Over the last few months, I have traveled across the state meeting with Pennsylvanians from all walks of life. Whether we gathered in restaurants or met outside bus stops, I have heard the concerns of our hard-working men and women in this Commonwealth and was honored to receive their support last week.
I entered this race to give working families a voice. This fight is deeply personal: my dad was a police officer in Philadelphia and my mom was a restaurant hostess. My parents were firm believers in the American Dream and they worked hard to make ends meet and give my nine siblings and me an opportunity to succeed. Their hard work and determination paid off. All ten of us kids were able to chase our dreams and discover and develop our God-given talents.
For too long now, though, families like mine have been struggling to get by. If you’re working hard, you should get ahead. But for decades now, wages have been stagnant. The cost of higher education continues to soar. Mothers and fathers all across this country are working two and three jobs just to put food on the table and pay the bills.
It’s time to put the needs of working families back in the forefront of our national conversation. Everywhere in Pennsylvania, families have told me that Washington has not been working for them. We have representatives like Pat Toomey who are focused on the needs of the special interests, not the interests of working people.
That’s not acceptable. We need to give Pennsylvanians a fair shot at getting ahead and invest in their bright futures.
The way I see it, this starts with paying people a decent wage. We need to raise the minimum wage to $15/hour, something that Senator Toomey has consistently opposed, despite the mathematical reality that wages have not kept up with the cost of living. No one who works full time should be living in poverty.
Further, we need to ensure equal pay for equal work. As the mother of three daughters, this issue is crucial for me. I want my daughters to know that their work is valued. On average, Pennsylvania women today earn just 79 cents for every dollar a man makes for doing the same work. The wage gap hurts families, yet Pat Toomey has voted no fewer than five times against critical paycheck fairness legislation.
We can, and must, do better.
Last year, it was my great privilege to work with Governor Wolf to expand Medicaid under the Affordable Care Act here in Pennsylvania. This enabled more than 500,000 Pennsylvanians to have access to quality health care – even as it cut the bill to taxpayers by hundreds of millions of dollars. However, Pat Toomey has voted again and again to repeal the Affordable Care Act and take away the health care coverage Pennsylvanians rely on. I will fight every day to make healthcare affordable and accessible, and to drive down the excessive cost of care.
I strongly believe that our government has a responsibility to uphold the promise it has made to our seniors and protect Medicare and Social Security. Our seniors have worked their whole lives for these earned benefits. But Pat Toomey has a different idea. He’s pushing to privatize Social Security and voucherize Medicare. Gutting these vital problems might earn Senator Toomey a pat on the back from Wall Street, but seniors across this Commonwealth would be devastated. Social Security represents 90 percent of the income for almost 40 percent of our seniors.
So, I say enough is enough. The special interests have enough Senators like Pat Toomey fighting for them in Washington. Pennsylvania families deserve a Senator who will join with Senator Casey and have their back in the U.S. Senate.
That’s the change I can and will deliver. Hardworking Pennsylvanians are fired up to take on the status quo. They carried us to victory on Tuesday night and I am determined to deliver them a victory, restoring the promise that their hard work means opportunity and a bright future. I am humbled by your support and I know that with your help, from now until November 8, we can make history. As Pennsylvania’s first woman Senator, it will be my privilege to fight every day to give hardworking Pennsylvanians the fair shot they deserve.
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16 Responses
Heya this is somewhat of off topic but I was wanting to know if blogs use WYSIWYG editors or if you have to manually code with HTML. I’m starting a blog soon but have no coding skills so I wanted to get advice from someone with experience. Any help would be enormously appreciated!
http://www.myadventurediary.net/blogs/157/1062/seeking-to-learn-everything-abou
Of course she is, Margie.That’s the family with 10 kids, a father who’s a cop and Mom who’s a diner hostess. And somehow all the kids turned OK, some (like Katie) worked hard and got great educations and careers. Isn’t that the kind of story that Repubs are supposed to love? I guess if you end up a Democrat — especially a Democrat running for office — none of it counts.
Pepper, I think she is referring to her family growing up, that’s the same family she always talks about
Pepper-
Joe will be probably walking around VA by then, if he’s able to flip his PA house over the next few months.
It’s not like he’s got to hunt for a job for his wife or school for his kid in Virginia. They already live there. It’s just dumping his PA property before it loses any more value.
I don’t expect Sestak even to be registered to vote in PA in November.
Toomey knows he can’t personally smear Katie with any of this trumped up (yeah, that’s intentional) garbage, since he’s a way bigger offender on all of it than she is. So he needs to resort to anonymous websites and fake online postings. Toomey, the tool of Wall Street and the pollution cartel, is already in the gutter. How’s he going to smell by November?
“For too long now, though, families like mine have been struggling to get by”
Katie just took a cool mil from sitting on a few boards. How is it that she’s struggling in her million dollar home?
I don’t begrudge anyone that, it’s just gross when politicians pretend to be something they’re not.
I’m writing in Sestak! Joe should start a walking write in campaign.
https://www.corporatekatie.com/home
Narb Dem-
Probably. She passed a Dwarf and a Giant to win.
Now she just has to defeat the Troll under the bridge made of Wall Street money.
Gosh! Do you think McGinty got a passing grade in Econ 101?!
jmarshak-
Getting rid of Sestak was a public service. She should get a medal.
Montco PA Dem-
Great list.
Len buchta-
What were your politics and what were you hoping to get for your $10K? Maybe, you were the type of “insider” she didn’t want. Or they misplaced your number, or had already cut the deal with Wolf and weren’t worried about big donors.
What did you spend the $10K on? Hookers and booze?
I have spent most of my professional life working in the political after I left government in 2003 I started a pretty successful business . More successful than I could have imagined – when Katy was running for governor I contacted her campaign – talked to a long time insider in her campaign offered to volunteer in the campaign. And offered to make a sizable contribution no one ever got back to me .. The fact is Katy is an insider and if your not part of the club to bad
We really don’t need more of the same ie clinton ect – I found a good use of the 10 k I would have given her
Collins is a bad example. Being the Senator from Maine would be a lot more impressive if there were more people in Maine. As it stands, it’s about as impressive as becoming a Congressman from Philadelphia.
jmarshak, maybe you can help me out here because a lot of commenters on this site talk about McGinty not having accomplished a lot over her lifetime, but I don’t totally understand why you think that.
She came from little, worked for her education, served in the White House and in Harrisburg (in multiple roles now under multiple governors), and was successful in private industry.
So do your reservations about her resume come from not being elected before? And is that really what we should be focused on?
Congressional approval is at a whopping 11% but we have had a reelection rate of 90%+ for decades now. If we don’t like the people who are there and have been there forever, why would we require that our elected officials have been elected to another office before? I don’t get it.
Women who have served as US Senator without prior elected office include:
-Senator Nancy Kassebaum (R-Kansas)
-Senator Susan Collins (R-Maine)
-Senator Elizabeth Warren (D-Massachusetts)
All of these were and are accomplished and impressive women who defeated male opponents and became Senators as their first elected office.
Katie McGinty joins their ranks in November.
I’ve never seen a candidate get so much praise and endorsement for having accomplished so little, aside from being born female.
Katie is going to make a great Senator. Go get ’em, McGinty!