On Politics: In the middle (class) of it all
POSTCARD FROM WAUSAU, WIS. In the middle (class) of it all
The latest, with 26 days to go
It was a resplendent autumn morning in central Wisconsin this week, and I was doing what I do best: hanging out at a farmers' market, admiring a $6 bunch of dahlias, and talking to strangers about the election. "We're 50-50. We're middle-class. We're in a swing state," said Toni Case, 65, as she took a break from selling gyros from a silver trailer. "We're in the middle of an election tornado." Case was right. The market was set up in a suburban shopping center near Wausau, a city of about 40,000 people bisected by the Wisconsin River. The whole area is the kind of place that has almost mythic status in American politics today: a haven for the middle class. According to the Pew Research Center, the Wausau metropolitan area is one of 10 in the country with the largest share of middle-income residents. It has a gleaming downtown, a new Amazon distribution center and an abundance of parks along the river. It's the sort of place that both Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Donald Trump are evoking all the time, though not by name, as they talk about how to improve the American economy by strengthening the middle class. It's also a place that lays bare the challenges both candidates face as they try to appeal to middle-class voters. As I interviewed voters in Wausau and Weston, right next door, I heard pronounced anxiety over the rising cost of living, and confusion over what being middle class even means anymore. It was clear that Trump's dire picture of a middle class under attack has resonated here, but also that voters are thinking carefully about which candidate better understands the economic complexities of their lives. "It's hard to stay ahead," Mercedes Anderson, 25, told me. "It feels like you just get by." Facing 'outrageous' costs, and seeking a solutionTrump has depicted an American middle class on the edge of extinction, accusing Harris of making middle-class life "unaffordable and unlivable." He pledges to create a middle class that is "once again the envy of the entire world," mostly by suggesting that his broad promises of tax cuts or mass deportations will help these Americans. "We can soon have soaring incomes, skyrocketing wealth," Trump said this month in Saginaw, Mich. "Millions and millions of new jobs and a booming middle class." Harris, who evoked the middle class three times in a single sentence of her speech at the Democratic National Convention, speaks of it in a more targeted way, pledging to help by lowering the costs of health care, housing and groceries. One of her ads warns that Trump "has no plan to help the middle class — just more tax cuts for billionaires." Anderson, who was leaving the market with her 10-month old son, a friend and a big bag of fresh celery, told me she had not yet chosen a candidate because she was still trying to figure out who was more likely to bring down her "outrageous" cost of living. Anderson had toured a day-care facility, she said, but decided that, at $350 a week, it was too expensive — the monthly total would exceed her mortgage payment. She instead relies on friends to look after her son while she works part time as a FedEx driver. She was leaning toward Trump, she said, because she had heard the economy was better during his presidency. But she hadn't decided for sure. "The thing I don't understand was how he's going to do that," Anderson said, referring to his promises to improve the economy. "But I don't understand Harris, either." 'As good as you could get it'The middle class is an amorphous concept that neither candidate has really defined. But one thing is clear, said Katherine Cramer, a political scientist at the University of Wisconsin-Madison — the days when "middle class" meant "stability" are long gone. "Now, there's just so much precarity in terms of people not being sure of whether the jobs that they're currently in are going to be there in the future," Cramer said. "They're not sure of their ability to maintain their standard of living, whether it's meeting their mortgage payments or rental payments." That wasn't universally the case during my interviews in and around Wausau. Several voters I spoke with felt perfectly secure — particularly if they were affluent or retired. "We worked, had good jobs in town and lived like a normal person did. I guess that's as good as you could get it," said Ray Apfelbeck, a retiree who lives in nearby Rib Mountain, as he left a Country Mart grocery store in Wausau. He was planning to vote for Harris, he said. But that sense of uncertainty was top of mind for several voters I spoke with. One, a mother who has considered going back to work to supplement her family's income, told me she "loved" Harris's plans to create jobs and offer middle-class tax credits, but wasn't sure she trusted Democrats to solve the country's economic problems after four years of higher prices. Another, a 61-year-old retiree who was worried she would need to go back to work to support her ailing mother, was firmly decided on Trump. Kelly Jacobi, 42, a photographer who was loading shopping bags in the back of her car, said she had lost business as people cut back on luxuries. Jacobi, who has leaned Democratic since 2016, said she thought Harris understood the pain of high prices, and worried that Trump's plans for tariffs would only raise them further. Jessica Sherfinski, who is in her late 30s, told me she considered herself middle class — but for her, that means buying only the things she needs, not the things she wants, like the fresh-cut flowers at the farmers' market. "My husband and I just recently bought property," she said, after a decade of saving. "I didn't think it would take that long." She hasn't decided whom to vote for yet, she said, but she hopes the winner will make life more affordable for everybody.
AD WATCH How one Democratic ad makes an economic appealMy colleagues are closely tracking the television ads shaping the messaging around the election. Future Forward, the main super PAC backing Vice President Kamala Harris's presidential campaign, is running a 30-second ad on television in states including Arizona and North Carolina this week. My colleague Katie Glueck took a closer look at the spot. The ad begins with an image of former President Donald Trump, slightly distorted by shadows, appearing to speak to wealthy supporters. "I know about 20 of you and you're rich as hell," he says, according to subtitles that flash across the screen. The camera then cuts to a Black man watching Trump's remarks on an iPad-like device and shaking his head. After another image of Trump promising tax cuts flashes onscreen, the man introduces himself as "Buddy M." from Allentown, Pa. Buddy, pointedly declaring that he is "not rich as hell," quickly establishes himself as a working- or middle-class American. The spot cuts between images of him — sitting in a wood-paneled living room, filling up a car at a gas station — and of fancily dressed people including Trump and his ally Elon Musk, the world's richest man, who are separately hobnobbing in tuxedos. As music soars, the spot cuts to images of Harris walking purposefully before American flags and greeting men wearing hard hats. The ad is an appeal to two groups of voters whose support Harris needs to shore up: Black men and working-class Americans of all races. Buddy's message — that Trump is out for himself and his rich friends, rather than for working people — and the images of Harris meeting with workers, many of whom appeared to be white, both seemed intended to engage those voters. Read the full analysis of the ad here. Read past editions of the newsletter here. If you're enjoying what you're reading, please consider recommending it to others. They can sign up here. Have feedback? Ideas for coverage? We'd love to hear from you. Email us at onpolitics@nytimes.com.
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