The Daily - John Fetterman and the Fight for White Working-Class Voters

Episode Date: November 7, 2022

For the Democrats to hold on to power in Washington, they have to do what President Biden did in Pennsylvania two years ago: Break the Republican Party’s grip on the white working-class vote, once the core of the Democratic base. In tomorrow’s midterm election, no race better encapsulates that challenge than the Pennsylvania Senate candidacy of John Fetterman.Is the plan working or is this crucial group of voters now a lost cause for the Democrats?Guest: Shane Goldmacher, a national political reporter for The New York Times.Background reading: Among white working-class voters in places like northeast Pennsylvania, the Democratic Party has both the furthest to fall and the most to gain.In the final days of the Pennsylvania Senate race, Mr. Fetterman has acknowledged that his recovery from a stroke remains a work in progress, leaning into the issue with a mix of humor, sarcasm and notes of empathy. For more information on today’s episode, visit nytimes.com/thedaily. Transcripts of each episode will be made available by the next workday. 

We are driving north on Highway 81, approaching Scranton, and about to pass an interchange for President Biden Expressway. You can see... From The New York Times, I'm Michael Barbaro. This is The Daily. You can literally see the freeway sign.

It's been pasted over to make it the President Biden Expressway, named after, obviously, the hometown kid. For Democrats to hold on to any power at all in Washington, they have to do what Joe Biden did in his home state of Pennsylvania two years ago. Break the Republican Party's grip on the white, working-class voters who used to be at the core of the Democratic Party base. The outcome's going to shape our country for decades to come. And the power to shape that outcome is in your hands. No race better encapsulates that challenge

than the Pennsylvania Senate candidacy of John Fetterman. I know Pennsylvania well, and John Fetterman is Pennsylvania. He is Pennsylvania. Today, national political correspondent Shane Goldmacher traveled to Pennsylvania to understand how Fetterman fits into the Democratic Party plan to lure those voters back, if the plan is actually working, or whether Biden was a fluke and that crucial group of voters is now a lost cause.

It's Monday, November 7th. It's Monday, November 7th. So, Shane, right before the last election, back in 2020, you went to northeastern Pennsylvania for The Daily to try to understand a pretty essential question about that race, which was whether it was possible for Joe Biden to win back the white working- class voters who had really abandoned the Democratic Party in large numbers four years earlier to vote for Donald Trump. And that ended up being a really prescient line of reporting because that's more or less exactly what Joe Biden did,

right? He did it, and he did it specifically in northeastern Pennsylvania. We have to understand that white voters without college degrees, not that long ago, were a competitive group between Democrats and Republicans. And then Trump came along, and all across the country, the Republican margins grew in this group. And it grew over a couple of different issues. group. And it grew over a couple of different issues. There was this sense that Democrats had sort of sold them out economically, that the trade deals that they backed before had hurt them. But I think the more resonant issues have been social issues. This vision that the Democratic Party has put forth of a multi-ethnic, multicultural America that, for many on the right feels just like woke and exclusive of them. And Trump came and he took what had been a trend and he magnified it. Right. And so in 2016, Trump won in Pennsylvania partly because he just blew out Hillary Clinton among these voters. And the lesson from 2016 in Pennsylvania

and all across the country is that the math for Democrats is just really hard to make work if you're getting annihilated by white voters who are working class. And the reason is there's so many of them. 42% of the electorate in the country nationwide in 2020 were white voters without college degrees. I mean, that's a huge number. That's essentially an insurmountable political obstacle. There's no victory in American politics from what you're saying without 42% of the vote or some of it. Yeah, you can't be losing by huge margins, right? be losing by huge margins, right? If you lose 42% of the electorate by a 70-30 margin, the math just becomes nearly impossible to close the gap everywhere else. And it's one of the reasons

that Pennsylvania is a real target for the Republican Party. And frankly, across the old industrial Midwest, these are places with an outsized portion of white voters without college degrees, the very people that Trump activated and turned into more solid Republicans. And so when Biden was running in 2020, his promise was, look, I'm going to slow this down, if not reverse it. And that's what he did. He ran as a moderate, as a person who could win the backing of police unions and firefighting unions. He tried to take positions that didn't turn off these voters culturally or economically. Right.

And so when the results came in in 2020, and you looked at the map, you could see that Joe Biden had improved all across the state in those exact communities. Trump was still winning, but Democrats weren't losing as badly as they did with Hillary Clinton. So it's not quite right to think of him as winning anything back so much as just losing it by less. Yeah, it wasn't the only reason he won Pennsylvania or the presidency, but it was a key part of the demographic shifts that put a Democrat back in the White House. Right. And in doing what Biden did with white working class voters in Northeastern Pennsylvania, he created a model for Democrats, not to reverse what Trump achieved with that demographic, but

to meaningfully blunt it. Right. So this time around, I wanted to come back to Northeastern Pennsylvania because the challenge that Democrats have with the white working class voters here is the challenge they have all over the country. And it's a challenge that's going to determine whether they can control the Senate and keep hold of Congress. And there's one race in particular, the Senate race in Pennsylvania,

that's seen as perhaps the likeliest single seat to determine whether Democrats or Republicans are in control of the Senate next year. And this seat is also a test of whether they can find another candidate like Joe Biden who doesn't scare away these voters. And to win in Pennsylvania, that kind of candidate is going to have to do all the things that a regular Democrat does. They're going to have to win pretty comfortably in the cities. They're going to have to carry the suburbs. And they're also going to have to appeal to these voters who were once Democrats but haven't been recently.

And those groups, they don't have a lot in common. Right. The Democrats are basically looking for a unicorn. unicorn. And then along came a candidate in the primary who said, guess what? I can do all of that for you. Pittsburgh! You can get the progressivism and you can get it with the kind of packaging that's going to appeal to everyone else. And his name is John Fetterman. Hi, everybody. I'm Lieutenant Governor John Fetterman, and I'm running for the United States Senate here in our beautiful Commonwealth. And the Democratic primary voters of Pennsylvania nominate him by a landslide.

Fetterman capturing 59% of the vote and possibly going on to win every county in Pennsylvania. And he looks like the kind of candidate who comes from central casting, at least when it comes to trying to appeal to this voting bloc. Standing six feet, eight inches tall in gym shorts and a hoodie, you'd never assume John Fetterman is a politician. He has a shaved head, goatee, his arms have tattoos on them. He almost never wears a suit. He's wearing the cargo shorts. He's wearing the sweatshirt.

He's a big, white, burly dude. Look, he doesn't look like the kind of Democrat that people have grown to distrust. Right. He's unpolished in his presentation, the way he talks. You know, getting on Twitter every morning is like starting the day with a dog turd and motor oil smoothie. It's just, it's horrible. And he's explicit about trying to appeal to white working class voters

in places like Northeastern Pennsylvania. This campaign has always been about every county, every vote. Now, what's interesting about Fetterman is that his politics are actually pretty left, even further left than Joe Biden in a lot of ways. This idea that some random senator from a state with 600,000 people can hold up the democratic will and the sense of urgency. For example, he's been an outspoken advocate to get rid of the filibuster.

I don't think that's very democratic at its core. To enact a whole range of progressive policies. Legal marijuana is serious policy for these serious times. He's been a big proponent of decriminalization of marijuana. We have freed individuals who their crime was being an 18-year-old sitting in a getaway car having no idea what was going on inside. He is a big proponent of criminal justice reform. And the central question of this election is if the Fetterman package can get him in the door,

is it enough for him to then make his case on policy why his progressivism is actually good for these white working class voters? Why his advocacy of a higher minimum wage could help them. Why it's his advocacy for a more expansive healthcare system that could advantage them. Because he thinks that those are winning points for Democrats among these voters. And that too many Democrats don't even get in the door in the first place. So how does this actually go for John Fetterman once it looks like he's going to be the Democratic nominee

for U.S. Senate from Pennsylvania? Well, something else very important happens right before he becomes the candidate, which is that he suffers a stroke and in his own telling almost dies. And so that means for the first few months as the Democratic nominee, he's not actually on the campaign trail, which of course isn't great if you're running for Senate. Right. But he does eventually get back out there. And by late summer, Daily producer Nina Feldman and I went and started visiting the area to see how he was playing with the voters we've been talking about. Hello, how are you doing? Wonderful.

And so Nina went to a rally in Scranton, which is President Biden's hometown, and a place that really has come to symbolize the heart of the white working class. My name is Nina. I'm with the New York Times with the Daily podcast. Okay. And what she found is that John Fetterman is drawing big crowds. Just chatting with folks about what brought them out today. What brought us out? To see the big guy. They talk about him as a person.

Well, he seems like a down-to-earth guy. How he just seems like a regular guy. He's an everyday guy. He's like us. Plain and simple, he's like us. Just somebody like them. An honest, good person. They like how normal he sounds. And I want to see him when he walks in on the Senate floor. All six feet, nine of them.

The idea of a regular guy walking around the halls of Congress. I want to see him get stuck in an elevator with Ted Cruz. And it jams. I mean, it stops. And John just looks at Ted and says, hi there. You've really played this scenario out. Well, if I ever see him. It's appealing for them. I mean, this is a time when most people talk about voting. They talk about holding their nose and picking the lesser of two evils. But Fetterman really does have real supporters, diehard supporters.

He has fans. And for some of them, even a stroke is a positive. What's your impression of his health issues? Oh, that. No, people have strokes. Get over them. I've had family members have strokes, so it's not the end of your life. They could relate to it. I have a pacemaker and a defibrillator, and I can still do...

Lots of people have suffered health struggles in their lives. I mean, I was proud of him. He did what he could to keep going. And had to get back up and keep going. He's just a man, you know, like he's a man's man. And had to get back up and keep going. And so, Fetterman has used that image as this big, strong, Pennsylvania tough guy to develop a real contrast with his Republican opponent, Dr. Mehmet Oz. Right. Better known by those of us who watch television as Dr. Oz. I'm Dr. Oz, and I approve this message. Exactly. And Dr. Oz is almost a perfect foil for John Fetterman. First of all, he's exceedingly rich.

He most recently didn't live in Pennsylvania. He's famous. He's polished. He's sharp. And he just escaped a bruising, expensive Republican primary where his opponents had questioned his MAGA credentials with the very base of white working class voters that John Fetterman says he can win. Right. So, so far, so good for John Fetterman in having Oz as his opponent. Yeah. And look, he entered the general election recovering from his stroke, mostly at home, but his campaign was throwing punch after punch online. Let me just give you one example. punch after punch online.

Let me just give you one example. Hey, Maymatt, this is Nicole Snooki. His campaign hired Snooki, the former reality TV star from Jersey Shore, to make a video claiming Oz as New Jersey's own. I know you're away from home and you're in a new place, but Jersey will not forget you. I just want to let you know, I will not forget you. And don't worry, because you'll be back home in Jersey soon. This is only temporary.

He flew banners over the beach in New Jersey, asking Oz to come home. And probably most famously, I thought I'd do some grocery shopping. I'm at Wagner's. Fetterman mocked a video that Oz had made during the primary in a supermarket. a video that Oz had made during the primary in a supermarket. That's $4. Carrots. That's $4 more. That's $10.

Where he was talking about the high prices of inflation in vegetables. And he started talking about shopping to buy crudités. My wife wants some vegetables for crudités, right? A very fancy sounding word for a plate of vegetables. Yes. And PA, we call this a veggie tray. And if this looks anything other than a veggie tray to you, then I am not your candidate. So all of this is playing perfectly into Fetterman's plan to embody the white working class. And Oz is giving him a huge assist by seeming so out of touch with that very same group of voters. Exactly. And by the end of summer, John Fetterman is reliably ahead in polls. And in fact, at that point, he's the only Democrat in the country who appears poised to flip a

Republican seat. Right. And then the Republican counteroffensive begins. He shot a teenager in cold blood, killing him for money to buy heroin. And John Fetterman wanted him to walk free. And it's really a two-pronged attack. John Fetterman wants to let as many criminals out of prison as he can. He'd end life sentences for felony murder. The first prong was the issue that was the subject of so many ads, which was crime. When illegals commit crimes here. Sanctuary cities is another policy that I very

much support. A policy that would let them back on our streets instead of deporting them. John Fetterman is too far left. He's dangerously liberal on crime. It's true that John Fetterman is not a tough on crime Democrat. And there have been many that have cast themselves as that, but that's not how he's campaigned in his career. And crime is a really effective strategy for Republicans. And it's one they use over and over because it really hits three critical demographic groups all at once. It appeals to voters in cities who are the ones actually suffering through increased crime. It appeals to voters in cities who are the ones actually suffering through increased crime. It appeals to voters in suburbs who are afraid that the increased

crime in the city is creeping closer and closer to them. And it appeals to people in more rural areas who sort of look down at those Democratic cities and can't believe how they're running things and messing things all up. And when I've talked to Republicans in Pennsylvania and in other states this year, they say it also is polling well with key swing voters. This guy is not fit to serve the great people in this Commonwealth of Pennsylvania for a variety of reasons. First of all, John Fetterman has never had a real job in his life. He's a giant fraud. The second prong of the Republican counteroffensive was to undercut his image

as a candidate of the working class. He dresses up like he's an industrious blue-collar worker, but for him, it is a costume. He's playing. It's make-believe. Every day is Halloween for John Fetterman. So they marry this attack on crime with these ideas that he's not really who he says he is. John Fetterman pretends he's Pennsylvania tough,

but he's sponged off asman pretends he's Pennsylvania tough, but he sponged off his rich parents till he was 49, admitting they were his principal source of income. Is that accurate? It is true. Yeah. So John Fetterman went to Harvard. And after graduating from graduate school, he ended up moving back to a small town in Western Pennsylvania called Braddock. And he became mayor. he ran. And the mayor of Braddock earns basically no salary. And he was supported financially by his parents during that period. They even supported a nonprofit that he used to help service the city. And so the goal for the Oz campaign, between crime, between his Harvard education,

between the fact that they said he was earning an allowance until he was in his 40s, was to flatten John Fetterman. And the problem for John Fetterman is that if Republicans flatten him, then is he just a liberal who happens to wear a hoodie? Right, because Republicans are trying to take the very thing that Democrats have been finding

so appealing about Vetterman, this ability to win over the white working class, and just strip him of it and say none of it was ever real. Right. And on the calendar in a normal campaign, a debate would be circled as a moment where you could push back, where you could make the case that I'm really the candidate I've been all along, and those negative, nasty ads you've been seeing, those aren't true. But for John Fetterman,

the debate date was circled for a very different reason. He hasn't fully recovered from his stroke. Gentlemen, thank you for being here. And this is a debate that was held under circumstances unlike almost any other debate. Above the moderators are two 70-inch television screens scrolling through closed captioning so he can read the questions and the answers as they're delivered, because he has auditory issues and struggles to understand what people are saying

if he can't read it at the same time. Lisa, with that, let's get started. Mr. Fetterman, we're going to begin with you. And at this big debate, Oz and Fetterman go at each other. I'm running to serve Pennsylvania. He's running to use Pennsylvania. Here's a man that spent more than $20 million of his own money to try to buy that seat. He raised taxes as mayor.

He tried to raise taxes as a lieutenant governor, 46%. That's a big tax rate. And he's done that without paying his own taxes 67 times. Absolutely. The Oz rule, of course, he's lying. It was helping two students 17 years ago to help them buy their own homes. They didn't pay the bills and it got her paid. And it has never been an issue in any of the campaign before. And Fetterman is struggling.

I do support fracking, and I don't, I don't, I support fracking, and I stand, and I do support fracking. He's struggling to speak at times, and he's struggling to articulate his rationale for a candidacy. articulate his rationale for a candidacy. I'm the only person on this stage right now that is successful about pushing back against gun violence and being the community more safe. And to define his image in greater detail for voters as to why he's a candidate for them on particular issues and as a person. for them on particular issues and as a person.

And at the end of it, you have a candidate who once was ahead in the polls, entering the homestretch of the campaign, struggling. We'll be right back. So Shane, as the Republicans are trying to paint Fetterman as a phony and claim that this blue-collar look and presentation, that it's nothing more than a costume, I'm wondering how well that line of attack works with the voters that it's targeting. Well, that's what we wanted to find out. Were these attacks taking a toll and essentially

erasing the very thing that John Fetterman promised, a different kind of image that could deliver a different kind of voter? Going by Sheetz. Do you know about the Sheetz-Wawa debate? I know it's a debate. So a few weeks ago, Nina and I went back to northeastern Pennsylvania. West is Sheetz, east is Wawa. To talk to voters about Fetterman. And the first place we went

was a little bar called Roosevelt Beer Garden. Just cleared out, but it was so busy before. It's in this town called Dunmore. It's a small town just bordering Scranton. Are you Chris? Yeah, very nice to meet you. And we were there to meet a guy named Chris Teig. He's a house painter who runs his own one-man business. We're a borough of about 14,000 people. We consider ourselves pretty much a family. Chris is white. He grew up in a Democratic family in the area that's been there for generations.

On the way, we even passed a highway exit that had his last name on it. I saw that as I drove up. I was like, is there any chance these are related? Well, my family owned that back in the 1870s. You owned what? That land where the Holiday Inn is. Oh, really?

Yeah, it was my great-great-grandfather. So you have, like, really deep ties here. When you talk to folks about northeastern Pennsylvania, three words get mushed together as one. Irish Catholic Democrat. This area was so solidly Democratic for years and years. In the bar where we met Chris, the Roosevelt had a picture of FDR hanging on the wall

right between the specials and the television. I think at the time, Obama was good for the country. So Chris voted for Obama twice. But in 2016, like so many people in the region, I did vote for Trump twice. He was pulled toward Donald Trump and says he probably would vote for him again. And so what did he tell you about who he's supporting in the Senate race? He's supporting John Fetterman. What do you think of his social media meme wars? Do you follow those at all?

I think they're savage. I loved it when he had the plane fly over. Was it Wildwood or Atlantic City, I think? And it was clear right away that Fetterman's personality and his image was a big reason why. clear right away that Fetterman's personality and his image was a big reason why. He's the Fetterman campaign's dream voter and exactly the kind of person they need to win over if they're going to win back any part of the working class white vote. He basically has more of a curb appeal versus Joe Biden and Hillary Clinton in my eyes. The two of them really aren't the most likable people. So I think he kind of is the star in the sky that shines out of people like that.

And talking to Chris was a reminder that most voters don't neatly agree with one party or the other. And some of the issues that Chris is focused on this year, abortion and marijuana legalization, happen to be two of John Fetterman's big issues, too. I do feel that women's rights are being violated through this radical Christian movement that we are seeing in this country,

and I don't think it's right because they don't want any exceptions for cases of incest or rape for any type of abortion. The other reason he said he really liked Fetterman is marijuana legalization. Do I have a bad back? No, but it happens to get, you know, raw at times doing physical work. So versus popping pills or drinking hard liquor to take away the pain, what's the alternative? Now, medical marijuana is legal in Pennsylvania, but recreational marijuana is not. And Chris wants it to be. Because I lost a lot of people to opiate addiction, a lot of friends, a lot of people in this town.

About 10, 15 years ago, had medical marijuana been legal, some of those people would have been still alive to use that as a crutch. And I'm a firm believer in that. those people would have been still alive to use that as a crutch. And I'm a firm believer in that. And what was really interesting in talking to Chris is that he really dislikes Joe Biden. As far as his economic policies, I believe they're a disaster. He thinks that the economic agenda that the Democrats have been pushing is terrible. But somehow, even though he says he knows Fetterman might vote for it if he goes to the Senate, he's not holding that against him.

Do you care about whether you vote you're voting for somebody to give power to the Democrats in Washington or the Republicans? Or are you focused on who the person is you're sending? I'm focusing on the person I'm sending. I mean, is it a little scary that he'll vote on his economic agendas? Yes. It's scary that he voted on Joe Biden's agenda. That's a scary thought, yes, as far as his economic policies. For Chris, he likes Fetterman just enough that it's worth having one extra Democrat in the U.S. Senate.

So with this voter, Fetterman is doing exactly what he and Democrats hope he can do. Use the kind of Fetterman package to get in the door and find a voter who will look at his policies and find that they are, in this case, Chris's interest. And as a result, Fetterman is able to transcend the normal baggage that a voter like Chris might have when it comes to the Democratic Party. Exactly. And so the question is, how many Chris's are there out there? This is Max. He's the mayor of Dunmore.

And as it happens, the Democratic mayor of Dunmore swung by while we were meeting with Chris. And he sat down. He ordered a cup of soup. And after we talked to Chris, we talked to the mayor outside the bar and asked him, by the way, are there other people like that who you know who are kind of like red-leaning or liked Trump that are excited about Fetterman? How many other people do you know who followed Chris's trajectory here?

And what did he say? Chris is the only one. Really? Yeah. Yeah, interesting. Chris was the only one. If you Yeah. Yeah, interesting. Chris was the only one. If you were a Trump supporter, like you were, you were Trump all the way, like everything down ballot too. It's, it's, it's crazy to see.

He's saying Chris is not common. Right. The mayor said when he goes around town, what's more common is seeing Trump flags still flying proudly rather than any of those voters even considering a Democrat ever again. Oz signs. Which is a Fetterman sign. So later that day, Nina and I drove up the road. Family restaurant, tavern. Pinkies.

To a town called Carbondale that's politically pretty similar to Dunmore, a once solidly Democratic town that's grown increasingly competitive. And we met with the mayor, Justin Taylor. So this was the first national bank of Carbondale. Justin's in his mid-40s, and he's been a Democrat his whole life. The first million-dollar corporation to form in the United States was here in Carbondale.

So those people are the ones who had their money here. If you can't tell from the name, Carbondale is a town that was once built on coal. And this bank building, which is now called the Anthracite Center, was once where coal barons kept their money. But that coal and that money, that's gone now. So we got this crazy idea. We couldn't decide

on a wedding venue, so we bought the building. And Justin gives us this great tour of this building that he and his wife bought, basically to get married in. And they've since turned it into an event center. We paid $400,000. Seems like a deal. It is. I mean, you can't

build this for $3 or $4 million. So now, in a town past its prime sits this opulent bank building where once coal barons' fortunes were inside a vault. And that vault is now a bar. And so in 2016, when Trump was campaigning on this message about forgotten Americans and bringing back prosperity to places that were left behind, it was a message that resonated with Justin Taylor. There's way more Carbondale-sized communities than there are, you know, Philadelphia and Pittsburgh, you know, and Pennsylvania. And he said it resonated for the people of Carbondale.

You have homeless veterans. You know, you have people who can't afford their prescriptions and food. You have all kinds of other issues at home. Like, don't worry about everywhere else. Worry about here first. And I think that really is the message that I think people may have picked up on from Trump. And he actually voted for Trump in 16 and then publicly endorsed him as a Democrat in 2020. I didn't drink some Trump Kool-Aid one day I woke up. I just can't honestly support the Democratic Party anymore because it's not the party that I grew up with and knew to be as I

thought it would be, you know, for working class folks and, you know, middle of the road type things. And the reason he's moved farther and farther right is he sees the Democratic Party as basically gone off a cliff on social issues, judging people like him who don't necessarily toe the party line. I mean, it's just people who are, you know, again, just generally fed up with a lot of things, whether it be anti-police rhetoric, whether it be illegal immigration and giving... And in particular, they were judgmental that not agreeing with the Democratic Party

on transgender rights meant you were a bigot. Or being unhappy about a focus on diversity made you a racist. So in the Senate race, the Democrats have picked a candidate whose entire campaign strategy publicly has been, I am going to be the kind of Democrat who can win back people like you, Democrats who voted for Democrats until Trump. And when it comes to John Fetterman, he's not buying it.

So why isn't he winning your vote? I don't think he's winning anybody's vote. He's definitely not the person. And I think, you know, people view him as a fake. The Carhartt sweatshirts, the whole nine yards, like he's not a working class guy. He said basically he's an empty Carhartt sweatshirt. A fake. A phony.

Exactly the Republican message. There's a group of population in the Democratic Party that think that that represents all. Like, I don't, you know, I don't look like that. I don't, you know, act like that. You think John Fetterman is liberal Democrats' conception of who would appeal to you? Yes. Yeah, that's exactly it. The liberals think this guy here, he'll get all of them back. It's backfiring. So unlike Chris Teig, who finds Fetterman likable enough, identifies with him enough to actually explore his policies and eventually support him, with him enough to actually explore his policies and eventually support him, Justin's relationship with the Democratic Party is so poisoned that there's absolutely no chance he's going to see

Fetterman as anything other than a fraud. Right. Fetterman's not even getting in the door with people like Justin Taylor. And there are a lot of Justin Taylors in this area. Right. And what Fetterman needs, what the Democratic Party needs, are people with credibility. Sometimes they're going to be local people, sometimes they're going to be people who are working class. But even for those people, it's tough. And we met one of them, who's a hardcore union Democrat, always has been, and who does exactly that. He spends his free time trying to make the case for Democrats to his other fellow union members. Hi, how are you?

And his name is Steve Papp. We're at the New York Times. We've been in touch with Steve. Yes, he's here waiting for you. Come on in. Thanks so much. We met Steve at the local union hall in Scranton. What job site are you coming from today? Today I'm coming from Alvornia University. They're renovating an old building. He came just after finishing work, went for a quick shower at home before sitting down to talk to us.

You can't tell somebody how to vote. They don't want to be told how to vote. So I've always talked the issues. And he had a way of talking about his efforts to convert people to the Democratic Party and how it's changed over time. When I talk to somebody, if I've got some vote union stickers, and I see we're having a breakthrough, I'll give them a sticker. Put it on your hard hat. You get them from when you come to the meetings at the hall. When he talks to people and he finds somebody who's a convert, he gives them a sticker. He says they're sticker-worthy. But there have been fewer

people who are sticker-worthy these days. Instead... So you tell somebody that critical race theory is the study of... Instead of giving away stickers. ...race in the lens of history through how things were governed and... He finds himself trying to explain away critical race

theory. If your kid had the potential to be shot in the back. Black Lives Matter. Imagine, like, what that would feel like. I said, I would protest too. Okay, so you're a parent, right? What if your kid was gay? Or was gender confused?

Like, what do you do? Hate them? Kick them out of the house? I mean, you can't change this. And he doesn't find the audience very receptive. It's hard to overstate how much Steve loves the union way of life. And it's almost painful for him, as he describes trying to sell his fellow carpenters on the idea that it's the Democrats who are protecting that. A lot of guys were Democrats, and if they voted Democrat, it was because of labor.

But it seems like the last 10 years, that started to go away, and noticeably so. And they totally push the labor issues aside. People don't even care about their economics. They want to hate. So what is the answer? You've got to get in their space, and maybe it has to be brought down from an elitist level to a working man's level.

So maybe the Democratic Party should maybe not speak so loudly about it, but then you're marginalizing who they're supporting. So I don't know if that's the answer. You just put your finger on it in a way that I wouldn't have thought about it or articulated, which is, what do you do? Do you not talk about those issues? But then you're saying that's its own box right yeah because those are also people that you want to support and you're pushing the legislation me as a democrat i agree with that i agree with those

things a lot of democratic people agree with that but when you're putting those messages out and it's landing on how do you protect marginalized groups while still appealing to white working class voters? Is it called a conundrum or something like that? The Democrats got to figure it out. the Democrats got to figure it out. Steve called it a conundrum. But another way to think about it is as a reckoning. A reckoning inside a multi-ethnic and multicultural Democratic Party that still needs the votes of many white working class voters if it wants to win elections.

And this debate about white working class voters, it's not just happening in Pennsylvania. It's playing out across the Senate map, in Ohio and Wisconsin, Nevada and New Hampshire. And of course, looming just over the horizon is the 2024 presidential campaign. The John Fetterman candidacy, win or lose, his showing in places like northeastern Pennsylvania, is a test of just how winnable these voters still are for the Democratic Party, of whether Joe Biden's 2020 results were just an aberration. Right.

In other words, does the Democratic Party have to change something more fundamental than its messenger? Or must it just bank on the fact that these voters, while still the biggest voting bloc in America, are actually a shrinking voting bloc in America, are actually a shrinking voting bloc. That every year, the country slowly becomes more educated and more diverse. But the elections on Tuesday are about the now. And right now, it's getting harder and harder for Steve to sell his fellow carpenters on the Democrats and on John Fetterman. on the Democrats and on John Fetterman. 99% of the times I'm hanging out with my brothers building America.

You can't, you gotta work. You gotta do your job and there's a lot to it. But that 1% is exhausting. It's exhausting to go home with it. It's exhausting to live it every day. It's exhausting to have to explain to people and like dispel all that misinformation that's coming out there. And I do have a phrase sometimes that I let my wife know about.

I'm like, I don't want to participate anymore. I'll say, I don't want to participate. I'm tired. Well, Shane, thank you very much. Thank you. We'll be right back. We'll be right back. Here's what else you need to know today.

Twitter's new owner, Elon Musk, has undertaken a series of massive layoffs that have cut loose half the company's workforce, about 3,700 jobs. The layoffs spanned the entire company, including the teams responsible for weeding out extreme content that violates Twitter's rules, and the team combating misinformation around elections. That has alarmed campaign officials, given that midterm elections in the U.S. will be held tomorrow. In a tweet after the layoffs began,

one of Twitter's co-founders, Jack Dorsey, apologized to the fired workers, saying that under his leadership, the company had grown too large too fast. Today's episode was produced by Nina Feldman and Will Reed. It was edited by Paige Cowett. Fact-checked by Susan Lee. Contains original music by Dan Powell and Alisha Ba'itub.

And was engineered by Chris Wood. Our theme music is by Jim Brunberg and Ben Landsberg of Wonderly. That's it for The Daily. I'm Michael Barbaro. See you tomorrow on Election Day.