The Guardian published (last April, a lifetime ago, I know) some interesting and important research about how Democrats can win over white Republican voters, and better engage black voters, with a message that tackles BOTH race AND class together, rather than by avoiding race.

www.theguardian.com/…

Arguments for courting white working-class voters are bound up with a corollary, often unspoken, claim: Democrats must choose between non-college white voters and voters of color. Baked into this is the conviction that appealing to one group necessarily imperils Democratic chances with the other. We have important new evidence that we discuss below that shows this is wrong. [my bold]

The author reports on message testing done in Minnesota, comparing the effectiveness of a message that avoids mentioning race and mentions only class, versus one that mentions how race is used to divide us, in shifting the perspective of white voters from Republican to a progressive candidate.

They started by showing people a flyer with classic Republican race-baiting talking points about “criminal and illegal aliens” that a majority of both blacks and whites were actually persuaded by. Then, they gave them one of two different flyers:

From there, half the respondents were shown a flyer detailing a progressive populist agenda silent on race – the settled wisdom of the class-left. The other half were shown a race-class narrative that describes how certain politicians use racial division to cleave us from each other in order to gain and hold economic power. The race-class flyer says “Whether white, black, or brown, 5th generation or newcomer, we all want to build a better future for our children. My opponent says some families have value, while others don’t count. He wants to pit us against each other in order to gain power for himself and kickbacks for his donors.” [my bold]

The stunning results:

When these respondents were shown the class-only progressive flyer and asked which candidate they would select, 55% stuck with the racially divisive politician, and 44% shifted to the progressive candidate. But for those shown the race-class message the numbers flipped. Only 43% stayed with the conservative candidate while 57% switched to the progressive who addressed race and class together. Put bluntly, the race-class message was significantly more effective at generating progressive votes than the class-only script. And this was among white voters initially keen on the divisive message.

Their conclusion can be very helpful in helping us feel more empowered to discuss things with constituents in a real and authentic way, rather than artificially leaving out what might actually be our most important talking points.