Dear John,
As 2023 draws to a close, I wanted to take a moment to reflect on all that we’ve accomplished together in the last year.
But before I do, I need to ask something of you first. As we prepare for a huge election year, will you help build our collective power with a donation of $10 today? Give before the new year and your gift will be matched.
While most of the media started obsessing about the 2024 race at the beginning of this year, at the Working Families Party, we know that there’s no such thing as an “off year.”
Over the last year, we’ve demonstrated our commitment to governing power and our ability to advance it, with tangible results:
In Chicago, we teamed up with our comrades at United Working Families and a coalition of progressives to back Brandon Johnson in the mayoral primary. Five years ago, Brandon was a teacher and a union organizer. Today, thanks in part to the hard work and organizing of our diverse coalition, Brandon Johnson is the mayor of the third largest city in America.
In Philadelphia, after electing Kendra Brooks as the first third party candidate in a generation, we wagered that if given an option, voters in an overwhelmingly Democratic city would prefer the Working Families Party over the Republican Party. So we ran a massive organizing and fundraising campaign. And on Election Day, we learned that bet paid off when we sent Kendra back to the city council and elected Nicolas O’Rourke. There are now no more Republicans holding at-large seats in Philadelphia.
In Virginia, we helped flip the House from Republican control and kept the Democratic majority in the state Senate, putting a stop to Gov. Glenn Youngkin’s entire right-wing, anti-abortion agenda.
In Ohio, we threw down and helped push Issue 1 — the state constitutional amendment protecting the fundamental right to an abortion.
In Pennsylvania, climate champion Sara Innamorato toppled the party machine and became the first woman to be elected as Allegheny County Executive. Dan McCaffery was also elected to the PA Supreme Court, bolstering the pro-democracy majority ahead of the 2024 presidential election.
In New York, many of our hundreds of endorsed candidates won across the state including new mayors in New Rochelle and Ithaca and former WFP staffer Maurice Brown was elected to the Onondaga County Legislature. We also re-elected our entire slate to the NYC City Council, with more than a quarter of votes coming on the WFP ballot line in some council districts.
And we won more victories for WFP candidates in Georgia, Colorado, New Jersey, California, North Carolina, Arizona, Washington, Texas, New Mexico, and more.
There’s no question we are on our way.
There are some things about the 2024 elections that are beyond our control. But the pieces we can control are that much more critical.
The Republican Party of today is so much more a threat to all of our families and to global democracy itself than it was as recently as 2016.
And if by some political miracle, Donald Trump isn’t on the ballot in November, the GOP will be no less dangerous, as the institution has explicitly declared that they want to move us towards authoritarianism.
Given that democracy — and our lives are on the ballot — we must do all that we can in 2024 to elect working class champions at every level of government.
At WFP, we have a bold agenda for next year: from doing our part to end Republican control of Congress, defend and elect working families champions, win in the states, and block the authoritarian right. But as always, none of this is possible without all of us.
It will take a mighty coalition, coming together across our differences, to build governing power for working people of all races.
Will you join me in re-committing yourself to growing our multiracial working class movement for the long haul with an end-of-year donation of $10 or more today? If you donate before the end of the year, your donation will be matched to go twice as far.
With love and solidarity,
Maurice Mitchell
