Snap-on Chairman and CEO Nicholas Pinchuk said Friday that blue collar workers in middle America are in favor of President Donald Trump because they are sick of being looked down on.
"They became aware that saying pejorative things — the dismissive, demeaning things about working men and women — was one of the last politically correct forms of bigotry in America," Pinchuk said on CNBC's "Squawk Box."
"These people are 'woke,'" using a term that's usually associated with being aware of racial discrimination and other forms of oppression and injustice, he said.
Pinchuk specifically referred to Wisconsin, where the tool manufacturer is headquartered. Trump narrowly won the state in 2016, which has a large population of working-class voters.
"They are Trump people," Pinchuk said of the state, which had supported President Barack Obama over Republican Mitt Romney. They're looking for a candidate to expand their income and opportunities, he said.
Analysts have predicted that next year's election will come down to four states: Florida, Michigan, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin.
Moody's Analytics reported Tuesday that Trump would easily be reelected in 2020, based on how consumers feel about their own finances, the stock market's gains during the last four years and a half-century low unemployment rate.
"I'm not saying whether I back [Trump] or not," Pinchuk said. "But I will say his focus on American jobs as the primary goal of what he wants to do as opposed to sacrificing interest resonates with these people."