Stirewalt: The question that matters most in every election
Chris Stirewalt explains why Democrats are determined not lose the blue collar vote in 2020
The Democratic National Convention is targeting blue-collar and rural workers in the Midwest after alienating them in 2016, Fox News politics editor Chris Stirewalt argued Wednesday.
"You know, the question that matters most in every election, when you get down to it ... is [whether] this person cares about people like me," Stirewalt told "Bill Hemmer Reports."
SANDERS WARNS BIDEN MUST DO MORE TO WOO WORKING CLASS
"Hillary Clinton lost on that question to Donald Trump," he explained.
Now, Stirewalt added, Democrats are determined "not to lose on that question again by [claiming] empathy, empathy, empathy, empathy, empathy."
Empathy was a theme during the first night of the four-day convention, during which former first lady Michelle Obama accused the Trump White House of operating in "chaos" and without "empathy" as she urged voters to cast their ballots for Joe Biden.
Democrats, hoping to resonate with the blue-collar base, argue that "Joe Biden is a blue-collar guy from a Rust Belt state and that he cares about working class voters and will have their interests front and center," Stirewalt said.
The renewed focus comes after Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., called on Biden in May to strengthen his appeal among working-class and young voters."
"I think there is an excellent chance that Biden is going to win," Sanders told MSNBC at the time, "but in order to guarantee that, he is going to have to reach out to working-class people and young people in a way he has not done up to now.
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"And he is going to have to make it clear: He stands with a working class in this country that is struggling right now," Sanders said.
Heeding his advice, Democrats have turned Biden's campaign into "just one long ode to the White working class of the Midwest," Stirewalt said.
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