The McDonald’s restaurant in Feasterville-Trevose, Pennsylvania, was closed, but across the street, hundreds of people were gathering, hoping to catch a glimpse of what was happening inside.
There, he replaced the former US president Donald Trump Dressed in his usual uniform with an oversized apron with yellow trim, he watched the deep fryer, put salt on the fries, then passed the finished product through the self-service window to a line of pre-screened customers in cars, cameras snapping photos the whole time.
“I worked (at McDonald’s) 15 minutes longer than Kamala,” Trump says, referring to his rival in the 2024 presidential race, Vice President Kamala Harriswho worked at a fast food chain when she was a student.
Hilary Beaumont says in a report She told Al Jazeera English website that this trick was not just an opportunity on Trump’s part to harass Harris, but it was also the latest attempt on his part to get closer to a major part of the American electorate, the working class.
As the middle class shrinks in the United States, working-class and low-income people make up an increasing share of the electorate. The percentage of people considered low-income has risen from 27% in 1971 to 30% in 2023, according to the Pew Research Center.
The two main candidates are gaining support from this demographic in the final days before the elections scheduled for November 5. But experts say Trump still has an advantage among working-class voters, who see him as a beacon of prosperity.
When the Progressive Policy Institute conducted a poll in 2023 asking working-class voters to choose the president who had done the most for working families over the past 30 years, Trump was the clear winner, with 44% of respondents choosing him, while only 12% chose him. Current president joe biden.
“It’s highly ironic,” says Bertral Ross, a professor at the University of Virginia School of Law. “He has not lived his life in a pro-working-class, pro-low-income way. However, he presents himself as a champion of working-class and low-income people.”
Trump, however, dodged questions about whether he supports increasing the minimum wage, a policy that would likely help fast food workers.
Real estate tycoon
Trump is the scion of a real estate empire that he inherited from his late father, Fred Trump, and his public persona depends on his image as a successful businessman.
During an election rally in Pennsylvania last September, Trump said, “I know a lot about overtime. I used to hate giving overtime. I hated it,” adding, “I shouldn’t say this. But I will let other people work.”
However, even as he adopted the appearance of a successful businessman, Trump also gained support among his base of working-class, non-college-educated voters.
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His strategy, experts say, is to portray himself as one of them. In October, for example, he told a Bronx barbershop, “You’re just like me. The same things. We’re born the same way.”
According to Ross, the strength of Trump’s support among the working class goes beyond the current election cycle, he says To Al Jazeera, “It is difficult to pinpoint the source of this potential growing power (but) the emotional appeal has always been there… He has enjoyed this advantage since he ran for the first time in 2016. This advantage still exists, and may be stronger in this election than it was in 2016 and 2020.”
In contrast, his rival, Harris, since entering the race in July, has emphasized her middle-class upbringing while reminding voters that Trump “got $400 million on a silver platter” from his father.
Harris and the working class
Like Trump, Harris has publicly supported policies targeting low-income voters, including providing a child tax credit and raising taxes on tips. However, Harris has faced difficulties in dealing with working-class voters, many of whom work in manual labor. Or in services or working on contracts.
For example, in September it failed to gain the endorsement of the Truckers Union, a prominent labor union that supported Biden in 2020. Instead, the Truckers Union chose not to make any endorsements, in a clear break with tradition, as the union had She has supported Democratic presidential candidates since 2000.
Working-class voters have moved away from the Democratic Party in recent decades, says Jared Abbott, director of the Center for Working Class Policy, a US-based think tank. He explained that many feel that the party has neglected issues such as globalization, which has led to the loss of millions of jobs, especially in the swing states of Wisconsin, Michigan, and Pennsylvania.
Although low-income voters are less likely to vote, Ross says Trump convinced them that the system was rigged against them, and he often attributed his defeat in 2020 to widespread electoral fraud.
“This message has been very successful with less engaged voters because, frankly, the system has not served those voters well,” he said. For example, many states do not require employers to give workers time off to vote on Election Day. There is no federal law requiring companies to do this.
With long lines at polling stations, many vulnerable workers cannot spare time. At the same time, strict voter identification laws may impose a heavy burden on those who cannot afford to obtain such documents.
Ross points to another obstacle that Democrats like Harris face in this area: Low-income voters may view Harris as a member of the political elite.
Although Harris has often boasted of her middle-class childhood in Oakland, California, she now lives in Brentwood, an affluent area of Los Angeles, and she and her husband are estimated to be worth millions of dollars, based on government disclosures she has filed. As a result, “they still… “Unable to see her as one of them.”
