Democrats to White Men: We Want You Back

As midterm elections get closer, Democrats are debating whether to court a long-disaffected group of voters: white men, especially working-class ones without college degrees, the New York Times reports. Frank Houston, a party chairman in Michigan, says he and others like him refuse to "just write off 30-year-old to 40-year-old [white] guys, let alone anyone who’s older." But it's hard: Issues like civil rights, anti-Communism, feminism, and especially gun control have alienated white men from the Democratic Party for generations. What's more, fewer women and minority voters tend to vote in midterm elections.

So what to do, with President Obama's popularity sagging and many Democrats trying to defend red-state Senate seats? One approach has been to promote a minimum-wage increase, which polls well across the board, and some lawmakers are emphasizing their Christian beliefs or love for hunting. But older white men like Gari Day, 63, of Detroit, are holding firm: "Democrats are for a bunch of freeloaders in this world as far as I’m concerned," he said. "Republicans make you work for your money, and try to let you keep it." Still, polls show Hillary Clinton is barely behind or leading among white voters—which, if it holds, would dash Republican dreams of winning the White House in 2016, reports the Daily Beast. (More white voters stories.)