From: The Pennsylvania Working Families Party
To: WFP PA State Committee, WFP Staff, Partners, Allies
Re: Our Work in the 2026 Pennsylvania Primary Elections
Date: May 18th, 2026

Friends,

Tomorrow is Pennsylvania’s primary, which presents us with an opportunity to elect leaders across the Commonwealth who will stand up for working people in Washington and Harrisburg. The Working Families Party has endorsed 30 candidates and ballot measures, one of our largest slates ever. From Philadelphia to Allentown to Pittsburgh and everywhere in between, we’re going to elect Working Families champions this year.

WFP has engaged deeply in two competitive congressional primaries and six priority state House races — and we are confident that our endorsed candidates will reshape the balance of power in D.C. and Harrisburg.

Congress

PA-03

The open-seat race in Pennsylvania’s 3rd congressional district is one of our best opportunities across the country to elect a Working Families champion. This seat covers a large part of the city of Philadelphia and is the most Democratic district in the country. It houses a number of WFP champions, including Philadelphia City Council Minority Leader Kendra Brooks and Minority Whip Nicolas O’Rourke, the two at-large members of the council who are members of the Working Families Party, not the Democratic Party.

The Working Families Party has endorsed state representative Chris Rabb in the race for PA-03. Rabb was first elected to the state House in 2016 and has served there for five terms. In 2016, he was the first person in Pennsylvania to ever attempt to simultaneously run on both the Democratic and Working Families Party ballot lines, an early effort to bring fusion voting to the Commonwealth. Rabb’s court case went all the way to the Pennsylvania state Supreme Court, and he lost the effort to allow him to dual-file by just one vote on the Court.

When Rabb ran against another elected Democrat in 2022 after redistricting forced two incumbents into the same seat, the WFP endorsed him. He went on to win that race by 25 points, a massive victory that was a testament to his work ethic and the movement behind him.

The WFP has gone all-out to support Rabb and get him across the finish line. On the coordinated campaign side, the Party was deeply involved, providing management, communications, fundraising, and political support. We were part of a coalition that knocked over 100,000 doors on the coordinated side and are organizing a massive city-wide election day operation covering hundreds of polling locations. The Party also fundraised tens of thousands of dollars for the campaign.

Separately, the WFP’s Independent Expenditure arm built a coalition that brought together local and national groups for an integrated media and field campaign to elect Rabb. The table included Justice Democrats, American Priorities, Congressional Progressive Caucus PAC, APIPA, One PA, Make the Road Action, and other allies, and spent a total of roughly $1.5M. The coalition spent $1M to run an ad featuring WFP’s champion elected officials endorsing Rabb on broadcast, cable, and digital platforms, as well as a late-breaking negative digital ad that highlighted an opponent’s attempt to work with Republicans to pass a gerrymandered congressional map for personal gain.

The Congressional Progressive Caucus PAC spent an additional $300,000 on a separate positive Rabb digital ad. And finally, a coalition including WFP, One PA, APIPA, and Make the Road Action combined on a field operation that secured 18,500 positive IDs in a mix of door-knocking and phone banking.

In this race, Rabb is running on a bold platform of passing true Medicare-for-All, building deeply affordable housing, raising the minimum wage, and standing up for working people at every turn. He’s been endorsed by a wide range of local and national progressives, including many WFP elected officials and allies. In the bluest congressional district in the country, we deserve a leader who will push the envelope and take bold fights to push the Democratic Party to truly support working people.

This has been a challenging race. For months, a super PAC supporting one of Rabb’s opponents spent over $3 million of dark money, a massive sum that included mail and a barrage of television and digital ads. Another opponent has coalesced the full support of the Democratic establishment, including the Philadelphia City Democratic Committee and many moderate elected officials, including Mayor Cherelle Parker and the powerful building trades.

Polling shows that this is a close three-way race among Rabb and his two well-funded opponents, but Rabb appears to be the one with the momentum heading into Election Day. This one could be close, but we’ll be running through the tape to win this seat, elect another Philadelphia progressive, and send a WFP champion to D.C.

PA-07

Pennsylvania’s 7th congressional district, which covers the Lehigh Valley and Carbon County, will be one of the premier battlegrounds in the upcoming midterm elections. If Democrats want to retake the House of Representatives in November, they’ll have to start by flipping this seat.

The Working Families Party has endorsed firefighter and union leader Bob Brooks in the primary. Bob is a true working-class person — he spent time in dozens of jobs before becoming a firefighter and running into burning buildings. Bob is the exact kind of candidate Democrats should coalesce around in swing districts: people who come from the working class and will stand up for the working class, and that’s what Bob has done for his entire life and career.

The WFP has strongly supported Bob in this race. On the coordinated campaign side, the Party was deeply involved, providing communications and political support to the campaign. On the other side of the firewall, the WFP PAC separately helped drive a large cross-ideological IE table and was an anchor of the table’s brain trust, working with the coalition on a wide-ranging broadcast, cable, and digital strategy. We also sent WFP-specific flights of mail, including one containing Spanish translations.

Bob has built an extremely broad political coalition: He’s racked up endorsements from progressives like Sen. Bernie Sanders, WFP, and the Congressional Progressive Caucus, while also receiving support from moderates like Gov. Josh Shapiro, the Blue Dog Coalition, and Pete Buttigieg.

This broad coalition is exactly why a Republican-aligned Super PAC has parachuted into the district over the last two weeks, spending millions attacking Bob while boosting an unserious opponent who has raised just $20,000 over the past fundraising quarter. Lead Left PAC was incorporated only a few weeks ago and is spending over $1.5 million — a massive sum over just two weeks. Republicans are attempting to defeat Bob because they know he’s the strongest threat to flip the seat in November.

We feel good about Bob’s chances: when you have Josh Shapiro and the WFP on the same team in a Pennsylvania Democratic primary, it’s usually a good sign about the expansive coalition you’re building. But a large, late influx of outside spending is always a threat, and we’ll have to fight for every vote to make sure we can beat back Republican attempts to steal this race.

Priority State House

HD 195

We’ve endorsed social worker Sierra McNeil in the Democratic primary for the 195th state house district, which is in the city of Philadelphia and covers parts of Fairmount and Strawberry Mansion. Sierra is a strong candidate with a background in social work and advocacy in Harrisburg who’s running to bring compassion, care, and fresh leadership to the state House.

WFP has gone all-in for Sierra’s campaign since endorsing her in March. We built her campaign infrastructure from the ground up, providing communications, field, political, and fundraising support. Our internal fundraising apparatus tripled her fundraising in the final two months of the campaign. We were able to build a field program fully integrated with the party apparatus that knocked over 14,000 doors and helped secure a set of key political endorsements, from Planned Parenthood to Philadelphia City Councilmember Rue Landau.

Sierra’s opponent is Rep. Keith Harris, am “incumbent” who has never won a Democratic primary. He’s received support fro...

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