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Three 2020 Democratic Hopefuls Set to Take on PA

Is it 2020 already? Not quite, but U.S. Sens. Kamala Harris (CA), Bernie Sanders (VT) and Elizabeth Warren (MA) are hitting the road over the next couple of days in Pennsylvania.

Harris and Sanders are viewed by many as 2020 presidential hopefuls. They will be campaigning for the re-election of Sen. Bob Casey and Gov. Tom Wolf, respectively. This weekend, Warren will join Sanders and Sec. Hillary Clinton as the headliners for the American Federation of Teachers convention in Pittsburgh. The AFT, an affiliate of the AFL-CIO, represents 1.7 million members in more than 3,000 affiliates nationwide according to its website.

Tomorrow afternoon, Harris is set to join Casey and other local elected officials in West Philadelphia to discuss the most pressing issues this election cycle for Pennsylvanians and the “far-right agenda” of the GOP.

“The far-right agenda being pushed by Congressional Republicans and their corporate special interest backers makes this election a make or break moment for Pennsylvania’s middle class, and Senator Harris and Senator Casey will discuss the work they’re doing to help eliminate the obstacles holding working families back,” said Terrence Clark, a spokesman for the Casey campaign.

Casey’s opponent in the November general election, U.S. Rep. Lou Barletta, sees the campaign visit by Harris as Casey embracing a California Democrat and ignoring the average Pennsylvanian.

“Only a radical socialist politician from a state like California would be attracted to Bob Casey’s obstruction politics and support for open border policies like sanctuary cities,” said Barletta spokesman David Jackson. “Bob Casey may be the right politician for the people of California, but he no longer represents the people of Pennsylvania.”

Later this weekend, Sanders will be on the trail for the Wolf campaign and headlining the American Federation of Teachers Conference in Pittsburgh.

Sanders will reunite with Lt. Gov candidate John Fetterman, whom he endorsed in his bid in the Democratic Lt. Governor primary, for a rally in Pittsburgh this Sunday.

“Having Senator Sanders campaign for Mayor Fetterman and Governor Wolf shows that, at the end of the day, Democrats have to show up for each other,” said Hannah Jeffrey, Communications Director for the campaign. “We are are all focused on creating good paying jobs, increasing education funding, and improving access to affordable, quality health care.

The Wagner/Bartos ticket specifically criticized the position of Sanders and Fetterman on “single payer healthcare” and “supporting sanctuary cities” and questioned how Gov. Wolf feels about those specific issues.

“The Governor has not said whether or not he denounces these extreme positions and his silence, at this point, can only be an indication of his continuing support for a massive tax increase and the reduction of public safety,” said PAGOP Communications Director Jason Gottesman. “Campaigning with Bernie Sanders is the latest indication that the Wolf-Fetterman ticket is so far to the left that they have lost sight of the moderate Pennsylvanians who are looking for a hand up, not a hand out.”

The presidential primary won’t arrive in PA until April 2020, but despite being late the Keystone State was strongly contested in 2008 and 2016.

11 Responses

  1. Keep the U.S. Senators away from J Costa and the State Dem Senators – 16 out of 50 when other Dems were winning big. They couldn’t elect a wet dream at band camp.

  2. We are finally forcing these specific issues to the fore. And my fellow Democrats in our corporate wing will not be able hide and deflect much longer. We don’t want or need (and have never asked for) “access to affordable healthcare”, whatever that is in a nation where a healthy family of three pays over a grand a month for an $8,000 deductible plan. We demand the universal public healthcare that the advanced nations of Earth have been allowed to prosper under for decades. The universal healthcare that, but for the ownership of both corrupt major parties by those who profit off our catastrophe, we would have been allowed to have decades ago. Ditto on social justice and environmental half measures too numerous to list. Take our side and we’ll come back to yours. It really is that simple.

  3. Socialist SZN. You know what’s cooler than working hard, getting a job and making something of yourself? Expecting everyone to hand you everything while the people who work to get themselves somewhere pay for it.

    Capitalism is soooo 1776.

    1. Socialism is probably the least understood or most deliberately misunderstood term in political science. Most people on the right couldn’t actually define it and think it’s some shadowy catch-all for left-wing politics they don’t like, and most people on the left seem to confuse democratic socialism and social democracy.

      Frankly, if the right hadn’t spent the last 40 years crying wolf by labeling anything left-of-center as “socialism”, I have to think fewer people would have taken up the term. Bernie Sanders, for instance, doesn’t appear to be a socialist, despite having adopted the label. His platform is pretty firmly social democrat, preferring a strong regulatory state while maintaining a capitalist society. That’s pretty much the opposite of socialism in the scientific meaning of the word.

      No doubt, some self-described democratic socialists genuinely want a democratic socialist society, but many are social democrats and, at most, want more employee-owned companies while maintaining a capitalist system that is carefully monitored by a strong regulatory state to improve equality of opportunity and quality of life for all.

    1. Just as did Superman of six decades ago, I advocate for truth, justice and the American Way.

  4. Scott Wagner seems to be out of sinc with the times and the people he wants to serve. His taking a survey at the Republican Committee meeting a few weeks ago asking, “who has employer healthcare?” And using that as a reason not to worry about health care seems to miss a bigger point. That, many Pennsylvanians, at any moment (as well as many currently) could be (and are) in a healthcare crisis. In 1873, A Supreme Court Chief Justice in Wisconsin said at a commencement, “Which shall rule–wealth or man; which shall lead–money or intellect; who shall fill public stations–educated or patriotic freeman, or the feudal serfs of corporate capital?” The Dems need to take the battle of ideas to Scott Wagner and challenge him through specific points why Dems can better serve Pa and why his thinking is all wrong for the working Pennsylvanians and never let up till Nov 6th.

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