Since the days of President Franklin Roosevelt, Democrats have been known as the party of the poor and the working class, while Republicans tended to represent big business and the country-club set.
But in 2016, this organizing principle of American politics started to break down. Federal demographic and campaign-finance data from the past two decades reveal that the class alignment of the two parties has flipped: Americans who live in wealthier parts of the country and earn above-average incomes now mostly vote for Democrats, while Americans who make less money and live in poorer areas now mostly vote for Republicans.
These charts show just how far, and how quickly, the Democratic Party’s base has strayed from its working-class roots. In 2009, the average Democratic congressional district had a median household income, after adjusting for inflation, of about $67,000 — less than the roughly $70,000 median income in Republican districts. By 2023, though, the average Democratic district’s median income had risen to $81,000, while that of the average Republican district had fallen to $69,000.
Americans who lived in wealthier areas used to have mostly Republican representatives. But since 2016, the top 50 percent of districts by income have been mostly Democratic. Astoundingly, Democrats held more than two-thirds of the top quarter of districts by income in 2023.
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