Pennsylvania 2026 Plan

Balance of Power: Notes

• In 2024, Kamala Harris lost to Donald Trump by less than 2 points, and incumbent Democratic Senator Bob Casey lost his seat by just 0.2 points. These razor-thin margins show that with the right investment and strategy, we can flip the state.  
• Republicans are heavily courting Democratic Senator John Fetterman, who has been voting with Republicans on issues like the Iran war and ending the fall 2025 government shutdown with no guarantee of ACA subsidies, and has often been the lone Democratic vote to confirm Trump’s cabinet picks. MVP partner Working Families Party plans to challenge him in 2028. 

Organizing Ecosystem

Because of Pennsylvania’s high-profile role in federal elections, funders and Democratic Party strategists have long incentivized transactional, get-out-the-vote efforts over long-term organizing and power-building strategies. As a result, the Pennsylvania ecosystem primarily consists of sophisticated electoral organizing and voter mobilization groups that excel at moving people to the polls, but need additional investment and strategic coordination, which MVP provides, to build long-term, aligned movements that will win elections and build power.

Strategy #1

Mobilize key voters: Turn out Black, Latine, and AAPI voters in support of Democratic congressional and legislative candidates.

Mobilizing Black, Latine, and Asian American and Pacific Islander (AAPI) voters in support of Democrats will be critical to flipping our three target U.S. House seats and winning down-ballot races. MVP partners already working across target districts will focus specifically on engaging and turning out these constituencies for Democratic candidates and bringing them into a multiracial movement to build power for long-term progress.

Make the Road Action Pennsylvania

Make the Road Action Pennsylvania (MRA PA) is the largest immigrant rights group in the state, organizing and building long-term power with primarily Latine Pennsylvanians. They have strong bases in Philadelphia and the Lehigh Valley, which has a significant Latine population and covers much of PA-07. 

For the May 19 primary election, MRA PA endorsed Bob Brooks (the Democratic candidate for PA-07), provided Spanish-language get-out-the-vote messaging in support of Brooks, and led door-knocking efforts to turn voters out for Brooks in the Lehigh Valley. MRA PA has laid the groundwork through trust and relationship-building to successfully mobilize these voters for Bob Brooks and flip PA-07 in November. 

One Pennsylvania

One Pennsylvania (One PA) is one of the largest, Black-led organizations focused on building Black political power in the state. They have strong bases in western and eastern Pennsylvania and understand that building power in Black communities requires a multi-modal approach that combines issue-based organizing with electoral mobilization.

One PA will leverage and expand its strong membership base to galvanize Black voters to the polls. With enough investment, One PA will establish a new member chapter in Dauphin County. Dauphin County is home to a significant Black population that essentially no other group has organized. With One PA’s added focus on Dauphin County, they will be able to mobilize and turn out overlooked Black voters in support of Democrats Janelle Stelson in PA-10 and Sara Agerton in HD-88, using this congressional/legislative district overlap to flip both seats in November.

Asian Pacific Islander Political Alliance

Asian Pacific Islander Political Alliance (API PA) builds statewide AAPI political power in Pennsylvania by combining issue-based organizing and electoral mobilization. They provide programming in 22 AAPI languages, including in-language voting information, and have become a trusted resource for AAPI voters across the state. 

Ahead of the May 19th primary elections, API PA’s field program mobilized AAPI voters in key geographies, including Philadelphia, Dauphin County, and other communities that will be critical to winning state House and state Senate seats in November. Their track record in Dauphin County will be particularly important for flipping PA-10 and HD-88, while also building out their base in this area of the state for long-term organizing and future electoral victories.  

One Pennsylvania organizers strategizing their next moves

Strategy #2

Leverage community relationships: Scale Pennsylvania’s Election Captains program.

In 2025, MVP partners came together to find a solution to the ineffectiveness of large-scale, transactional door-knocking programs that focused on quantity over quality. Led by Pennsylvania Working Families Party (PA WFP), our partners launched an Election Captains program focused on building deeper, more sustainable relationships with voters across the state. PA WFP and other state-based partners recruited and trained more than 1,100 Election Captains across 18 counties to knock over 175,000 doors, speaking with over 35,000 voters to help retain three Democratic seats on the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania.

This year, PA WFP is adapting and scaling the Captains program based on lessons from 2025. Learning from last year’s experience will increase the efficacy of the program this year to help flip target congressional districts and win critical state Senate and state House seats. PA WFP is coordinating 13 community organizations — most of which are MVP partners — to recruit, train, and deploy Election Captains where organizations have strong bases and are playing a major role in target races. The program will maintain 2025 Captains in Philadelphia, providing political education to strengthen Captains’ leadership and organizing skills. 

PA WFP recruited 400+ Election Captains ahead of the May 19 primaries, where they helped Bob Brooks win the Democratic primary in PA-07. They will be able to leverage this groundwork to help Brooks and other Democratic candidates over the finish line as they aim to recruit 800 additional Captains by November, with a focus on PA-07 and PA-10.

Photo: Pennsylvania Working Families Party training Neighborhood Captains.

Strategy #3

Target tipping-point geographies: Mobilize cross-class, multiracial communities in eastern and western Pennsylvania.

With Pennsylvania’s status as a top swing state, we cannot take any geography for granted. We must elect Democrats up and down the ballot, while building ground-up, community-based power to strengthen Pennsylvania's Democratic potential over the long term in geographies that could determine local and statewide election outcomes.

Pennsylvania Stands Up

Pennsylvania Stands Up has strong programs in eastern Pennsylvania, focusing on specific organizing and electoral efforts where congressional electoral targets overlap with state House and state Senate targets, and where there is potential to engage working-class, white voters in support of Democrats. 

PA Stands Up will leverage its chapters in Lancaster, the Lehigh Valley, and northeastern Pennsylvania (NEPA) to engage and mobilize voters in PA-07, PA-08, and strategic overlapping state House and state Senate races. 

• Lancaster Stands Up and Lehigh Valley Stands Up will target PA-07 to elect Democrat Bob Brooks as well as SD-14 and HD-137 — districts we must defend — and SD-16, which we must flip to win a Democratic state trifecta. 
• NEPA Stands Up will target PA-08 to elect Democrat Paige Cognetti, as well as HD-118 and HD-121, to increase Democrats' margin of power in the state House and increase our chances of flipping PA-08. 

PA Stands Up is also engaging white, working-class residents in small towns and exurban areas outside of Philadelphia and in the Lehigh Valley. They are doing political education around the power of a multiracial democracy that works for working-class people of all races, shifting the narrative for white voters about why they can and should be civically engaged. PA Stands Up is also taking this approach in Bucks County, which is more than 80% white, to chip away at Republicans’ hold there and to boost Democratic support in the PA-01 election this year. 

Pennsylvania United

Pennsylvania United (PA United) works to build hyper-local power in western Pennsylvania, with chapters from Erie in the north to Pittsburgh in the south. Chapters' local organizing focuses on Democratic and progressive wins to take over town councils, local school boards, county commissions, mayoral seats, and more.

PA United will leverage its hyper-local focus to turn voters out for Democrats to defend one state House seat — HD-16 in Beaver County — and flip another — HD-44 in Allegheny County. 

Beyond this year’s electoral victories, PA United’s focus in western Pennsylvania helps build long-term, statewide power — especially with the bottom-up focus on local races — that will be critically important with municipal elections in 2027 and the must-win U.S. Senate and presidential races in 2028.

Photo: Pennsylvania Stands Up