Working Families Party Launches Statewide Program to Build Power for Working People; Hires State Director, Endorses Slate of Worcester Candidates

MA WFP 2025 Launch Political Home + Candidates

As Republicans threaten MA families and Democrats stay on the sidelines, this effective and influential political group is creating a political home for MA working families to build governing power

Worcester, MA – The newly-formed Massachusetts Working Families Party announced today its endorsement of and on-the-ground support for Khrystian King for Worcester Mayor, Cayden Davis and Jermoh Kamara for Worcester City Council At-Large, Robert Bilotta for Worcester City Council District 2 Etel Haxhiaj for Worcester City Council District 5 and Jonathan Guzman for Lawrence School Committee. 

The Party also announced an independent expenditure to invest tens of thousands of dollars in voter contact to help elect endorsed candidates, aiming to reach over 10,000 voters by a combined field, digital, mail, media and phonebanking program to elect the endorsed candidates. 

WFP also announced today its hiring of MA WFP State Director Josh Wolfsun to support candidates and help build the MAWFP. Josh is a lifelong organizer from Massachusetts who has helped win important fights for working people in state, from the $1.5 billion Student Opportunity Act to the 2020 Police Reform Bill, and managed Sonia Chang-Díaz’s 2022 gubernatorial campaign.

The endorsements, election support and hiring mark the launch of the Massachusetts Working Families Party, a political home for people who want the Commonwealth’s political leaders to prioritize working families, not for the wealthy and well-connected. Massachusetts has been rated as one of the least productive state legislatures with the least competitive state elections in the country. 

“MAGA Republicans are kicking people off healthcare, defunding our schools, and tearing our families, communities and economy apart,” said WFP New England Regional Director Georgia Hollister Isman. “They won in 2024 because working people didn’t believe that they had leaders or a party that would stand up for them. Even in Massachusetts we saw working class voters drift to Trump or stop voting all together in alarming numbers. The Democratic Party alone is insufficient to reverse that trend. People need a political vehicle that they don’t have to share with corporate interests, and they need a party and a set of leaders that will really fight for them. Ultimately they need a State House that will really deliver for them. That is why we are building a WFP — to focus on winning actual governing power for working people.”

The Worcester municipal candidates are immigrants, union leaders and public health workers who have spent their lives fighting for social, racial and economic equality. Their backgrounds, records of service and policy goals – from lowering housing costs and taxing the rich to fund Massachusetts schools to standing up to ICE – make them strong examples of Working Families Party candidates: leaders who represent working families, and who will fight to actually improve people’s lives while building real governing power for working people.

“We’ve needed a place in Massachusetts where working people and the organizations and candidates that represent them can come together to build our power together,” said MA WFP State Director Josh Wolfsun. “It’s been inspiring to see what working people have been able to win over the years when we’ve dragged our state’s political leadership to the table. But we shouldn’t have to and in this dire political moment, working people can’t afford to keep waiting. It’s a long road to governing power, but we’re building a bottom-up political vehicle for the long term and I’m excited to get to work.”

MAWFP’s commitment to elect working families champions is coming as Massachusetts rapidly becomes a harder place to live and raise a family. The state is already becoming one of the least affordable places to live in the country, and working people across Massachusetts will soon see their family budgets suffer as the Trump Administration kicks hundreds of thousands of residents off their healthcare, and strips them of SNAP and other critical benefits.

The Working Families Party is a grassroots political party powered by the multiracial working class. In states across the country, WFP has changed municipal and state politics by electing working class candidates and fighting for laws that benefit working people. WFP won the landmark paid sick days policy in Connecticut, paid family and medical leave, and a $15 minimum wage in Rhode Island, Connecticut, New York, New Jersey, Delaware, Maryland and the District of Columbia, along with key democracy reforms, climate and immigrant justice and more

Working Families Party also runs a highly effective candidate training, recruitment and electoral program. In Massachusetts, WFP has endorsed champions including US Rep. Ayanna Pressley and Boston Mayor Michelle Wu. Currently, WFP is endorsing working family leaders in big city mayoral races, including Zohran Mamdani in New York, Katie Wilson in Seattle, Omar Fateh in Minneapolis, and James Solomon in Jersey City. WFP has endorsed and powered the election of dozens of state legislative leaders in neighboring Rhode Island and Connecticut (Connecticut now has more WFP senators than Republican senators) as well as elected officials on school boards, city councils, and state legislatures around the country. 

“I’m proud to be a part of building the Working Families Party movement here in Massachusetts. This diverse coalition seeks to raise up the voices of those most impacted by the current political climate and economic reality — our working families, labor unions, and those who believe in the importance of public services to serve the common good,” said Jessica Tang, president of the American Federation of Teachers Massachusetts. “If we are going to be a Commonwealth that works for everyone, we must not only safeguard the key values we expect of our elected leaders, but ensure that voices of working families are prioritized at the local and state level. Our economy and communities were built by the dedicated working people of the Commonwealth. When the people our economy relies on cannot afford the basic necessities – housing, food, and healthcare – it’s time for a change. That’s why we’re building the Massachusetts WFP.”