After the November election, many Republican leaders looked at the surge of blue-collar voters into their party and concluded that their best hope for winning the next time was to cement the GOP’s image as “the party of the working class.’’ But Republicans haven’t yet unified behind a policy platform to support that goal.
President Biden used his speech to Congress on Wednesday to show that he was eager to compete for those voters, as well, labeling part of his domestic agenda as a jobs program for blue-collar workers. Nearly 90% of the jobs to be created by Mr. Biden’s infrastructure bill wouldn’t require a college degree, he said, calling his plan “a blue-collar blueprint to build America.’’ His climate plan, he said, would create unionized jobs for tasks such as building 500,000 charging stations to power electric vehicles.
To Rep. Tom Rice (R., S.C.), the president’s language had a clear political goal. “It’s obvious he would like to win back many of the voters who came to the Republican Party in recent years…the working-class voters,’’ he said.
Working-class voters are sometimes defined as those without a four-year college degree. They accounted for about 60% of voters in 2020 and vary widely in income, according to AP VoteCast, a large survey of the electorate. Some 18% of voters in Wall Street Journal/NBC News surveys last year said they held blue-collar jobs. About half of them considered themselves Republicans, up from 37% a decade earlier and well above the 29% who identified last year as Democrats.
In the House, many Republicans have focused on continuing former President Donald Trump’s policies on immigration, energy and trade, while some Senate Republicans have proposed ideas that would give government a more direct role in social programs. The approach to a working-class agenda “has varied a lot within the party,’’ said Oren Cass, executive director of American Compass, a group of conservative economic thinkers. “It’s one of the dimensions along which the party is really in flux.’’
Sen. Josh Hawley of Missouri this year proposed a “blue-collar bonus’’—a taxpayer-funded subsidy intended to move low-income workers closer to a benchmark median hourly wage, set at $16.50 and indexed to inflation. Sen. Marco Rubio of Florida has proposed a parental-leave plan, funded by the parent’s future Social Security benefits, as well as a plan to end the preferential tax treatment for stock buybacks, intended to encourage companies to invest instead in expanding their operations, potentially benefiting workers.
Sen. Mitt Romney of Utah would refashion a set of safety-net programs and tax breaks into a monthly cash benefit for families with children through age 17, starting while mothers are pregnant.
Sen. Marco Rubio (R., Fla.) has proposed a parental-leave plan funded by future Social Security benefits.
Photo: Michael Reynolds/EPA/ShutterstockThe plans have so far drawn limited GOP support. What they have in common, said Henry Olsen, a senior fellow with the conservative Ethics and Public Policy Center, is “a generalized acceptance of the role of the state in a degree of activity that is meant to directly influence the economic well-being of Americans. For the last few decades, that was something very difficult for Republicans to say.’’
Some House conservatives and their allies are still wary. “My point is that it misses the point,’’ said Rep. Jim Banks (R., Ind.) of the Senate plans in general. ”Working families…they’re not looking for handouts and more government involvement in their lives.’’ Mr. Rice said he was “very skeptical of expanding entitlement programs,’’ though he would consider expanding the child tax credit if a need was shown.
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Grover Norquist, president of Americans for Tax Reform, which advocates for low taxes and small government, said Republicans would lose the public debate if they backed versions of Democratic plans for social programs, such as the expanded child tax credit that Mr. Biden recently signed into law over Republican objections.
“The biggest danger is you take a look at the damage the Democrats are doing and you offer half as much,’’ he said. “Will they give you a $2,000 check? Well, we’ll give you $1,000.’ ’’
Mr. Banks, who leads a 154-member caucus of conservatives called the Republican Study Committee, recently gave House GOP leaders a memo arguing that the party can retake the House majority ‘’by enthusiastically rebranding and reorienting as the Party of the Working Class.’’
Mr. Banks’s recommendations included continuing Mr. Trump’s “hard line’’ on both legal and illegal immigration, challenging China’s trade practices and focusing on the impact on jobs from business restrictions related to the coronavirus. “Donald Trump gave us a road map, and that road map is where it begins,” Mr. Banks said in an interview. ”That’s the point of my memo.’’
In February, President Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris met with union leaders to promote Mr. Biden’s $1.9 trillion economic-stimulus package.
Photo: Pete Marovich/Press PoolHouse GOP leaders are beginning to work out their own agenda. Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy recently created a set of task forces aimed at developing policy plans, including on the economy, “big tech censorship,’’ “the future of American freedoms’’ and energy and climate. House Republicans have also highlighted their support for energy extraction and pipelines, important in competitive states such as Pennsylvania, with Minority Whip Steve Scalise of Louisiana leading a messaging campaign.
Democrats said Mr. Biden’s plans give them a strong message to bring to workers. In Pennsylvania’s Washington County, where natural-gas fracking jobs have boosted the economy, county Democratic Chairwoman Christina Proctor said Mr. Biden’s infrastructure plan would draw local support.
Moreover, she said, stimulus checks from Mr. Biden’s first big spending bill had already helped local families, and that families with two working parents would benefit from the president’s proposed new investment in universal prekindergarten. “I’ve lived in bigger cities where they have before-school and after-school care, but around here there’s no such thing,’’ she said.
Write to Aaron Zitner at aaron.zitner@wsj.com
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GOP’s Blue-Collar Agenda Still a Work in Progress - The Wall Street Journal
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