November’s decisive election made one thing perfectly clear – a majority of Pennsylvania voters want a future where all working families – black, brown and white – can thrive, have strong union jobs and build good contracts, and have access to good education and quality healthcare.
This is a tremendous victory achieved for millions of Pennsylvanians. By a margin of 17 points, we rejected Scott Wagner’s bleak, cynical vision and re-elected Governor Wolf, Senator Casey and so many others across the state who have proven they will put the needs of working people first.
SEIU members knew what was at stake and engaged deeply in this election for months. Some highlights of that work includes:
- Thousands of SEIU Healthcare PA members weighed in on their priorities and created a Care Plan for a Healthy PA, meeting with and pledging to support candidates who would stand up for safer staffing, good jobs, strong unions and critical healthcare funding.
- Nurses secured thousands of vote commitments to help fellow RN Maria Collet in the 12th Senate District, Lindsey Williams in the 38th Senate District and dozens of other candidates who are committed to passing safe patient limit laws reach victory.
- Home caregivers in Philadelphia and Pittsburgh educated tens of thousands of seniors, people with disabilities and other caregivers who rarely vote on the need to support Gov. Wolf’s efforts to strengthen home and community-based services, including giving 20,000 home care workers a voice in Harrisburg.
- Collectively, SEIU members knocked over 400,000 doors across the state, made 45,000 phone calls in the last 48 hours, and shared their stories with nearly 140,000 Pennsylvanians on social media. Overall, SEIU members knocked nearly 4 million doors nationwide.
And clearly, these efforts paid off. In PA and across the country, huge voter turnout helped a historic number of women, people of color and progressive candidates achieve victory. We beat back ‘right to work’ for less and made critical inroads into the state legislature. With a path to fair redistricting process firmly in place, we are poised to continue this progress in 2020.
We are excited to work with elected leaders and allies to build a path forward that gives all workers $15 an hour, fully funds our public schools, makes our hospitals and nursing homes safer through patient limit laws and protects the rights of workers to form and join unions.
This victory was truly a collective one. We will take time to celebrate, then continue pushing forward to build a healthier PA for all.