Trump won the America that Democrats forgot
President Donald Trump won in 2024 largely by arguing that he—unlike the Democrats—was focused on people’s economic insecurities. While Democrats debated Gaza, transgender rights, abortion, and democracy itself, Trump’s message centered largely on economic security.
Trump had no actual policy platform to lower prices “on Day 1,” but that didn’t matter to a lot of voters. They simply wanted to be seen. While Democrats (me included) pointed to improving jobs and economic numbers, many Americans weren’t feeling good about their own finances—and at least someone acknowledged their pain.
That message was so powerful that 46% of Latino voters backed Trump despite his explicitly racist rhetoric. A person’s concerns about bigotry and democracy are almost always outweighed by their worries about feeding their family.
Former North Carolina Sen. John Edwards, shown in 2004.
Years ago, former North Carolina Sen. John Edwards spoke about “two Americas” during his 2004 and 2008 presidential campaigns. His argument was simple: There was one America for the rich and well-connected—with privilege, access to quality health care and education, and political influence—and there was another America for everyone else, where people struggled to make ends meet, juggled multiple jobs, lacked health care, sent their kids to underfunded schools, and had zero political power.
Today, this “two Americas” divide has grown more stark. Earlier this year, an economic analysis by Moody’s Analytics found that the top 10% of earners—those making roughly $250,000 a year or more—now account for an astonishing 49.7% of all consumer spending. Thirty years ago, that figure was roughly 36%.
Moody’s chief economist estimated that this same 10% now drives nearly a third of the nation’s gross domestic product. “The finances of the well-to-do have never been better, their spending never stronger, and the economy never more dependent on that group,” he told The Wall Street Journal.
Education and income remain tightly linked, which is shown in government studies from 2018 and 2022. And 56% of college graduates backed Democratic nominee Kamala Harris last year. But among non-college-educated voters, her support was just 45%.
So perhaps it shouldn’t be surprising that she won those making more than $100,000 a year, 51% to Trump’s 47%, while losing those earning less than $100,000 by the same margin, according to exit polls.
It’s distressing that Democrats have lost the very argument they once defined. Edwards warned of two Americas—one with power and privilege, another struggling to survive. Twenty years later, that divide has deepened, and somehow it’s Trump who’s managed to speak to the people living in the second America. He doesn’t offer them solutions, only recognition—and in a country where so many feel unseen, that’s enough.
The greatest con in American political history isn’t just that Trump sold himself as their champion. It’s that Democrats stopped talking to them at all.
