In addition to canvassing efforts, a new advertisement with message of unity will run in battleground counties:
Harrisburg, PA — Everyone’s vote counts, no matter what we look like or where we live. Pennsylvania Stands Up, a multiracial grassroots organization with nine chapters across the state, is putting that sentiment to action. Since the June primary, the group’s 7,947 volunteers have completed 33,981 shifts and over 4.5 million voter contact attempts to defeat Donald Trump and elect down-ballot candidates to flip the Pennsylvania legislature.
Trump won Pennsylvania in 2016 by 44,292 votes, and PA Stands Up believes voters in the state have the power to swing the 2020 election the other way. PA Stands Up is running a digital advertisement in strategic areas highlighting the importance of being a voter in this election. The tone is one of unity and possibility, and includes members from across the organizations chapters in both rural and urban communities. The ad reminds viewers that: “From the streets to the ballot box, when we go together, we are powerful.”
The ad is set to air in 12 key counties where PA Stands Up is focusing field efforts to elect 27 endorsed candidates to the state legislature and swear in the Biden-Harris ticket to the White House: Dauphin, Lehigh, Berks, Philadelphia, Delaware, Montgomery, Chester, Lancaster, York, and Cumberland, Lackawanna, and Luzerne.
PA Stands up has 1,500 members in 9 chapters in 11 Pennsylvania counties, and they use cutting edge methods to listen to and speak with residents across the state. Many of the volunteers’ voter contacts have employed “deep canvassing,” a method to connect with voters coming from different political standpoints around shared values and experiences. This method is based on robust research and has been shown to be upwards of 100 times more likely to sway voters than the average presidential persuasion program. On the ground, GOTV canvassers say it’s working.
“We’re taking the time to have real conversations with voters,” said Morgan Tucker, a volunteer canvass captain with Lehigh Valley Stands Up. “We talk to them about their experiences during the pandemic, the economic hardship and healthcare challenges they’re facing, and what kind of care they’d like to see from our government. What we find is that no matter our color, or where we live, working class folks have a lot of shared values and we need the same things from our elected leaders. And we agree that we need new leaders in Harrisburg and Washington, who will stick up for working people of all races who have been left behind.”
“This election is about us,” said Hannah Laurison, executive director at PA Stands Up. “We know that real change doesn’t come from the top down. Time and again throughout our history, we’ve seen that change happens when everyday working people of all races and backgrounds come together to take bold action. That’s what we expect to see on November 3rd and the days that follow.”
With only days before in-person voting on November 3rd, Pennsylvania Stands Up is poised to make a significant impact on the outcome of the Pennsylvania vote, which is likely to play a pivotal role in choosing America’s next president. As the TV ad says: “Let’s build a Pennsylvania that works for all of us.”