A poor person voting for someone who will make the poor person&#x27;s economic situation worse isn&#x27;t necessarily voting against their own interests. Maybe they value other policies (for example abortion, but of course there are lots and lots of policies to consider even if you remove those directly related to the economy or religion) more than how it will effect you financially. If you polled the poorest 20% of Americans saying &quot;would you be willing to pay $20&#x2F;year if in return abortion will become illegal in the entire country&quot; I don&#x27;t know how many would say yes, but I&#x27;d bet it wouldn&#x27;t be none.<p>Another reason I&#x27;ve often heard suggested as helping poor people in the US vote fot politicians who won&#x27;t help their financial situation is that of the &quot;American Dream&quot;, the idea that anyone who works hard can rise up and become wealthy. People could think &quot;sure, I&#x27;m only earning $20k now, but I don&#x27;t want to raise taxes for the millionaires because it could effect me in the future&quot;.<p>I don&#x27;t have any data (might have a google around when I have more time if I remember) but I&#x27;m pretty sure the US is fairly unique in how many of it&#x27;s poorer population votes towards the right wing of the political spectrum, thanks largely, I suspect, to religious regions, and possibly the american dream idea. Here in Europe, working class people who vote towards the right are more likely to be doing it either about stuff like immigration into the country, or when far right parties make themselves sound like common sense honest people compared to typical misleading politicians. But generally speaking, you rather expect a strong corrolation between less wealthy going left and more wealthy going right.