Hillary Clinton called them “deplorables;” they are reactionary workers who vote against their economic interests for reasons based on nostalgia, culture, or racism. Every Democratic candidate will need a strategy to deal with them. Are they Trump accomplices or victims?
If you’re running a campaign based on class, the answer is simple–they’re dupes of a faux populist and his billionaire friends. If you can just get them to see where their interests really lie, they will rise up against Wall Street and put you in the White House. Your whole campaign is based on that premise. If you’re an identity politician, however, you may well choose to write off the reactionary workers and ally yourself with, among others, white people who are wealthy, but socially liberal.
The reality of the situation is that the idea of the reactionary as a dupe of the right-wing wealthy is largely a convenient fiction. That said, there are a few that could be flipped, and it is worth the effort to do so.