Op-ed: I’m a member of the Working Families Party in Pennsylvania. Here’s why we endorsed Kamala Harris & Tim Walz.

The Working Families Party has been my political home since embarking on a journey of peace, power, and progress for my community and our families. In both 2022 and 2024, I ran for a state house seat in West Philadelphia, and I came just a couple dozen votes short of winning in both cycles.

A few weeks ago, the Working Families Party endorsed Vice President Kamala Harris for president. I’m proud to be a Working Families Party Democrat, and to be part of the 95% of WFP members, chapters, and party leaders that voted in support of Vice President Kamala Harris for president.

As a long-time community organizer, the way that WFP is approaching this election — what it calls “Block and Build” — resonates with me. The work has two parts: block right-wing extremists from seizing power, and build a political movement that truly serves the needs of working people from a boots-on-the-ground community approach.

Electing Vice President Harris as President and Tim Walz as Vice President is one strategy ‌towards achieving that goal.

Much like VP Harris, I too believe that a vision of purpose, power, and freedom is the blueprint to empower my community. That’s why the decision to endorse Kamala Harris and Tim Walz for President and Vice President is so urgent.

We believe that Vice President Harris has the chance to build on President Biden’s record of delivering for working people and marginalized communities. She wants to bring back the expanded child tax credit, to raise the corporate tax rate, and to make big investments in preschool, public and higher education, childcare, and elder care. And this ticket has an opportunity to turn the page on the United States’ disastrous support for the Israeli government’s human rights abuses in Gaza.

WFP recognizes the danger and impact of a second Trump term. If he wins, he’s going to double down on his attacks on working people, women’s rights, and true DEI — on communities like ours. His friends in the MAGA movement have drafted a 900-page plan called “Project 2025” that calls for slashing taxes on large corporations and the ultra-rich, raising the cost of health care, banning abortion, and making it harder for workers to organize for better wages and benefits. Our communities deserve far better than this obsolete and damaging agenda.

In the last presidential race, WFP said that beating Trump was its “moral mandate,” and it’s even more critical now. Four years ago, WFP played a major role in organizing and mobilizing ‌voters to defeat Trump nationwide, but especially here in Pennsylvania. 

This year, we’re working to beat Trump’s dangerous movement once and for all by activating WFP’s base: the multiracial working class.

In the 2020 presidential race, the Working Families Party engaged in a massive GOTV effort throughout Pennsylvania, including its “Vote Today, Philly” voter mobilization drive, which contacted more than 80,000 voters in heavily Democratic areas and locked in nearly 50,000 early votes. Those were critical for Joe Biden in Pennsylvania, a state that he won by barely 82,000 votes. 

In 2022, WFP built one of the largest direct voter contact programs in the state, focused on mobilizing voters in Philadelphia and in communities of color. The Party knocked on 400,000 doors and made more than a million phone calls to help beat the Republican candidates for Senate and Governor.

And in 2023, WFP waged a massive campaign that knocked on 300,000 doors and turned out a multi-racial coalition in Philadelphia to elect City Councilmembers Kendra Brooks and Nic O’Rourke, ending nearly a century of two-party rule in the city council. Compared to previous cycles, in 2023 the WFP grew its base in North, West, and Northwest Philly, increasing the WFP’s margins in Black-majority areas, low-income areas, and less educated areas.

What this means for 2024 is that the WFP has a clear, direct role to play in this coming election. And we’re ready to put that time, effort, and investment in to help make this a reality. The Working Families Party has grown its base with the diverse voters who Democrats need if they will win Pennsylvania. The Party is a messenger that has committed itself to making inroads, building trust, and developing coalitions with marginalized voters — who have expressed dissatisfaction, have been left out of the political process, who are less likely to vote, or who are interested in third parties.

As an organization outside the two-party system, WFP has built a base of grassroots organizers that are trusted messengers to make the case for VP Harris, and against Trump or third-party candidates. I joined Working Families because I saw it as a place for me to empower my village and community, which has too often been left out of the political conversation and decisions of power. We’re building an independent political party that reflects a true vision for the multiracial working class and historically underinvested in neighborhoods — not individual politicians or big corporate donors — and that message resonates with these exact voters. 

We’re building coalitions and community across race, gender, and generation. And if we keep building our power together, soon there will be a coalition of community-centered leaders inspired and cultivated by WFP, with a vision and mandate to establish a people-powered pro-working families agenda in city halls, state houses, and Washington, DC.