Identity Politics
And yet Hinojosa scarcely utters a word on race or gender — hers or anyone else’s — and insists she wants to steer clear of “culture wars.” Instead, she has risen in the polls with a disciplined message of economic populism.
“Is this going to be a Texas that is by and for the people?” Hinojosa said at a recent rally. “Or is this a billionaire’s world and we just live here? That is the one fight. It is the one fight of this election. It is the fight in America. And it is the fight for Texas.”
Whether or not Hinojosa wins, her campaign signifies a strong consensus in the Democratic Party this year: Race and gender are out. Class politics are back in.
This is a strategy born of defeat. President Trump reclaimed the White House two years ago largely by promoting himself as the stronger steward of the economy. For Democrats, one of the most humiliating aspects of this loss was that the president nearly doubled his support among Black voters between 2020 and 2024, and he nearly came even with Kamala Harris among Hispanic voters. Asian Americans also shifted right, and Trump’s support among women held even.
The return of Trump was the death knell for a presumption that had dominated American life since the 2010s — that identity was a stand-in for societal progress. Now, the very notion of identity politics is in retreat.
