Reclaim Philadelphia’s Board Recommendations to membership for endorsement in the 2024 General Election
Reclaim Philadelphia members can now begin voting on endorsements for the 2024 General Election! Membership voting will begin online Friday August 30 and conclude at the end of day Friday September 13. Endorsed candidates will be announced the next day at our 1st Annual Member Convention on Saturday September 14. Register to attend our Member Convention now!
Reclaim Philadelphia’s endorsements are decided by members. All members can and should participate in the endorsement process! Candidates who receive the votes of at least 60% of the participating members (members who submit a ballot) are endorsed. Not a member? You can become one now to weigh in on endorsements and other future important decisions about the direction of Reclaim Philadelphia and our movement. If you cannot afford to pay monthly dues at this time, you can become a member by emailing info@reclaimphiladlephia.org.
Membership voting continues from Friday August 30, 2024 to Friday September 13, 2024. In advance of candidate endorsements, Reclaim Philadelphia’s Board makes recommendations to membership. These recommendations come from a process of gathering information and viewpoints from our candidate questionnaires, Reclaim staff, member surveys, and aligned organizations in Philadelphia’s movement ecosystem. In this year’s General Election, Reclaim’s Board is making recommendations for member endorsement votes for candidates for State Representative, State Treasurer, Attorney General, and the Presidential ticket. All the endorsements of winning candidates from the 2024 Primary carry on through the general Election. You can see a full list of who endorsed in this past Primary Election on our blog. Below are the Board’s recommendations to membership for endorsement votes in the 2024 General Election.
Vote in our Membership Endorsement Now!
REPRESENTATIVE IN THE GENERAL ASSEMBLY
181ST DISTRICT
Board Recommendation: ENDORSE MALCOLM KENYATTA
When Malcolm Kenyatta first won this seat for State Representative in 2018, he was the first openly gay person of color to join the Pennsylvania General Assembly and one of the youngest. In this past primary, our board focused our member endorsement votes on his campaign for Auditor General. Malcolm has since successfully won his primary for Auditor General, making history as the first Black gay man to win a major party nomination for statewide office in Pennsylvania! We know he has what it takes to win statewide in November, but we also want to make our membership support for him for State Representative more explicit. Reclaim Philadelphia’s Board now encourages our membership to endorse Malcolm Kenyatta for re-election as State Representative.
House District 201 (Special Election on September 17, 2024)
Board Recommendation: ENDORSE ANDRE CARROLL
Following his 2022 loss for this seat, Andre Carroll built a strong coalition that ensured that every declared candidate in this race either withdrew or were bounced off the ballot before the Primary even began. Reclaim Philadelphia was proud to endorse him in both races and excited that he will become the first Black gay man elected to State Representative in the 201st District. In July, the incumbent in this district, Stephen Kinsey, along with Donna Bullock, another State Representative who ran for re-election, announced their immediate resignations. Special Election candidates are usually decided only by a handful of Ward Leaders in the district, and many times with Ward Leaders self appointing themselves to these positions that they are guaranteed to win due to no opponents from their party and the Democratic advantage in most of Philadelphia. For these reasons, Reclaim Philadelphia’s Board has never introduced an endorsement vote in a special election. In this special election though, we have a unique opportunity to endorse a movement candidate we have already vetted and endorsed twice. And with these two resignations bringing the Democrat’s house majority down to a 100-100 tie split with Republicans, it’s imperative we support Andre on September 17, 2024 and speed up his entry into Harrisburg. Reclaim Philadelphia’s Board encourages our membership to again endorse Andre Carroll for State Representative in the upcoming September 17 Special Election.
Attorney General
Board Recommendation: ENDORSE EUGENE DEPASQUALE
Eugene DePasquale is a Pittsburgh native, former state legislator, and two-term auditor general. As auditor general, Eugene DePasquale fought for survivors of sexual abuse and his audits led to a 90% reduction in backlogged rape kits awaiting testing in the state. His father was a Vietnam veteran who became addicted to painkillers and landed in prison. He watched as insurance companies denied his brother coverage and he died at the young age of 20 from muscular dystrophy. Eugene shared thoughtful and powerful responses to our candidate questionnaire, in our candidate interview, and to member submitted questions at our in-person Citywide event in February. If elected in November, we know he will bring an empathetic lens to this office due to the stories he’s shared about his family's struggles with healthcare, substance abuse disorder, and incarceration. Reclaim’s Board strongly encourages our members to endorse Eugene DePasquale for Attorney General.
State Treasurer
Board Recommendation: ENDORSE ERIN MCCLELLAND
Erin McClelland is a Western Pennsylvania native, former substance abuse counselor, small business owner, and a previous congressional candidate. She surprised many when she won the primary against a party backed candidate who had outraised her significantly. She comes from four generations of organized labor and spoke powerfully about standing in solidarity with workers at our Citywide event in February. At that event she also made a commitment to divesting the money that comes out of the pensions of teachers, state and municipal workers in Pennsylvania from funding the genocide in Palestine. Because of her expansive view on how to use this role, Reclaim Philadelphia’s Board encourages our members to endorse Erin McClelland for State Treasurer.
Presidential Ticket
Board Recommendation: ENDORSE KAMALA HARRIS & TIM WALZ
In the democratic primary election, Reclaim’s board recommended a write-in for “Uncommitted” in solidarity with the Uncommitted National Movement and the Palestinian people. Over 60,000 Pennsylvanians wrote in uncommitted, paving the way and increasing pressure on President Joe Biden and the Democratic Party to call for a ceasefire in Gaza. Then, Joe Biden dropped out of the race and endorsed Vice President Kamala Harris.
Harris’ pick of Minnesota Governor Tim Walz was a step in the right direction, known for passing progressive legislation. Under Walz, the democratic agenda is truly expansive: free school lunches for kids, codifying the right to abortion and gender affirming care, converting power plants to 100% clean energy, paid family and medical leave, legalizing recreational marijuana, and universal background checks for gun purchases. It’s clear from the responses in our Presidential member survey that picking Walz has excited our base, and gives us a target for what we want to see in PA.
During the Democratic National Convention, Reclaim joined the Not Another Bomb Coalition to demand that Harris and the Democratic Party call for an arms embargo on Israel’s government and end the genocide of Palestinians. While we were disappointed in the campaign’s response so far, Harris’s current platform includes Supreme Court reform, expanded Child Tax Credits, child and elderly care, increases on corporate taxes, and climate change preparation, which are all policies that will benefit the multiracial Philadelphian working class. At the same time, we are faced with the violent threat of Trump’s authoritarian movement. If Trump should win that would mean losing progress on addressing income inequality, would drive up healthcare costs, and pose a dire threat to the surge of new workplace union organizing and militant strike tactics that are raising the standard of living for many workers in the US. We must stop the racist, sexist MAGA movement from ever winning the presidency again.
A Trump victory would force our movement in Philly back into defensive action for another four years. Instead, we must focus on building out the progressive infrastructure we need to win what we all deserve, like homes for all and a Green New Deal. Our focus must continue to be on winning policies that make real improvements in our lives, and win bigger next time. We are not done holding the Biden administration accountable and a Harris administration won’t be the end of our struggle either; but we must ensure we have the best opportunities for our collective liberation by blocking Trump on November 5th. Based on this analysis and the strong responses from our members in our Presidential Endorsement survey, Reclaim Philadelphia’s board recommends our members endorse Kamala Harris and Tim Walz for the presidential ticket.
Vote in our Membership Endorsement Now!