'Residents of the most voter-rich county in Pennsylvania deserve aspirational leaders who get stuff done for the people they serve,' writes Joe Corrigan, a Pa.-based Democratic political consultant.
Progressive Democratic legislators trounced conservative challengers in this year’s primary elections as voters again strongly repudiated the Philadelphia Democratic City Committee. As we head toward a general election in whichheads the Pennsylvania Republican ticket, the Philly Democratic Party must decide now whether to put ego aside and align with an energized and growing progressive Democratic base — or to consign itself to embarrassing irrelevance permanently.
Turns out Democrats want elected officials to “get stuff done” — to paraphrase U.S. Senate candidate John Fetterman who won all 67 counties in Pennsylvania and was also not endorsed by the Philly Democratic Party. Policies like Medicare for All, a $15+ per hour minimum wage, abortion access, and a Green New Deal are all popular with Democratic primary voters.
Taking on wealthy and powerful corporations is incompatible with this politics-as-usual dynamic. Democratic voters are rejecting in ever greater numbers establishment politics in favor of progressive candidates, who are labeled as “radical” and “woke” by party figures who really just want to preserve their power and entitlement.
Fiedler and Krajewski won their campaigns by telling voters what they believed and how they planned to legislate. And they stayed true to their words. They voted against budgets that were bad for public education and they voted against subsidizing fossil fuels because they’re bad for public health and the planet. They voted for new green jobs and infrastructure that could support households that never fully recovered from the demise of manufacturing in Pennsylvania.