Democrats Must Fight for Working People, Not the Elite

By Beau Sandoval, former Democratic candidate, Sandoval County Commission District 2

Four months after the election, the Democratic Party must confront difficult truths about its relationship with the working class. Once the clear-cut champions of everyday Americans, the

party lost the working class vote to Trump, specifically among non-college-educated voters. While Democrats only improved upon white, college-educated voters, young people’s support has also been slipping. The working class feels increasingly abandoned.

Over 60% of Americans live paycheck to paycheck, yet efforts to raise the minimum wage in a sustainable way have stalled. Meanwhile, 22% of seniors survive on $15,000 a year or less, and there has been little action to increase Social Security benefits or secure its future. Medicare doesn’t cover essential services like hearing, dental, and vision care, leaving many elderly Americans without proper healthcare. Furthermore, 17 veterans take their lives every day due to inadequate mental health care.

The wealthiest individuals—billionaires—continue to amass unimaginable fortunes. A billion dollars is almost impossible to grasp. If you were given $1 every second, it would take you 11 days to reach $1 million, but 31 years to reach a billion dollars. If you received $10,000 every week, it would take you 1.7 years to reach $1 million, but over 1,900 years to reach a billion. Even if you saved $100,000 every day since the birth of Jesus Christ, you’d still have less than one-fifth of Elon Musk’s current wealth. Imagine that. The wealthiest amongst us have quite literally never have it better and while ordinary people struggle every day. We need to be bold enough to call out the immorality of billionaires.

Yet, the Democratic Party has attracted substantial financial support from billionaires, with more billionaire support for our candidate than the GOP candidate in 2024. This creates a moral dilemma. How can Democrats claim to represent the working class when they are closely aligned with the very billionaires who benefit from the current system?

This was evident when House Democratic leader Hakeem Jeffries cozied up to Silicon Valley billionaires, pleading for their support. The failure to pass a comprehensive public option or negotiate lower drug prices through Medicare, despite the annual deaths of tens of thousands of Americans due to unaffordable healthcare, demonstrates the party’s reluctance to take bold action.

To regain the trust of everyday Americans, the Democratic Party must reject billionaire money and return to the values of leaders like FDR and JFK who fought for the poor and vulnerable. Only then can Democrats reconnect with the 77 million Americans who didn’t vote in 2024, showing them their voices matter. This is the path to victory— fighting for working people, not the wealthy.