We had tough news from Pennsylvania last week. Despite strong efforts from Swing Left Greater Boston and seven other states, we lost all three special legislative elections on March 17th. In the race we focused on, working class House District 18, Democrat Harold Hayes lost by only 883 votes out of 8,169 votes cast.
Just as in 2016, when we lost Pennsylvania’s 20 electoral votes to Donald Trump by 44,292 votes out of nearly six million cast, every vote and every voter contact counts. That’s why we’re ramping up our virtual events to encourage Pennsylvania voters to register and to sign up to vote by mail, which is more vital than ever in the age of coronavirus.
We had a great response to our first “virtual” letter writing event in Cambridge, where 13 volunteers picked up 200 get out the vote/vote by mail letters to complete and mail from home. Among those putting social distance to good use were Mariana Nacht and David Bumcrot. We had more than 20 other signed up for other events during our first “virtual” weekend.
You can make a difference at these upcoming virtual events:
- March 24, 2-4 PM. Needham: RSVP and details here.
- March 28th 2-4 PM. Cambridge: RSVP and details here.
- March 30 7-9 PM, Andover. RSVP and details here
- April 5th, 2-4 PM, Boxford: RSVP and details here.
You can also download, print and complete get out the vote letters you will save to send to likely Democratic voters in Pennsylvania in late October from the Vote Forward site. You can find detailed instructions here. You can also use your time socially distancing from home to contribute to and promote our Facebook page and our new Instagram channel “Swing Left Flipping PA.”