PUBLICATIONS AND REPORTS
TOOLKIT - 09.14.2026
The Win-o-Meter Toolkit
How to talk to working-class voters: A six-part formula
The Coalition Crisis Toolkit explains how Democratic candidates can connect with working-class values in a wide range of issue areas. This Toolkit provides a simple 6-part formula that can increase support from both the working class and Democrats’ college-educated base. It moves the needle most among key groups: working-class independents (+13.7), 2024 non-voters (+13.2) and 2024 Trump voters (+10.6).
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REPORT - 09.10.2026
The Working-Class Win-o-Meter:
Dialing up to victory
In this report we develop a data-based roadmap to help increase Democrats’ support among working-class voters, based on one of the largest survey experiments of its kind, with over 40,000 respondents. Each respondent worked through a series of head-to-head matchups between fully described Democratic and Republican candidates and told us which one they would vote for (or neither). Because each candidate’s demographics, background, rhetoric, and policy positions were varied at random, comparing the candidates voters choose allows us to pinpoint which features shift working-class votes. The result is what we call the Win-O-Meter: an electoral victory machine with six dials.
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TOOLKIT - 08.17.2026
The Coalition Crisis Toolkit
How to connect with working-class values: A toolkit for candidates
This toolkit explains how Democratic candidates can connect with working-class voters in messaging around affordability, defense of democracy, and climate and culture issues.
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Report - 08.17.2026
Kitchen Table Messaging for the Populist Era
Economic populist rhetoric is all the rage in Democratic circles these days, but not all populist messages are equally effective. In June, the Center for Working Class Politics (CWCP) and the Rural Urban Bridge Initiative (RUBI) conducted a poll of 6,100 adult Americans (fielded by Verasight) with an oversample of rural residents. Each respondent first saw a Republican opposition message (randomly assigned to focus on either government corruption and waste or immigration) so that the Democratic messages were tested against a realistic partisan counterargument rather than in a vacuum. They then evaluated three messages drawn at random from a pool of fourteen spanning the range of economic populist appeals in today's Democratic Party.
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Report - 07.27.2026
Democratic Campaign Rhetoric Analysis
How Democratic congressional candidates' messaging shifted across three election cycles
Go To ReportReport - 10.06.2025
Democrats’ Rust Belt Struggles and the Promise of Independent Politics
An exhaustive survey finding that economic populism resonates across Ohio, Michigan, Wisconsin, and Pennsylvania — and that independent candidates outperform Democrats delivering the same message.
Download ReportReport - 07.21.2025
Working-Class Social and Economic Attitudes
A study revealing where working-class voters stand on key issues and how they differ from wealthier Americans.
Download ReportReport - 10.24.2024
Populism Wins Pennsylvania
We surveyed attitudes toward political messages to see what moves working-class voters in the Keystone State.
Download ReportReport - 03.12.2024
Where Are All The Left Populists
Progressives, Populists, and the Working Class Among 2022 Democratic Candidates
Download ReportReport - 06.13.2023
Trump’s Kryptonite
How Progressives Can Win Back the Working Class
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Appendix II
Appendix III