The Working Families Party (WFP), a collective of progressives in a number of states around the country, is looking to take advantage of a growing progressive movement in the party’s left flank.
In October, the group released its “People’s Charter,” a manifesto aimed at determining the next chapter in WFP activism. The charter calls for a surge in healthcare funding and public health spending, an end to systemic racism, including concrete policy proposals; a jobs guarantee, and a forward-thinking plan on addressing the cracks in the system revealed by the coronavirus pandemic.
“The United States of America is the richest country in the history of the world,” the charter’s mission statement declares. “We can get ourselves out of the messes we’re in. Imagine if the grocery store clerks, the farmworkers, the nurses, the teachers, the bus drivers, and all of the working people in this country were in charge of it.”
That approach to electoral politics and governing is part of Working Families’ long-term goals of acting as the voice of the multiracial working class in America.
The WFP started its first chapter in New York State in 1998. Connecticut followed in 2002, Oregon in 2006, and today, the group has chapters in New Jersey, Maryland, Washington, D.C., Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, Rhode Island, Nevada, West Virginia, New Mexico, Ohio, Texas and Illinois.
New York remains the party’s strongest state, however, due to the unique nature of its voting system. The state allows what is called fusion voting, in which multiple political parties list the same candidate on a ballot and voters can choose to vote for that candidate on either ballot line.
Thus, voters can vote for Democratic candidates the WFP has endorsed under its ballot line. This allows the WFP to both occasionally run its own candidates outside the traditional two-party system while also endorsing Democrats who align with its agenda.
In the 2020 presidential election, the WFP received over 280,000 votes, enabling it to maintain its ballot access by crossing the 130,000 vote threshold the state established for political parties.
Years of success have led to a centralization of the party’s work under the Working Families National Committee, the party’s top governing body, which makes executive decisions on “guiding the party’s overall strategy and direction, electing officers, hiring the national director, approving state chapter and national member applications, and overseeing our process for national endorsements.”
Success has also established the party well for electoral influence in the coming years. The group mainly works within the two-party system to activate progressive voters and pursue left-wing legislation. A self-described voice of the multiracial working class, the WFP has made itself a pivotal voice in statewide elections and primaries.
It’s also allying with collectives like the Movement for Black Lives, as Blue Tent reported.
According to the group’s executive director, Maurice Mitchell, the two coalitions are coming together to work on the Frontline, an effort to fight against the ongoing problem of white supremacy in American politics in 2021.
“We’ll need to use grassroots lobbying, protests, and to articulate the need for 2021 to be a moment of truly transformative government,” said Mitchell.
On the ballot in 13 states and Washington, D.C., WFP is poised to play a role in advancing that progressive agenda in the coming years as an established voice in the left-wing community that can draw on its members to effect change at the community and state levels—while translating that energy into activism.
