Rep. Ro Khanna (D-Calif.) has a message for Democrats who want to win back working-class voters who backed Donald Trump: stop the insults and start talking about economic patriotism.
"Democrats can win Trump voters who are Teamsters," Khanna wrote Thursday on X. "A bold, aspirational platform of economic patriotism can inspire our nation."
The post included a clip of Khanna speaking to Teamsters at their 31st International Convention in Las Vegas earlier this month. In the video, he directly addressed the elephant in the room.
"I know that there are Trump voters out here and I know there are people who voted for Harris," Khanna said. "But I want to say something to people who voted for Trump: we can't go on in this country hating each other. We can't go on in this country insulting each other."
His pitch was simple: "My appeal to you is, let's find a way to treat each other with respect again, to treat each other with dignity again, to build an economy for everyone and to make us proud of being American, we're all team America."
Working-Class Warning Signs
Khanna's olive branch comes as Democrats grapple with a real problem: working-class voters are leaving the party in droves. The Teamsters' own polling in 2024 showed rank-and-file members backed Trump over Kamala Harris by a whopping 59.6% to 34% in a national electronic poll.
That's a brutal number for a party that once counted unions as its backbone. Khanna's argument is that Democrats can't win those voters back by attacking them — they need to offer something better.
His solution? Populist economics. He's been promoting a new Economic Development Council and backing legislation to build new steel plants in deindustrialized towns. He's also calling for U.S. strength in industries like aluminum and shipbuilding. The idea is to make "economic patriotism" a real platform, not just a slogan.
Taking on Billionaires
Khanna's push also fits into a broader fight against billionaire power. He recently clashed with Elon Musk over DOGE cuts and warned about "oligarchs" after progressive candidates scored big wins in New York primaries.
In California, Khanna has teamed up with the Teamsters and SEIU-UHW to push a billionaire-tax measure onto the ballot. The tax would fund health care and education. Supporters call it economic fairness. Critics, including Gov. Gavin Newsom (D), warn it could drive wealth and tax revenue out of the state.
Whether Khanna's approach can actually flip Trump voters remains to be seen. But he's betting that a message of unity and economic opportunity beats partisan warfare — and that Democrats might finally be ready to listen.
