Working Families Party Philadelphia Voter Guide
When and where do I vote?
Election Day this year is on Tuesday, November 7, and the polls in Philadelphia are open from 7 AM to 8 PM!
What are we voting for?
When you vote this year, you’ll select candidates for:
- Judges at the local through statewide level
- Mayor of Philadelphia
- City Commissioner
- City Controller
- Register of Wills
- Sheriff
- Crucial City Council races which determine the balance of power in our city
Working Families IN! Republicans Out!
In addition to your local district city councilor, the Philadelphia City Council has 7 at-large seats who represent everyone across the city. When you cast your ballot, you’ll get 5 votes to use for City Council At-Large.
No party can run more than 5 candidates, and in every single election since 1951, Democrats have won all 5 seats available to them. The Democratic slate is sure to win again this year.
The other 2 seats are reserved by law for members of another party. Historically Republicans held those seats without any real challenge. Until 2019.
That’s when the Working Families Party said We Can Do Better.
Four years ago, WFP activist Kendra Brooks beat a Republican to win one of those seats for the first time ever. Now that she’s running for re-election. Councilmember Kendra Brooks and organizer and pastor Nicolas O’Rourke are coming back to win them both.
Councilmember Kendra Brooks & Rev. Nicolas O’Rourke are two working-class progressives running with the Working Families Party. Both have dedicated themselves to serving our communities. If Nicolas and Kendra get more votes than their Republican opponents, Philadelphians can replace the GOP with council members who are committed to fighting for our values.
Working and organizing inside and outside City Hall, Kendra and Nicolas have won real progress for us:
- Won funding for mobile crisis units to reduce gun violence
- Passed reforms to protect renters, preventing thousands of Philadelphians from being displaced
- Kept public schools open, fully-staffed, and free of harmful toxins
- Delivered reproductive freedom protections to keep abortion safe and available in Philadelphia
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So when you’re planning your vote for the November 7th election, plan to use two votes to support Nic and Kendra – and help us keep Republicans from being handed seats on our city council. Then you have three votes left to support your three favorite Democrats.
Wait, an independent party?
The Working Families Party is a grassroots party by and for working class folks of all backgrounds. We believe that the people in our communities work hard, and that our government should work just as hard to fight for us – not the already rich and powerful. As a minor party that works with progressive Democrats, WFP candidates can win the two minority party seats on the Philadelphia City Council.
Why should I care?
If we’ve learned anything since Trump was elected, it’s that having Republicans in power puts our communities in real danger. When they’re in control, they take away our basic human rights, including the right to an abortion, and fight against common sense gun control measures that would keep us safe and help law enforcement hold violent criminals responsible. The Republican agenda is bad for Philadelphia, which is why most of us don’t support it. So to protect their own power, they’ve decided to play dirty.
Instead of working to solve the issues Philadelphians face, they’ve spent the last few months trying (and failing) to kick Nic and Kendra off the ballot with frivolous legal challenges. They’re scared that they can’t win your vote, so they want to take away your ability to choose. The people of our city deserve better than that.
By using 2 of your 5 votes to elect Nic and Kendra, we can keep Republicans from being handed power by default, and show the people of our city and our state that there’s another way.
To check out our full list of Pennsylvania Working Families Party endorsements, click here.
And one more opportunity to stop the Republican agenda in Philly…
Democrat Dan McCaffery is a State Superior Court
Judge, military veteran, and former prosecutor who
has the courage to defend the rights of everyone.
The son of Irish immigrants, he grew up in a working-
class union family. McCaffery enlisted in the Army,
was a bartender, bricklayer, and painter, working
his way up to become a Superior Court Judge.
At a time when the US Supreme Court is
attacking reproductive freedom, Democrat Daniel
McCaffery has the courage to defend women’s
reproductive rights. McCaffery is endorsed by
Planned Parenthood because he will protect
reproductive rights and will ensure women have
access to reproductive health care like birth
control, contraception, and prenatal care. And he
is endorsed by unions and pro-democracy groups
because he will fight for all our votes to be counted. We’re supporting Dan McCaffery for the Pennsylvania Supreme Court to ensure that the people of our state have justices who will advocate for all of our rights, and we hope you will too!
Am I registered to vote?
Not sure whether you’re registered to vote? You can check your registration status here.
If you haven’t registered to vote yet, you can fill out the form to register by Monday, October 23. If you have a Pennsylvania driver’s license or PennDOT ID, you can even register online! Click here to register to vote now.
Can I vote before Election Day?
If you’ll be busy or out of town on November 7 – or are just too excited to wait! – you can also vote early by either mailing a vote-by-mail ballot to City Hall, or filling one out and dropping it off in person! In fact, if you’re not registered to vote yet, you can go, register, and cast your ballot all in one visit.
If you plan to vote early, be sure to request your vote-by-mail ballot by October 31 at 5 PM. Your ballot can arrive in the mail or be dropped off anytime before 8 PM on Election Day, Tuesday, November 7. Get more information on how to vote early by mail or in person here.
What if I’m confused, or have issues while voting?
Call the Election Protection Hotline at 1-866-OUR-VOTE (1-866-687-8683) for more info on how to cast your ballot this year. If you’re facing issues on Election Day, call the Pennsylvania Election Day Hotline at 1-877-868-3772 for the most up-to-date information and assistance in making your voice heard. Interpreters are available.
Where can I learn more about Nic and Kendra?
Meet the Working Families Party candidates on your ballot this fall:
Meet Rev. Nicolas O’Rourke
Nicolas was raised in a proud, Black, working class family and growing up, he saw how social, economic and political injustice put strain on families and communities. Nicolas’ father was a truck driver and his mother a telephone operator, a bus driver, and a union steward. They taught Nicolas every day that anything worth having was going to require hard work and dedication.
Nicolas has been organizing to lift up working-class communities for years as a minister at Living Water United Church of Christ, and an activist and organizer with the PA Working Families Party. That work has connected Nicolas to the challenges facing families in every corner of Philadelphia and has shown him how we can make real change when we work and fight together for it. He is running on a platform that includes expanding affordable housing, ensuring public schools are fully-funded, ending racist police violence, and securing dignity for all workers.
Nicolas knows we can build a Philadelphia with an abundance of jobs that pay fairly, communities safe from gun violence, homes that families can afford and can keep, and schools we can be proud of. Whether it’s responding to the needs of his congregants or standing with leaders like Concilmember Kendra Brooks to take action on gun violence and reproductive justice inside City Hall, Nicolas has the proven record of fighting for fairness and change that we need on the City Council.
Meet Councilmember Kendra Brooks
Kendra Brooks grew up in Nicetown where she saw firsthand how under-funded schools, suppressed wages, racist housing policies, mass incarceration kept families struggling and the middle class out of reach. Kendra worked her way through college as a young mom, and as a member of 1199C, experienced how unions can ensure fairness and dignity for working families like hers.. Later, working at Easterseals, she worked with young people with disabilities and their families to access services until a Republican state budget forced layoffs to the organization. Kendra lost her job and soon after her home – which only made her even more motivated to organize in her community for a better city.
After years advocating for neighborhood public schools and organizing against gun violence as a Black mom in North Philly, Kendra Brooks stepped up to run for office.
In 2019 Kendra made history as the first independent third-party candidate to win a seat in decades on Philadelphia’s city council. In doing so, she kicked off one of the Republican members and used that seat to fight and win progress to combat gun violence, protect reproductive freedom, modernize our public schools, and make housing more affordable.
We have a lot more to do to build the Philadelphia that we all deserve, where schools are fully funded, housing is a human right, every one has has access to a good-paying job, and we all can sleep safely free from the threat of gun violence. Kendra will keep fighting for this vision because she believes in the power of working people coming together around a shared vision for change. It’s the only way we can build a city for the many, not the few.
