There’s an active debate in Democratic politics between progressives and moderates about how to build a winning coalition.

A new report from a pair of California researchers, shared exclusively with NPR, argues that debate misses the point. The answer isn’t centrism, they write, it’s respect for where working-class voters are coming from.

“It’s about understanding that people need a sense of personal and economic security before they will support the changes progressives are calling for,” the authors write.

The report’s authors are, to put a label on it, college-educated coastal elites. Joan C. Williams is a law professor from San Francisco who is known for her work in diversity, equity and inclusion. Jared Abbott leads the Center for Working Class Politics and has a Ph.D. from Harvard. Their intended audience is people who share their progressive politics.

Their message is that the Democratic Party would be making a huge mistake if it keeps catering to social justice warriors and fails to understand, respect and appeal to working-class voters. “The path heavily favors the party that wins working-class voters,” the report explains.

“I am tired of losing,” Williams said in an interview. “I want to build a sustained progressive coalition capable of delivering on progressive goals. And that’s not what we have now, and that’s not what we’ve had for decades.”

Titled “The Left’s Coalition Crisis: Understanding the Massive Divide Between Working Class and College Educated Voters, and How to Bridge It,” the report argues that Democrats have lost support from working-class voters of all races because the party’s base is out of touch with the priorities and values of those Americans.

The greatest divide is on the issue of “resisting authoritarianism.”

“Resisting authoritarianism is the second-highest priority for liberal college grads, but for workers, it’s like 19 out of 20,” said Williams.

Defending democracy was a major theme of Vice President Kamala Harris’ losing presidential campaign in 2024. She delivered her closing argument from the White House Ellipse, recounting President Trump’s actions on Jan. 6, 2021.

Another major theme of her campaign was defending abortion access. Those are two issues, according to the report, “that liberal college grads prioritize but most working-class Americans don’t.”

The lesson, they argue, isn’t that working-class voters are unreachable. It’s that you can’t reach them if you’re not focused on the issues they care about the most.

“If we really care about stopping authoritarianism, if we really care about defending democracy, we have to stop talking about defending democracy in the way that we’ve been doing for the last too many years,” Abbott said.

So, what should Democrats be talking about? The economy, and not just in abstract terms like “affordability,” because wages are as important as costs, the researchers find.

“Ten out of 12 workers’ top priorities are economics, so if you want them to vote for you, talk about economics,” Williams said.

Abbott said Democratic candidates this midterm election year have done a relatively good job of keeping that economic focus. But how they talk about economic issues matters too.

The researchers took issues that weren’t top priorities for working-class voters and poll-tested new messages framed around working-class values. That shift in messaging was able to move opinion.