results further demonstrates that, even in so-called “red” states carried by Donald Trump, voters supported populist economic policies that empower workers and reject privatization. These ballot initiative campaigns provide organizers on the Left with critical opportunities to build broad coalitions and talk to voters about straightforward class issues without the baggage of specific candidates or party lines.