The Blue Collar Caucus is a United States Democratic Party congressional caucus that advocates for labor and working class priorities. It was founded in 2016 to focus the Democratic Party on blue-collar issues.^[3] The caucus supports increased infrastructure spending and opposes offshoring.^[1] The grouping aims to negate the elitist image of the Democratic Party and appeal to the blue-collar voters that were "lost" to Donald Trump by focusing on economic issues and promoting left-wing economic causes, abandoning the "urban, educated and socially liberal voices" in the party in favor of blue-collar ones.^[12] Members of the caucus believe that the Democratic Party lost votes "by marching left on social issues" and offers to refocus on poor areas instead of the "coastal strongholds"; the caucus also has ties to major trade unions such as AFL-CIO and IAMAW.^[11]

Members of the Blue Collar Caucus believe that the Democratic Party does not focus on the issues of blue-collar workers.^[13] The founder of the caucus, Brendan Boyle, argues that the party should develop its own kind of left-wing populism to combat the working-class appeal of Donald Trump.^[9] The caucus wants to raise wages of the lower and middle class, supports the wealth tax of Elizabeth Warren to tax the top-earners more,^[9] and advocates protectionist measures, opposing NAFTA and the Trans-Pacific Partnership.^[13] The caucus is considered economically progressive,^[14] and its leader supports the Green New Deal, a single-payer healthcare system, and the federal minimum wage of $15.00 per hour.^[15] The caucus also stresses the importance of promoting protectionism, with Veasey stating: "On trade, we have to be out in front of Trump"; it also proposes a partial retreat by Democrats on social and environmental issues in favor of a core economic appeal, arguing that Trump's economic rhetoric won him the 2016 election.^[16]

While the Blue Collar Caucus was compared to the Congressional Progressive Caucus in terms of economic issues, it leans more conservative socially. The Blue Collar Caucus believes that the Democratic Party has become the "party of the elite", eschewing working-class issues in favor of appealing to educated, urban and socially liberal voters; as such, the caucus advocates for abandoning what it calls identity politics in favor of a sweeping left-wing economic message that would appeal to blue-collar workers instead. Members of the caucus cite Bernie Sanders's statement that "the Democratic Party has become a party of the coastal elites, folks who have a lot of money, upper-middle-class people".^[12] The caucus envisions a Democratic Party as the champion of the "working people, not Wall Street and corporate interests",^[17] while abandoning "progressive vanguard" politics.^[18]

Electoral results

House of Representatives

Congress	Overall seats	Democratic seats	±
116th (2018)	49 / 435	49 / 233	-1
117th (2020)	47 / 435	47 / 222	-2
118th (2022)	45 / 435	45 / 222	-2

Caucus members

Current members

Miscellaneous

In March 2018, former Vice President Joe Biden met with the Caucus to discuss 2018 midterm campaigning.^[20][21]