President Joe Biden is traveling to North Carolina on Tuesday to discuss manufacturing and infrastructure as Democrats look to shore up their status with blue-collar voters.
The president is kicking off his Investing in America Tour, during which “Scranton Joe” is sure to play up his working-class background and union love. But even as he promotes a made-in-America message, his party has been hemorrhaging support from voters without college degrees for over a decade.
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“They call the factories ‘fabs,'” Biden said at a March 14 Democratic National Committee fundraiser. “It’s going to take 7,000 construction people to build these fabs, and they’re going to make union wages to do it.”
Biden was speaking about an Intel semiconductor facility near Columbus, Ohio, though he mentions unions in most speeches, particularly the ones that touch on manufacturing.
“And in addition to that, there’s 5,000 jobs running the factories making the chips,” he said at the DNC event. “You know what the average salary in those factories is going to be? $130,000. And you don’t need a college degree for all of them; you need the training.”
Biden has heavily promoted unions and manufacturing since taking office as he keeps Rust Belt states like Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, and Michigan — all of which he flipped from former President Donald Trump — in mind.
Today he’ll visit Durham, home of Duke University, to tour a Wolfspeed Inc. semiconductor plant. Per an official itinerary, Biden will discuss how his agenda has led to the strongest job growth in history, stronger infrastructure, and a “Made in America manufacturing boom” that has strengthened supply chains and national security.
But amid Biden’s working-class happy talk, Republicans are making inroads with America’s blue-collar workers. House Republicans now control most seats in districts with below-average household incomes, including in heavily Hispanic areas of Texas and Florida.
Ruy Teixeria, who once predicted that demographic shifts would lead to a permanent Democratic majority, has instead documented a shift in working-class voters toward the GOP.
Between 2012 and 2020, Democrats saw their support among nonwhite working-class voters fall by 18 points and among Hispanic voters by 16 points. In contrast, white college-educated voters shifted toward Democrats by 16 points.
Biden was able to stem that tide somewhat, flipping three Rust Belt states that Hillary Clinton had lost, winning Georgia, and coming close in North Carolina. He’s since promoted manufacturing by keeping many of Trump’s trade tariffs in place while arguing that “MAGA Republicans” will raise taxes on the middle class and cut Social Security and Medicare.
“We’ll be watching to see if House Republicans will finally come clean with the American people about their tax welfare for the rich and which cuts they’d impose on the middle class,” read a Monday dispatch from White House spokesman Andrew Bates. “Unfortunately, Republicans have shown they want to kill thousands of manufacturing jobs and cost millions of Americans their health coverage — disproportionately in red states.”
Republicans have sharpened their own messaging, claiming Democrats are the party of elites focused on abortion and green energy rather than on lowering crime, protecting the border, or taming inflation.
“Joe Biden and the Democrat Party want to destroy thousands of jobs and raise energy prices even further, all while banning new gas stoves, air conditioners, and washing machines,” read a Monday newsletter from Republican National Committee spokesman Tommy Pigott. “But don’t you dare ask them to give up their private jets.”
While Biden frequently calls himself the most pro-union president in history, the face of unions is changing. Rather than blue-collar workers, recent unionization drives have occurred at Starbucks, Google, software company Activision Blizzard, and Washington, D.C.-based think tank the Brookings Institution. Biden has said his 2024 campaign staff will be unionized.
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“The biggest union that Joe Biden will be close to in Durham will be the Duke adjunct faculty union,” said Dan Bowling, who teaches labor and employment courses at Duke. “High-tech companies, software, healthcare, Starbucks, faculties at private universities are starting to unionize. But is he really gaining new voters? I don’t see a lot of Starbucks baristas wearing MAGA hats.”
Bowling argues that Trump was actually a pro-labor president thanks to his plans to move plants back to the United States, roll out tariffs, and boost manufacturing. Biden talks about many of the same things despite his many differences with Trump, which he’ll likely continue to do as the 2024 presidential contest draws nearer.
