From a Politico piece on “House Democrats lament blue-collar collapse”:
Democratic Rep. Collin Peterson of Minnesota, who eked out 53 percent of the vote in his unexpectedly close race this November, blamed his party’s stances on the deficit, gay rights, abortion and the Second Amendment for turning off voters in his rural district.
“The party’s not going to change on those issues, so the people out there are not going to vote for Democrats,” Peterson said in an interview. “You might get some marginal difference, but we’ve become an urban party.”…
Hillary Clinton’s poor performance in working-class areas Nov. 8 has ignited a debate over how Democrats can win back blue-collar voters, who once formed the backbone of the party. The debate has resurfaced tensions between progressives and the remaining moderate and conservative Democrats in the chamber…
“So much of this is identity politics,” said Democratic Rep. Ron Kind, who represents a blue-collar Wisconsin district where Trump and Clinton ran close to each other this year. “I hate to say it, but it’s true.”…
“We’ve got to learn how to tap into the unique and unprecedented anxieties of working- and middle-class voters constructively; otherwise, the Republicans will continue to do it destructively,” [Steve] Israel said in an interview.
