Trump Did NOT Increase GOP Share Of White Working Class

Posted on the 16 April 2021 by Jobsanger


The charts above are from The Washington Post

Much has been made in the media of Donald Trump's supposed appeal to White working class voters. The general opinion expressed is that there was a massive shift of White working class voters from Democrats to Trump in the last election. But that may not be true.

These charts tell a different story. The top chart shows the percentage of Republican voters in the White working class. Note that it rose to 31% in 2012 (when Romney was the GOP candidate), but remained at that level in 2016 and 2020. Trump did not increase the percentage of Republicans who were in the White working class.

The second chart shows the percentage of White working class voters who voted Republican. Note that while it increased slightly from 2012 to 2016 (from 57% to 62%0, it fell in 2020 to 59% (as these workers were actually starting to abandon Trump.

NOTE - For the survey, White working class voters were identified as those without a college degree who were in the bottom half of the household income distribution.