At the outset of her ultimately doomed primary campaign against Platner, Maine’s Democratic governor, Janet Mills, had a habit of saying she knew almost nothing about her opponent, “other than that his dad was a prominent attorney and his mother a successful business owner,” according to The Portland Press Herald.

Conservatives have gone even further, insinuating that Platner has been cosplaying as a working stiff in order to sneak his woke agenda past voters. The historian and commentator Victor Davis Hanson highlighted past social media posts in which Platner identified as a communist and, separately, said that rural white people “actually are” racist and stupid. (Platner later apologized for many of his posts.)

Such skepticism reflects how much class has become a political fault line in America. As President Trump has built a following among voters without a college degree over the past decade, his success has heightened the political competition over who best represents the working class, and has exacerbated an already bitter debate over who belongs to it.