Sen. Bernie Sanders, the independent who has represented Vermont since 2007 and twice ran for the Democratic presidential nomination, offered a frank diagnosis of the Democrats’ electoral failure on Tuesday.
“A Democratic Party which has abandoned working class people would find that the working class abandoned them,” Sanders said in a statement. “First, it was the white working class, now it is Latino and Black workers as well. While Democratic leadership defends the status quo, the American people are angry and want change. And they’re right.”
Exit polls showed that a historic number of Black and Latino men voted for the Republican candidate, President-elect Donald Trump.
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While 74 percent of Black male voters cast ballots for Harris on Tuesday, Trump won an estimated 24 percent of the demographic, according to AP Votecast. In comparison, data published by Pew Research after the 2020 election showed Trump only won roughly 8 percent of Black male voters in the last election.
A CNN exit poll indicated Trump won as much as 42 percent of Latino voters—the most successful Republican performance with the demographic since George W. Bush won about 44 percent of Hispanic voters in 2004, according to Pew Research data.
Sanders noted that major economic factors likely influenced the working class vote on Tuesday, including stagnant wages due to inflation, the threat of automation from AI and robotics, and high healthcare and prescription drug costs. He also called out party leadership for not listening to constituents worried about Israel’s ongoing war in Gaza—which cost Harris votes in crucial swing states like Michigan.
“Today, while the very rich are doing phenomenally well, 60% of Americans are living paycheck-to-paycheck,” Sanders said. According to a CNBC poll published earlier this year, over 65 percent of respondents said they lived paycheck-to-paycheck in 2023. Research published by the Bank of America Institute last month indicated at least one quarter of American households were spending most of their paychecks each month.
The Vermont senator guessed that the Democratic Party would “probably not” learn from any lessons about winning back the support of working class voters moving forward, but also seemed to hint at his own future plans.
“In the coming weeks and months, those of us concerned about grassroots democracy and economic justice need to have some very serious political discussions,” he wrote. “Stay tuned.”
