<mediadc-video-embed data-state="{"cms.site.owner":{"_ref":"00000161-3486-d333-a9e9-76c6fbf30000","_type":"00000161-3461-dd66-ab67-fd6b93390000"},"cms.content.publishDate":1665598837580,"cms.content.publishUser":{"_ref":"0000017b-3108-d928-a77f-73ccd2e60000","_type":"00000161-3461-dd66-ab67-fd6b933a0007"},"cms.content.updateDate":1665598837580,"cms.content.updateUser":{"_ref":"0000017b-3108-d928-a77f-73ccd2e60000","_type":"00000161-3461-dd66-ab67-fd6b933a0007"},"rawHtml":"rnrn
var _bp = _bp||[]; _bp.push({ "div": "Brid_65418174", "obj": {"id":"27789","width":"16","height":"9","video":"1114585"} }); ","_id":"00000183-cd63-d5ff-a7af-ddff5ad70000","_type":"2f5a8339-a89a-3738-9cd2-3ddf0c8da574"}”>Video EmbedIf you ever get the feeling that Democratic campaign staffers are a lot whiter and better-credentialed than the party’s voters, you’re right. And Swarthmore College sociologist Daniel Laurison now has data to back it up.
According to Laurison’s database of more than 4,500 Republican and Democratic staffers who worked on presidential primary and general election campaigns from 2004 to 2020, 68% of Democratic staffers are white, compared to 60% of Democratic voters.
INFLATION TOP VOTER ISSUE, 60% BLAME BIDEN BUMBLING
The differences become even more stark when we turn to education. Over 90% of Democratic staffers have college degrees, compared to two-thirds of U.S. adults who have graduated college. And 40% of Democratic staffers went to elite schools, such as those in the Ivy League, compared to just 4% of the overall population.
Former Democratic pollster David Shor, who was fired from a Democratic polling firm after noting that riots have historically hurt Democrats in election years, explained why the mismatch between Democratic staffer privilege and the rest of the population hurts the Democratic Party.
“It is descriptively true that people who work in campaigns are extremely young and much more liberal than the overall population, and also much more educated,” Shor recently told Ian Ward. “I think that this is pushing them to use overly ideological language, to not show enough messaging or policy restraint and, from a symbolic perspective, to use words that regular voters literally don’t understand — and I think that that’s a real problem.”
Maybe base Democratic voters are as obsessed with abortion as Democratic campaign staffers have been this election year. Or maybe, they’d rather hear messages about how Democrats will address issues such as inflation and crime. We’ll find out this November.
