Former NBC “Today” show host Katie Couric warned this week that Democrats have “kind of lost” working class voters and urged the party to “do better” to regain their trust before the November election.
“I think that there needs to be a greater connection between the working class and the Democratic Party because, let’s face it…the Democrats have kind of lost the working class,” Couric told former Obama White House deputy chief of staff Alyssa Mastromonaco on the “Hysteria” podcast.
“It was never that way during all my years of covering politics,” Couric added. “You had the head of the Teamsters at the RNC, you have people buying into this notion that Republicans care about dinner table issues much more than Democrats. And these narratives, I think, have become too deeply entrenched about liberal college-educated elites who are condescending.”
The liberal former news anchor said Democratic support among working-class Americans has been dwindling ever since Hillary Clinton referred to former President Trump and his supporters as a “basket of deplorables.”
Clinton’s remark received widespread criticism at the time and has been credited as one of the turning points in the campaign that led to Trump’s 2016 victory.
Couric said Democrats need to form a “much stronger connection” to the working class and urged Kamala Harris to make a case to the “regular Joes.”
“They can’t just give up on that voting bloc…[they should say] ‘Hey, we care about you, we care about your issues, we know a lot of things have really been hard…but this is how we’re going to help. I just want to see her with a welding hat on, working with regular Joes,” Couric said.
Democrats have been hemorrhaging voters in the critical voting base in recent years. Political historians John B. Judis and Ruy Teixeira attributed the shift to the changing political landscape in the era of Trump, as well as the left’s embrace of what conservatives would describe as woke politics.
Earlier in the podcast, Mastromonaco brought up the Democrats’ “weird” campaign against Trump and his running mate JD Vance. Mastromonaco, who worked under former President Obama from 2011-2014, defended the party’s use of the label, which has become a favorite talking point among Harris allies and liberals in the media.
“This is working. Because you know what? They’re f—ing weird,” she said “This is all weird….the things that Republicans have come out and said…they’re being weird,” Mastromonaco said.
“You can think their behavior and their rhetoric is weird,”Couric replied, “but you can also do a better job of reaching out to disaffected voters who are non-college educated White people, in particular who feel left out.”
Couric also said she agreed with some Democrats complaining about the “racial segregation” of the Zoom campaign events for Harris, arguing that those critical of the separate nature of the groups have some “legitimate points.” The video calls were titled “White Dudes for Harris,” “Women for Harris” and “Black Women for Harris.”
