Teamsters Head At RNC Showed How Democrats Can Win Back Workers They’ve Lost

Sean O’Brien’s speech at the Republican National Convention was a show-stopper. It was also a blueprint that Democrats need to study.

O’Brien used Republican language to make the case for working people, and he very clearly split the room. In the video of the speech, you will notice that the applause he got for much of what he said was enthusiastic, but also reflected an audience that was deeply divided about what they were hearing.

The MAGA right is driven by powerful, wealthy backers, from Peter Thiel to Elon Musk, but there aren’t that many people like them. MAGA ideologues speak to some parts of the suburban, small-business owning, white people, but, again, you can’t win state-wide, much less national, elections with those people alone.

At some point, you have to get some significant percentage of working people to vote for you if you’re going to win. To that end, Republicans, especially since the rise of the Tea Party and later, MAGA and the cult of Donald Trump, need to find ways to convince working people to vote for them.

Republican policies are unambiguously terrible for working people and the poor. Yet according to a survey done by the Pew Research Center in August 2023, 38% of low income voters are or lean Republican. 46% of…