The 2018 elections were great for Democrats on the legislative level, and Pennsylvania was no exception. Now Democrats have the chance to chip away even further at the GOP’s majorities in the Keystone State—and put ourselves in position to win back the legislature next year, with huge implications for redistricting and so much more.
On Election Day 2018, Team Blue not only stripped Pennsylvania Republicans of their ill-gotten supermajority in the state Senate, but they also picked up five seats. That’s an impressive total given the extreme gerrymanders the GOP has inflicted on what’s always been a key swing state, and it sliced the Republican majority from 17 seats all the way down to 7.
Now Democrats are just four flips away from taking control of the Senate. But thanks to a special election that’s fast approaching in April, Democrats have the opportunity to shrink that number to just three—and put them that much closer to taking an outright majority in the Senate in 2020.
Daily Kos is excited to endorse Democrat Pam Iovino in the special election for Pennsylvania state Senate District 37 on April 2.
This seat in the Pittsburgh suburbs became vacant when Republican Guy Reschenthaler was elected to the U.S. House last fall, and it went for Trump 51-45, so it won’t be easy to flip. But it’s trending in the right direction: It voted for Mitt Romney by a wider 56-43 margin, and Democrat Conor Lamb performed well in this area in his special-election victory last year.
Just as importantly, Iovino is a strong candidate. She’s already spent much of her life in public service, first in the U.S. Navy—retiring after 23 years with the rank of captain—and then at the VA, where she advocated for our nation’s 25 million veterans. She has helped prepare scores of young men and women for military service and then helped them return to their civilian lives when their tours concluded.
Iovino is also a strong progressive who wants to hold corporations accountable for exploiting loopholes and reneging on their commitments to the public. She supports common-sense voting and elections reforms, including campaign finance transparency, increased ballot box access, and—crucially—ending gerrymandering.
D. Raja, the Republican in this race, is a proud Trump supporter who naturally applauded the disastrous GOP tax plan. He supports cutting Pennsylvania’s already-inadequate education funding, and he’s raked in millions of dollars helping companies outsource American jobs. That’s almost exactly the wrong profile in an area where job growth has long been a burning issue.
Iovino can win this seat, setting the table for a chamber flip in 2020. If Democrats can build on their successes last year, winning back the legislature will not be out of the question. And that would put Democrats in a position of strength ahead of the next round of redistricting, giving them the chance to undo decades of GOP gerrymandering and setting Pennsylvania on track for real progressive change.
Can you give $3 today to help a progressive veteran and flip this key Pennsylvania seat?