The unskilled workers world-wide have never been conservatives. They are naturally of the mentality that someone else owes them a living, because they certainly can't see a way to making one themselves.
The Republican party's base has always been the farmers, self-employed, skilled workers, small business owners, and entrepreneurs. People who think and take business risks.
Protecting unskilled assembly line work doesn't help Republicans, and very few of the people on those lines are Republicans.
MY idiot farmer relatives in Nebraska think they need more farm subsidies.