Liberal group announces plan to target Pennsylvania state elections in 2026

The liberal Political Action Committee EMILYs List announced plans to spend $15 million supporting state-level candidates in nine states, including Pennsylvania.

The group, which focuses on electing pro-choice women in races across the country, framed the effort to increase investment in state-level races as a way to create a bulwark against “Republicans’ assault on the economy, our health care, and our everyday lives” in Washington, D.C.

“EMILYs List is taking an aggressive approach to building Democrats’ state power in Pennsylvania with bold candidates who know exactly what’s at stake,”  Jessica Mackler, the organization’s president, said in a press release.

The announcement did not say which candidates it would be supporting. Historically, EMILY’s List has backed state Supreme Court Justice Christine Donohue, who won retention last November, state Sens. Maria Collett (D-Montgomery), Lindsey Williams (D-Allegheny) and Katie Muth (D-Montgomery), and state House Rep. Mandy Steele (D-Allegheny).

The group said it will be targeting races to elect governors, attorneys general, secretaries of state, legislatures, and supreme court justices in “key states.”

The announcement follows a tough 2024 election season for state-level Democrats, who lost ground in state legislatures across the country.

Democrats, however, were able to maintain their slim majority in the state House in 2024, despite Republicans outperforming them at the top of the ballot. GOP candidates won every row office election in the commonwealth that year.

But, EMILYs List says they are hoping to build on liberal electoral victories in 2025, including in Virginia and New Jersey gubernatorial races. In Pennsylvania, liberal Supreme Court justices fared well in retention races and a democrat pulled off an upset win in a special election for a state Senate seat in Lancaster County

The group will also be targeting races in Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, Minnesota, Nevada, New Mexico, North Carolina and Wisconsin as part of the same push.