Former Trump economic adviser Larry Kudlow highlighted a New York Times article by Thomas Edsall, a former Washington Post columnist, entitled "A Working-Class Party Without Many Workers," calling it a significant piece of political analysis.

Edsall draws on polling data showing that non-college-educated voters diverge sharply from the Democratic Socialists of America (DSA) on several major policy issues, including open borders, defunding the police, abolishing ICE, and an array of transgender rights initiatives. The gap underscores a broader realignment that has reshaped American politics over the past several election cycles, during which working-class voters — particularly non-college-educated and Hispanic voters — have shifted toward the Republican Party, a trend documented across 2020 and 2024 exit polling.

According to the DSA's own internal surveys, the organization's membership skews heavily white and professional. The data indicate that 85 percent of members are non-Hispanic whites, while 9 percent are Hispanic, 5 percent are Asian American, and 4 percent are Black. Only 4 percent of DSA members hold blue-collar jobs.

Kudlow argued that despite claims by figures such as Abdul El-Sayed, a former Michigan gubernatorial candidate and public health official; Francesca Hong, a Wisconsin state legislator; Zohran Mamdani, a New York state assemblymember; and Hasan Piker, a prominent online political streamer, to represent working-class interests, the demographic reality of their movement tells a different story.

Kudlow asserted that President Trump is the political leader who genuinely represents working-class values. He acknowledged that this may seem ironic given the DSA's intense opposition to Trump, but described it as a political fact.

Edsall notes that the broader Democratic Party holds generally positive views of socialism, which helps explain why many leading Democrats have welcomed self-described socialists into the party coalition. The DSA's membership surged following Bernie Sanders' 2016 and 2020 presidential campaigns, growing from roughly 6,000 members to tens of thousands and helping elect socialists to local and state offices across the country. Notable exceptions to the party's embrace include former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and Senators John Fetterman and Joe Manchin, though Kudlow observed that such dissenters are relatively few.

Mainstream Democratic leaders have largely embraced the socialist wing, Kudlow stated, and Republicans are expected to make socialism a central line of attack in the upcoming midterm elections. He predicted that the socialist label would likely help Republicans capture the Senate, though he was less certain about the House. He pointed to Michigan and Maine as states likely to flip Republican.

Kudlow suggested that the GOP would benefit from pairing its criticism of socialism with a pro-tax-cut message aimed at working families, arguing that opposing socialism alone may not be sufficient to retain or expand House representation.

The central takeaway, Kudlow concluded, is that while self-described socialists claim to champion the working class, they command little actual working-class support, whereas Trump's free-enterprise policies continue to perform well.