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The progressive plan to reclaim the working class

Progressive caucus chair Rep. Greg Casar on his movement’s new playbook.

For years, one of the bedrock adages of electoral politics was “it’s the economy, stupid.” The quip, coined by former Bill Clinton strategist James Carville, warned party leaders that economic concerns will always outrank other issues in the mind of voters

But recently, Carville’s iconic advice feels like it’s been forgotten.

In President Joe Biden’s administration, social and cultural concerns rose on the Democrats’ priority list. Policies like a $15 minimum wage and addressing price gouging in grocery stores were not front and center to Vice President Kamala Harris’s short presidential campaign (or at least, not as front and center as other issues).

Under President Donald Trump, who won partly on a promise to lower prices for consumer goods, prices have nonetheless gone the opposite direction, driven by his punitive tariff strategy and a war with Iran that has disrupted the energy market.

Because of this, concerns about the economy — and specifically the cost of living — have never been more important to voters. That reality has led both parties’ candidates in the 2026 midterms (as well as prospective candidates in the 2028 presidential election) to adopt a new focus on “affordability.”

The A-word just might be the buzziest thing in politics right now. It’s in policy papers and television ads, and on the campaign trail after it was popularized by New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani, whose successful 2025 campaign was laser-focused on the issue. At its heart, the idea is not that different from Carville’s: A candidate must show credibility on “kitchen table” issues before anything else, especially at this moment.

That being said, affordability means so many things to so many people (including to Trump, who has called it a “hoax”). I wanted to spend this week on America, Actually breaking down the buzzword and getting a sense of the policy positions that inform this new focus.

So I talked to Rep. Greg Casar (D-TX), who chairs the Congressional Progressive Caucus, about the group’s recently released “New Affordability Agenda.” It’s a 10-point policy proposal outlining in more concrete terms what progressive Democrats mean when........

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