How Democrats Can Win Back the Working Class

A guest OpEd by two term Georgia State Senator Nabilah Islam Parkes

Let’s Address This periodically publishes pieces by scholars and national thought leaders on the human rights issues that impact us. State Senator Nabilah Islam Parkes is the first American Muslim elected to the Georgia Senate, and is now serving in her second term. Below is her compelling piece on how Democrats can win back working class voters. Please read and share.

---

How Democrats Can Win Back the Working Class

By State Senator Nabilah Islam Parks

Kamala Harris’s loss this past November showed that millions of working class and middle class American families — including in Gwinnett County, which I represent in the State Senate — have lost trust in the Democratic Party. It was a wakeup call. Democrats need to win those voters back. And the election of a new DNC chair on February 1st is an opportunity for us to set a new course, and remind those working families that it’s the Democrats who are fighting for them every day.

After our loss to Donald Trump in 2016, we organized to turn Georgia blue — and we can do it again. I worked at the Democratic National Committee in 2017 and 2018 to build the infrastructure we needed to swing voters our way. Then, as we prepared for the 2020 election, I served as a senior advisor for the Gwinnett County Democratic Party, Georgia’s second-largest county party. Our work paid off: Joe Biden won Georgia, and Gwinnett moved 12 points further into the Democratic column.

But to do the same again, we need to return to our roots, as the party of American workers and their families. We need to make sure our priorities reflect the kitchen-table concerns of ordinary families, so everyone will have a fair shot at the American Dream – just like my parents had when they decided to raise me here.

Learning From History

Ever since FDR’s New Deal, Democrats were the steadfast advocate for labor unions, working families, and those striving for a better future. Meanwhile, for decades GOP policies have sucked money from the pockets of working families into the bank accounts of billionaires and bankers, and now a grifter who can’t speak five sentences without a lie has recaptured the presidency.

Donald Trump pretends to be on the side of regular Americans — and then pushes for tax cuts for billionaires, and tariffs that will make everything more expensive. And yet Trump and the GOP managed to convince millions of families that they, not the Democrats, were the party of working people: in November, almost half of union households voted GOP. They included not just white families, but Black, Latino and Asian American families, too.

Make no mistake – Democrats have made some important steps in the right direction, laying the groundwork for an economy built from the bottom up. However, workers and their families have not felt enough of the benefit, and the positive long-term economic investments that the Biden Administration made are not paying off quickly enough for those at the bottom of the ladder. Rising job numbers and a booming stock market are good, but if the gains don’t effectively reach family budgets, they’re not enough.

The Struggle Is Real

Never mind getting ahead; many of my constituents can barely keep from falling behind, in an economy rigged in favor of CEOs and billionaires. Maybe you’re one of them: from nurses to teachers to restaurant and retail workers to receptionists to delivery drivers, Georgians are watching their healthcare and childcare costs continue their decades-long increase, paying more for gas and groceries, seeing their rent go up. Over the last decade, the median rent in my local Gwinnett County went up more than 40 percent, compared to 17 percent nationwide. Neither of these are acceptable given the minimum wage has remained stagnant and wealth and income inequality continues to increase.

In my own district, working Americans of all races and cultures are feeling the pinch, including immigrants like my parents, first-generation Americans like me and my husband, and those whose families have been here for a century. They need Democrats to fight for them. And to be sure, I understand the vicious misogyny and racism Vice President Harris faced as a Black and Asian woman — I faced and continue to face it myself every day as an Asian American woman. And I understand that was one of multiple factors that influenced the outcome, and at the polls most voters prioritize their economic security over anything else.

As the mother of a newborn, I know young parents are hit hard by the costs of raising a family, which I’m trying to address in the State Senate; I introduced a bill to make baby products like diapers, cribs and strollers tax-exempt. Manufacturing workers and tradespeople need job security, and apprenticeships, and wages that stay ahead of inflation. Everyone needs protection from price-gouging that hits hardworking families hardest, and from bullying by giant corporations that crushes struggling small business owners.

Listening to Voters Is a Non-Negotiable

Voters are telling us they’re hurting, and our party needs to do a better job of listening. We need to be taking our policy, strategy, and messaging cues from working class people, not from big donors and Wall Street. That’s the only way we’ll rebuild trust – and reinvigorate our communities.

Listening to our families is the only way to ensure our policies are delivering what our families need. Listening is what I hope our new DNC chair will do — and will push our entire party to do. The stakes couldn’t be higher: over the next four years, working families will bear the brunt of policies that favor the wealthy and powerful over everyday Americans.

I won reelection in November by a ten-point margin by practicing what I preach. I’ve never forgotten my roots as the child of immigrants who came to Gwinnett County to seek a better life for our family. I listened to working people like them across my district and made sure my words and my policies reflected what they said. Government is for the people; that’s why I ran, and why I serve.

The Future Is Hopeful If We Act Now

If Democrats show families we’re willing to fight for them, they’ll come back to us. Our new chair needs to make sure we organize in every community across Georgia and the nation. Our chair needs to make sure we craft policies that respond to what we hear. We did it in 2020. I know we can do it again. And when we do, we’ll win. Sometimes politics is just that simple.

Nabilah Islam Parkes is Georgia State Senator for District 7. Readers may contact Senator Islam Parkes at nabilah@nabilahislam.com.