FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:
Wednesday, February 12, 2025
CONTACT:
Mitch Kates, Executive Director, Pennsylvania Democratic Party
mitch@padems.org, 727-710-2804
Contest Every Race & Pennsylvania Democratic Party Launches Statewide Candidate Recruitment Drive
By recruiting thousands of local Pennsylvania Democrats to run for down-ballot offices, Democrats are fighting back against policies helping MAGA billionaires and pushing for solutions for hardworking families.
HARRISBURG, PA – Last week, Contest Every Race and the Pennsylvania Democratic Party announced a bold, new initiative to recruit Democrats to run for every local office across the state. This effort is part of a national campaign led by Contest Every Race to ensure that every Republican faces a challenger, especially in down-ballot races that directly impact working-class communities.
Pennsylvania Democrats are committed to building our party back better – building long-term success by identifying and supporting candidates who reflect and represent their local communities. These recruitment efforts will target school boards, borough councils, township supervisors, and other local offices to compete everywhere, build infrastructure from the ground up, and ensure no race goes uncontested in the 2025 election cycle and beyond.
“Democrats are ready to fight by stepping up in every county, especially in rural communities, to ensure that every Pennsylvanian has a government that fights for working people and common-sense leadership,” said Pennsylvania Democratic Party Executive Director Mitch Kates.
Kates continued, “With Donald Trump, Elon Musk, and their billionaire cabinet stripping our federal government for parts, winning local elections has never been more crucial. You can’t win unless you run and it’s critical that every Pennsylvania voter has a choice at the ballot box. Billionaires looking to get richer won’t help Pennsylvanian families afford groceries, housing, or have access to good union jobs. The Pennsylvania Democratic Party is committed to building back community by community, block by block.”
Ahead of Pennsylvania’s filing deadline on March 11th, the program aims to recruit and support nearly 5,200 local candidates running in non-urban areas that typically lack Democratic candidates. Contest Every Race, which has successfully recruited over 10,000 candidates nationwide since 2018, will assist in outreach, training, and mobilization efforts.
“In Pennsylvania, we are doubling down on our commitment to restore local democracy and contest every seat,” said Contest Every Race Director Zoë Stein. “There are no ‘off years’ when it comes to democracy, and we are determined to build a stronger, more representative Democratic Party across the state.”
The initiative will use a combination of text message outreach, organizing meetings, and coaching sessions to identify and support potential candidates, particularly in rural and non-urban areas where uncontested races are most common.
Since its inception in 2018, the Contest Every Race project has recruited over 10,000 Democrats to run for local office across the country. Contest Every Race found that Democrats failed to run in over 50% of all partisan races in 2022, a staggering figure that lays bare the bench and party-building work needed to rebuild Democratic strength in the Trump era.
To speak with leaders of the Pennsylvania Democratic Party, contact mitch@padems.org.
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Contest Every Race, a project of Movement Labs, recruits Democrats to run in otherwise uncontested local races and operates a national rural organizing support program to net votes for Democrats in the 2025 election.
