You knew that Dems would scramble to win back young men and union workers

Because you read Progress Report

Welcome to a quick Thursday night edition of Progress Report.

Last night, I published a story in this newsletter that detailed the urgent, last-ditch campaign being waged by labor unions and progressive professionals to guide Kamala Harris away from touring with Liz Cheney and make her closing argument all about economic populism.

This morning, the New York Times published a story that featured prominent progressives going public with their concerns about Harris’s decision to eschew economic populism and instead spend her time barnstorming with Liz Cheney in search of a few stray Republican voters.

A second story in this morning’s Times detailed a major last-minute effort by labor unions to win back working class voters, a problem I’ve been writing about for a long time — including this feature on Sunday.

Over at Politico, there is a big new story up about why young men have dramatically drifted to the right over the past four years — a subject that I have been writing about for quite some time now. Some of the quotes could have been lifted right from my more recent story on it.

Here’s a key excerpt from the Politico piece:

Those men, in turn, blame the Democrats and their allies for labeling their behavior as “toxic” and structuring curricula, office environments and opportunities for advancement to favor women.

“The feeling I get from young men is, they’re just over it. They’re just over the lecturing, being told their issues don’t count as much,” Richard Reeves, a senior fellow at Brookings and the president of the American Institute for Boys and Men, told me. In recent weeks, Reeves has emerged as something of a guru on the erosion of young male support for Democrats.

And here’s one from my most recent piece on it, published nearly a month ago:

As #MeToo and trans rights and Black Lives Matter marches swept the nation, corporations and school districts rushed to implement DEI programs that would help combat systemic inequity. For years, I’ve heard young white men complain about “reverse discrimination,” which is idiotic, but they really do believe it: The same survey that found a majority of Gen Z males rejecting feminism also found them feeling as if men were the real victims of discrimination.

“I think a lot of these guys went through their teenage years feeling like anything that they did was wrong,” Michigan state Rep. Joey Andrews says. ”Not to say that there wasn't a culture shift needed — toxic masculinity is real, I was a teenage boy in the early 2000s and I sucked and all the dudes around me sucked, because that was the culture of the time. But it's hard to grow up and feel like you're just bad, you know?”

OK, one more: The New York Times on Sunday about how the prohibitive cost of housing in the Sunbelt may shape the election. It’s the exact point I’ve been making since early 2022.

The great part about running a fully independent, fully solo publication like this one is that I’m not beholden to editors with pre-conceived narratives or publishers with agenda, so I can pursue stories and trends before they become apparent to others. This newsletter keeps its readers ahead of the curve on key elections, campaign trends, emerging issues, policy developments, and the right-wing villains who become household names years later.

The downside to independence is that there is no real budget or safety net. Progress Report relies entirely on reader subscriptions and donations, which have slowed to a crawl over the past few months due to my decision to largely stop paywalling stories before the election.

So, here’s where I ask for your help, and offer some of my own.

Below, you’ll find a link to buy a paid subscription to Progress Report for the full price (a mere $5/month) and a link to a buy a paid subscription for 25% off the normal price. Purchasing either will help make this work possible and get you the premium, pay-walled newsletters when they return after the election.

If you can’t afford either, just let me know and I can put you on the list for free, no questions asked.

I’ll be back tomorrow with brand new reporting, analysis, and news round-up that you won’t find anywhere else.