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Pennsylvania will be one of the nation’s most important swing states for the foreseeable future. Part of a quartet of upper Midwest states, along with Ohio, Michigan and Wisconsin, Pennsylvania’s left-leaning urban centers and the conservative rural areas in between make it a prize for either party.
Donors looking to make an impact in the state for 2022 and beyond have a few options. They can put money into the campaigns of federal, state and local Democrats running for office, support national groups with a presence like the Working Families Party, or they can give money to local grassroots organizations like Pennsylvania Stands Up.
There are arguments to be made for all three approaches, but the local and grassroots approach of Pennsylvania Stands Up sticks out. The umbrella organization, which counts a number of progressive Pennsylvania groups as members, has the kind of constant presence in Pennsylvania politics that donors should look to when considering who to give money to.
Working across the state
Formed by the groups Reclaim Philadelphia, Lancaster Stands Up, York Stands Up and local Indivisible chapters coming together, Pennsylvania Stands Up is committed to voter activation, democracy and economic equality. The group has chapters across the state—in rural and urban areas alike—and deploys its training institute to work with leaders and organizers around Pennsylvania all year long.
“There’s no such thing as a small election or an off-year election, especially in our chapters where we’re focusing on getting people in at the hyper-local level,” Pennsylvania Stands Up Director of Narrative and Communications Ashleigh Strange told Blue Tent.
As we have reported, groups with a firm, standing presence in communities do better at turning out voters than PACs and politicians that drop in every two to four years looking for votes.
“We only build that base when we are talking to them, and not just [being] transactional, not just trying to get a vote out of them,” Strange said. “We want to know what their issues are and what their problems are so that we can work together to find solutions.” While this kind of organizing work can have a big payoff, it’s also expensive: Strange said that the group’s cost of canvassing has increased in the time of COVID; it can cost upward of $8 a door.
Part of a growing movement
During the first half of 2021, groups around the state organized to push President Joe Biden and other Democrats on climate legislation. Much of the effort was led by Pennsylvania Stands Up, which had the reach and influence to talk to voters and organizers alike from one corner of the state to another.
Pennsylvania Stands Up is part of what Bucks County activist Cyril Mychalejko termed “a dynamic, growing, bright-blue progressive movement” in the region. Other groups range from local organizations like Keystone Progress and One Pennsylvania to national affiliates like Make the Road PA and Working Families Pennsylvania.
Pennsylvania Stands Up has put serious effort into ensuring Democrats support a progressive agenda. That could have positive ramifications for progressive priorities at the state level and help Lt. Gov. John Fetterman, should he win the Senate seat being vacated by retiring Sen. Pat Toomey, to have a solid blue base to point to while in D.C.
“People are really hurting in this moment, and I think that any Democrat who sticks to the more centrist path... is making a huge mistake,” former Stands Up Executive Director Hannah Laurison said in February 2021 (the group's new executive director is Carrie Santoro).