A working-class party, if you can keep it

The Republican Party‘s transition to the preferred party of the working class has given it an enormous opportunity to cement itself as the nation’s majority party and keep control of the federal government and key states for years to come.

On Nov. 5, President-elect Donald Trump cemented the realignment of the political parties as he decisively won the Electoral College, as well as the national popular vote for the first time in his three runs for the presidency. No longer does the GOP rely on high-income suburbanites to drive its electoral coalition. Rather, it now relies on low-income voters who once formed the bedrock of the Democratic Party’s coalition dating back to the days of Franklin Delano Roosevelt and the New Deal.