The Great Defection: How America’s Workers, Minorities, and Unions Are Breaking From the Democrats

From Illinois to New York to California, voters once loyal to Democrats — unions, Black and Latino families, working-class communities — are turning away from a party they say protects criminals, empowers radicals, and forgets the people who built its power.

By Staff Reporter | September 15, 2025

It began on a subway. A young woman in New York was doused in accelerant and set ablaze, her final screams echoing through the tunnels as passengers fled in terror.

It continued on a train in North Carolina, where a woman was viciously murdered in front of riders who stood frozen, too afraid to intervene.

And it reached a college campus in Utah, where conservative activist Charlie Kirk was gunned down in cold blood, his assassination sparking vigils from Dallas to Rome.

Three different places — a subway, a train, a campus — each meant to be safe. Instead, they became killing grounds. Together, they tell a single story: Americans no longer believe their leaders can keep them safe. They see a party more interested in shielding criminals than protecting citizens, more devoted to ideology than to life itself.

That fear has become fury. And from Illinois to New York to California, it is fueling what many now call The Great Defection — a mass exodus of workers, minorities, and communities that once formed the backbone of Democratic power.

A Union Revolt

The International Brotherhood of Teamsters, once the Democrats’ most loyal ally, stunned Washington by funneling nearly $70,000 to Republicans ahead of the 2026 midterms. For a union that gave more than $15 million to Democrats in just two and a half years, the move was historic.

Sean O’Brien, the union’s sharp-edged president, offered no apology:

“Where the Democrats lost … they fell in love with big money. They forgot who they’re truly representing: working people.”

Polling revealed nearly six in ten Teamsters members supported Donald Trump over Kamala Harris in 2024. Loyalty had turned to revolt.

Kara Deniz, the union’s spokesperson, summed it up:

“Our members are working people whose interests cut across party lines.”

Minorities Break Their Silence

For decades, Democrats won reliably in Black and Latino neighborhoods. That dominance is now fracturing.

In Chicago, pastors on the South Side are openly campaigning against far-left candidates, furious at crime tearing through their communities. In Joliet and Aurora, Latino families — once automatic Democratic votes — now rally behind Republicans who promise jobs and safety.

And in New York, the mayoral race has rattled traditional Democrats. A democratic socialist leads the field, while voters whisper anxiously about bail reform that already freed thousands of offenders pretrial. Many fear it could become even more extreme.

A Brooklyn grandmother, still shaken after the subway burning, said it plainly:

“If they can’t keep a woman safe on the train, how can they keep any of us safe?”

Haunted by New York, Hardened by Illinois

Illinois has already lived through what New Yorkers fear.

The SAFE-T Act’s no-cash bail sent dangerous offenders back into neighborhoods. Shootings and carjackings surged. But the chaos didn’t stop at Chicago’s borders. Rockford now ranks among the most violent cities in America. Peoria has a crime rate more than twice the national average, and just last year police dismantled a violent gang called “the Snakes,” arresting ten members, some of them juveniles.

Governor JB Pritzker, instead of cracking down, leaned harder into Illinois’ sanctuary policies. Critics say he protected violent illegal immigrants under the banner of “compassion,” even as families in Springfield and Rockford locked their doors against spreading gang violence. DHS Secretary Kristi Noem accused him of unleashing chaos by “protecting criminals instead of victims.”

To many Illinoisans, Pritzker’s choices confirmed their suspicion: their leaders cared more about outsiders than their own neighborhoods.

The Numbers Don’t Lie

This rebellion is not just emotional. It is measurable.

Between 2020 and 2024, Democrats lost 2.1 million registered voters across 30 states, while Republicans gained 2.4 million, according to a New York Times analysis of L2 data.

California shed 680,000 Democrats. New York lost 305,000. And Illinois, though it doesn’t register voters by party, saw nearly a quarter-million fewer registered voters in just four years.

Donald Trump gained ground everywhere in Illinois — from suburban DuPage to rural Adams, even narrowing margins in Cook County. Black and Latino voters once assumed to be safely Democratic are now part of his coalition.

A retired factory worker near Decatur put it simply:

“My family voted Democrat for three generations. But when my pension shrinks while the governor gives handouts to illegal immigrants, I’m done.”

And a young Latino father in Joliet added:

“Trump talks about jobs and safety. Democrats talk about everyone but us.”

A Nation Sick of Violence

Charlie Kirk’s assassination. A woman burned alive in New York. A passenger murdered on a North Carolina train.

These are not isolated horrors. They are symbols of a country where citizens feel unprotected — and where leaders respond with excuses instead of action.

• In Chicago, gangs flourish while police morale collapses.

• In New York, commuters glance over their shoulders, never knowing who might step onto the train.

• In Los Angeles, shopkeepers lock up early, weary of theft and lawlessness.

A mother in Chicago, weary after her night shift, spoke for millions:

“I shouldn’t be scared to walk my kids to school. If Democrats won’t protect us, then why should I protect them with my vote?”

History’s Echo, The Global Tide

This moment carries echoes of the past. The Reagan Democrats of the 1980s. The Tea Party wave of 2010. But today’s defection runs deeper, because it includes unions, minorities, and working families once considered the immovable backbone of the Democratic Party.

And it mirrors a global revolt. From France to Italy, working-class voters are rejecting left-wing elites for populist movements that promise order and sovereignty. The tide is not American. It is global.

The Stakes Ahead

The Teamsters’ break was more than a financial shift. It was a death knell for a century-old alliance. The millions abandoning Democrats are not just statistics. They are families shouting enough.

The assassination of Charlie Kirk, the burning of a woman on a New York subway, the murder of a passenger on a North Carolina train — these are not random tragedies. They are the face of a party that voters say protects criminals while abandoning citizens.

The Democratic Party was once the voice of workers, minorities, and unions. Today, it is seen as the party of radicals, elites, and excuses.

And now, those it once counted on are speaking back — in Illinois, in New York, in California, in North Carolina.

Their answer is not quiet.

It is thunder.

Sources:

• New York Times analysis of voter registration data from L2 (2024)

• Public statements from Sean O’Brien and Kara Deniz, Teamsters Union

• Decision Desk HQ commentary via New York Times interview

• AP reporting on voter registration shifts, 2020–2024

• Capitol Fax reporting on Illinois voter registration decline

• Axios Chicago coverage of nonpartisan ballots in 2024 primaries

• NeighborhoodScout & City-Data on Rockford/Peoria crime

• Country Herald on Peoria gang arrests

• DHS Secretary Kristi Noem’s remarks on Illinois sanctuary policies

• National/local reporting on Kirk assassination (Utah), NC train murder, and NY subway burning