DETROIT — The nation’s auto workers did not rush to join the 1980 blue-collar “revolt” against Democrat Jimmy Carter. Instead, there was early evidence that the UAW rank and file “came home” to the Roosevelt-Democratic coalition and, in the end, poked small holes in the GOP’s postelection claim to the hearts and ballots of working-class Americans.

An overriding reason may have been that the economic issues, which cu...