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SLGB Signs Up for PA
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While Swing Left as a whole is working in twelve states across the country, Swing Left Greater Boston is zeroing in on Pennsylvania, Florida, and Maine. Over the next six weeks, we’ll be taking a state-by-state look at what’s at stake, in a new section we’re calling SUPER STATE SPOTLIGHT… … and we’re starting with Pennsylvania.
Swing Left Greater Boston is focusing on elections in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, home of the Liberty Bell, the Rust Belt, and Cheese Steak Hoagies, as well as the closest Swing State to Massachusetts save Maine.
Pennsylvania offers a huge opportunity for Democrats to make progress on goals central to the party, including:
A Democratic Washington: Donald Trump won Pennsylvania by only 44,292 votes … less than a single percent of more than six million cast. Plus, Pennsylvania has the most electoral votes of all the critical battleground states.
A rollback of gerrymandering: The Pennsylvania GOP has spent 10 years rigging district maps to protect their political power. The State Supreme Court recently threw out these gerrymandered congressional maps, widely considered the most partisan in the country. The new map in use today is temporary. Democrats must win a majority to keep the GOP from putting Republicans’ own interests ahead of Pennsylvanians’ in 2021.
Criminal justice reform: Pennsylvania’s incarceration rate is higher than the national average, with 96,000 people in jail as of 2018. In the same year, the state ranked last in corrections when measured by incarceration rates, racial equity in jailing, and other related factors.
Health care: There are still 685,400 Pennsylvanians who don’t have health insurance, even after expanding Medicaid through the Affordable Care Act. Flipping the Pennsylvania General Assembly and the White House to Democratic control are essential to improving health care access for Pennsylvania.
Next week’s Super State Spotlight will present Pennsylvania by the numbers and outline the Swing Left strategy, including actions you can start taking (right after the holidays).
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