Working-Class Pride

Like people in other locations throughout the Rust Belt, Clevelanders are proud of their working-class heritage. While numerous breweries line the city’s suburbs and hip neighborhoods, only one brewery adorns the working-class neighborhood of West Park. With a fist holding a hammer across its signage, Working Class Brewery stands in the neighborhood’s Kamm’s Plaza.

Over the years, its award-winning head brewer and local public-school teacher Rick Skains has honored working-class professions with, for instance, his appropriately named Pipefitter’s Porter and Bricklayer Brown Ale. Across his establishment’s walls, black-and-white photos pay respect to construction workers, laborers, and electricians. On Tuesdays, he honors union-card members with a 10 percent discount on their tabs.

While the West Park neighborhood was once home to many on the city’s payroll — firefighters, teachers, and tradespeople, including my own father who worked for the Cleveland Board of Education as a pipefitter — housing prices have begun to mimic those of the outside suburbs. Houses that only a few years ago sold for $80,000 now hover around $250,000, with most families paying $10,000 to $30,000 above the asking price in order to beat out other potential buyers.

Among those who rent, anger is simmering too over rising costs, with some calling for rent control as a solution. Jessica, a forty-year-old licensed practical nurse, didn’t hold her resentment back:

Politicians should do more with rent control. People are being so greedy with renting. I just saw somebody posting on the West Park Facebook page an eight-hundred-square-foot house — two bedrooms, one bath, not even doing utilities except for sewer and water. They want $1700 a month. That’s not okay. I would think at some point that the government has to step in.

For many, owning a house now seems entirely out of the question.

Marissa, a thirty-three-year-old mother and pet-care worker, with an electrician husband, expressed deep frustration to me not only with housing costs but also the seeming disregard from those in power. She wished that politicians “saw us as people who are literally just trying to make it through life.”

“We’re still renting,” she lamented. “We’re desperately trying to buy a house. We can’t, even with a really nice down payment.”

Openness to Socialism?

Though some claim that Americans are naturally averse to government intervention in the economy and the idea of socialism, this is far from the case in Northeast Ohio.

Across from Working Class Brewery, Gene’s Place, a diner adorned with early twentieth-century memorabilia from war posters to black-and-white Hollywood photos, has anchored Kamm’s Plaza since the 1960s. On the walls, its owners celebrate local celebrities: a football player, an actor, and a wrestler turned World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE) professional wrestler, who my father coached at nearby St Patrick’s Catholic School. Sometimes Cleveland can feel enormous and small-town all at once.

Over coffee at Gene’s, I find an unlikely supporter of socialism. James, a seventy-four-year-old former law enforcement officer, tells me how socialism has long been part of the nation’s history.

“People have to be taken care of. Socialism is part of this country — whether you like it or not. It’s part of what we are. That’s why they call it Social Security.”

He doesn’t stop there.

“I think people should have health care. People are entitled to it. I mean, I worked for what I have, but still, everyone should have it.”

No doubt, some folks I spoke with rejected the idea of socialism and invoked the failures of the Soviet Union and Venezuela. Far more frequently, though, individuals identified socialism with Western Europe and Canada, praising their social policies. And while socialism is often found to be more popular among younger cohorts, even older individuals I talked to throughout the study expressed support for the economic model as they understood it.

Mildred, an eighty-six-year-old woman who worked in office administration, said she would often watch Rick Steves’s show on PBS, where in some episodes Steves would travel to Scandinavian countries and examine their policies. Instead of the Soviet Union, Mildred understood socialism as describing this set of countries and found many of their policies appealing.

“You wouldn’t have to worry about daycare; I wouldn’t have to worry about a nursing home. There are many positives about it. I think people think it’s communism. They misunderstand.”

Others like Keith, a forty-two-year-old image technician at a T-shirt company, were more directly enthusiastic about the idea of socialism.

“I am very, very strongly in favor of it. It’s a means to an end in making sure that every human in this country’s basic needs are met and there’s not going to be a question of that.”

Similarly, Megan, a forty-six-year-old woman working in office administration, connected socialism with Western Europe and expressed amazement at the reluctance among some people to embrace socialist policies:

When I think of socialism, I think of Norway and Finland. I don’t see what the problem with that is. If socialism is taking tax dollars that we have to pay into the federal government and having them redisperse it back to us [to fund] education, health care, working mothers, working fathers to enrich the life of our society, what is wrong with that? How are people so against something that will potentially benefit you?

There is vigorous debate as to what policies and institutions democratic socialists should fight for, with most arguing for extending collective ownership over the economy in a way that goes beyond even the ambitious social democratic reforms of the Nordic states. That said, the fact that so many working-class voters I spoke with were supportive of Nordic-style policies — and were not turned off, but rather even excited, by talk of socialism — is of great political importance.

A Hunger for Economic Populism

Though the debate over the future of the Democratic Party will surely continue, what is clear is that the appeal of progressive economic reforms and even the language of democratic socialism extends beyond New York City. In Northeast Ohio, a state long synonymous with political moderation, working-class individuals hope for politicians who will fight to enhance their quality of life — from health care to affordable housing.

When asked what politicians excited them, Barack Obama and Bernie Sanders were the most common responses. Since Bernie’s campaign though, many recounted that they had become rather unmotivated or even hopeless. In the end, some reluctantly supported Kamala Harris for president in 2024. Others said they simply stayed home.

Mamdani’s victory, along with my recent research and other studies on working-class politics, demonstrates that citizens want politicians who recognize their material struggles and push for progressive economic change. Without such candidates fighting for pro-worker reforms, the space for right-wing populism only grows. It’s thus no coincidence that the same state that elected Obama in back-to-back presidential races went for Trump three times thereafter.

If Northeast Ohio and New York City are any indication, a bold, progressive economic agenda of the kind championed by Zohran Mamdani, AOC, and Bernie Sanders is key to winning working-class voters back from the Right.