Opinion by Jennifer Rubin: His state is a purple state. He knows his audience.
With 28 years in politics and 17 years in office, Nelson has put in the work and displays a granular understanding of the state. “You don’t just wake up one day and decide to run for the U.S. Senate,” he tells me. “I’m not running just to check the box.”
Unsurprisingly, Nelson names Sen. Sherrod Brown , whose career is built around the dignity of work and workers’ rights, as a role model. No one would accuse Brown of being a conservative, yet Nelson points out that Brown wins in a red state by talking directly about issues that affect workers, such as trade deals and, now, the.
“There is a vein of populism” running through the country, Nelson said. “One kind is from a very dark place, and one is from our better angels.” It’s that latter populism, which focuses on family and worker economics, that animates his campaign. He thinks federal labor laws need modernizing, starting with the, and he sees “high morale” around the country as a spate of union organizing wins demonstrate that unions are “alive and well.
Nelson also stressed that voters he talks to see inflation as part of a long economic slide for workers. Trade deals resulted in job losses, America’s supply chains went overseas and now we’ve got inflation, leaving workers with higher prices and long delays for items such as household appliances. For him, the solution for workers is to revive manufacturing and bring the supply chains home.
One can recall other iconoclastic prairie progressive candidates — Minnesota’s Paul Wellstone comes to mind — whose authenticity and energy made up for initial lack of money and name recognition while challenging establishment opponents. Whether Nelson wins or not, he is succeeding in his goal of “elevating” worker economics in the race. The rest of his party would do well to take notice.
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