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 from a number of establishment forces and the city Democratic Party. Harris was first elected in a 2024 special election, but in Pennsylvania, nominees for special elections are picked by the local Parties, not the voters. This means that Harris will be appearing on a Democratic primary ballot for the first time this year.

Harris has faced his fair share of scandals. The Philadelphia Inquirer reported that Harris was the only Democratic co-sponsor on multiple Republican-led bills, including ones that are anti-immigrant, anti-LGBTQ, and anti-worker. Spotlight PA also reported that Harris has failed to file a campaign finance report for over a year — a clear violation of required election rules.

Sierra is a fantastic candidate who has run a strong race. When you’re going up against the Democratic establishment, anything can happen, but we feel confident that she will pull off the upset.

HD 22

WFP has endorsed Allentown city councilmember Ce-Ce Gerlach in the race for HD-22, a state house seat that covers much of the city of Allentown and a few nearby suburbs. Ce-Ce has long been a WFP champion on the city council, helping pass bills that protect immigrants, renters, small businesses, and more. In this race, she’s received support from a broad group of elected officials and community organizations, including Lehigh County Executive Josh Siegel.

WFP was part and parcel of Ce-Ce’s campaign infrastructure. Siara Gutierrez, WFP’s Political Director in the Lehigh Valley, served as Ce-Ce’s chief advisor, building and executing the strategy of the campaign. With nearly 19,000 door attempts beginning years ahead of time, this campaign was a field-first race. WFP provided key infrastructure on communications and spent tens of thousands of dollars for her campaign on mail, paid digital, and organic digital. Our investments included a mailer centering Ce-Ce’s key priority of taxing billionaires, a core WFP campaign in the state legislature.

Ce-Ce is running against an incumbent very similar to the race in HD-195: a technical incumbent who was appointed by the local Democratic Party earlier this year but has not yet faced primary election voters. Ce-Ce’s opponent has not been organizing in the community for as long, but an incumbent always presents a threat even if they’ve only been in office for a short amount of time.

That’s especially true in this race, where a dark money PAC has dumped tens of thousands of dollars in negative ads against Ce-Ce. The PAC, which spent against WFP city council candidates in 2025, has spent at least tens of thousands of dollars. We won’t know final spending numbers until after Election Day.

Ce-Ce is running a strong race and has out-organized her opponent. But a large influx of negative spending can always have an outsized impact in a state House race like this. We expect this tough race to be close due to the massive outside spending.

HD 45

WFP has endorsed working mom and lawyer Brittany Bloam in HD-45, an open-seat Democratic Primary that precedes a competitive general election in November. Brittany is running to make things more affordable, expand access to a high-quality education, and make childcare universally accessible.

Bloam is facing a conservative Democratic opponent who has come under fire for sending egregiously misleading mailers targeting marginalized communities. The controversy has led a number of Allegheny County Councilmembers to call for his resignation as president of the council — an unprecedented move.

The WFP has been working hand-in-hand with Bloam and her campaign for months now, providing nearly $25,000 in in-kinded mail contrasting Bloam with her anti-choice opponent, in addition to field and Election Day support in the closing weeks of the campaign. 

We feel very good about her chances in the primary and look forward to working with her through the general election.

HD 200

In HD-200, the WFP has endorsed education advocate and community leader Chris Johnson to fill the seat vacated by Chris Rabb. Johnson is a staffer for Philadelphia Public Schools and will fight in Harrisburg to invest in our schools, make things more affordable, and improve our public transit and infrastructure.

WFP helped recruit Johnson to run for this seat and has been strongly involved in his campaign since launch.

Johnson has racked up a wide array of endorsements, from WFP and Rep. Rabb himself to Mayor Cherelle Parker. We expect him to win this race easily and look forward to working together in Harrisburg on legislation that will benefit working people.

General Elections

We’ve endorsed dozens of additional candidates across Pennsylvania, including some who will face competitive general elections in November. Two of those are Sara Agerton in HD-88 and Brad Chambers in HD-41, who are both running in flippable Republican-held districts this November. While these candidates did not face competitive primary elections, these will be priorities for us through the general election. We will be ramping up our work for them throughout the summer to make sure we win these seats in the generals.