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Reeling from across-the-board defeats in attempts to flip congressional seats in Georgia, South Carolina, Kansas and Montana, Democrats are searching for answers. How they can appeal beyond their urban coastal base to the working-class, rural voters who propelled Trump to victory?

Enter the Better Care Reconciliation Act of 2017, the Senates attempt to repeal Obamacare. Like the House legislation, it would usher in deep cuts to the Medicaid program, jeopardizing the 14 million low-income Californians who rely on Medi-Cal (Californias version of Medicaid) for health care and create an opportunity for Democrats to appeal to working-class Trump voters whose coverage will be decimated by the legislation.

But if Democrats dare to seize the opportunity (and thats a big if), they need a message. And a messenger.

So far they are 0 for 2.

Take Kern County, the heart of Californias rural Central Valley, where almost half of residents depend on Medi-Cal for health care. As a health policy expert in Los Angeles, born and raised in Kern, Im alarmed by the devastating impact repeal would have on friends and family back home. At least 95,000 Kern residents those newly eligible for Medi-Cal under Obamacare stand to lose coverage under the proposed legislation. And the deep cuts proposed under the Senate legislation could force California to cut Medi-Cal eligibility and services even further.

Democrats recognize a chance to drive a wedge between working-class communities across the nation with the most to lose under the House and Senate legislation, and their Republican representatives who support it.

But working-class voters distrust of Democrats runs deep. Democrats fail to understand these voters way of life, and the recent challenges that further isolate working-class voters from the coastal elites who dominate the Democratic Party. In the Central Valley, plunging gas prices have decimated jobs and opioid overdoses have skyrocketed. Voters here play second fiddle to coastal elites who hoard their water; raise taxes on the gas they produce to pay for road repairs they will never see, and speak with the kind of arrogant authority claimed by those with fancy college degrees. Simply put, these voters dont feel represented by Democrats who make them feel inferior, as if they dont matter.

Case in point. I cringed at a recent Democratic fundraiser in Los Angeles when an entertainment executive stood up to proclaim, I just want to shake these low-income people and make them understand. Why are they voting against their economic self-interest? I rolled my eyes. Arent you voting against your economic self-interest? Its too easy to judge a world youve never inhabited nor tried to understand.

Attempts by Democrats to preach to working-class voters about the dangerous impact of the Senate legislation on their access to health care will fall on deaf ears. Especially when the only solution offered is to rail on Republicans.

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There is an opening, however, for Democrats who demonstrate a real understanding of working-class communities cultural landscape (messenger), and a willingness to posit a legislative agenda that invests in the future of working-class communities (message).

With both the House and Senate legislation removing the requirement under Obamacare that addiction services be made available to Medicaid beneficiaries in states like California which expanded Medicaid, the working-class voters who have been hit the hardest by addiction will be stripped of the help they need the most.

Democrats can demonstrate a genuine understanding of working-class communities and commitment to helping them by bringing the hidden addiction crisis to the fore. Champion a strategy to provide vital medication, counseling and therapy for those struggling with addiction. And run candidates who relate to the plight of working-class voters.

Criticizing Republicans and running out-of-touch carpetbaggers as candidates only serves to further alienate working-class voters.

The campaign by Democrats to overtake the House in 2018 can begin now, with health care if they are humble enough to go back to the drawing board, and bold enough to truly earn the hearts and minds of working-class voters.

Courtney Powers is an attorney and lecturer at UCLA School of Law. She lives in Pasadena.

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How can Democrats win back working-class votes? Start with health care: Guest commentary - LA Daily News