This week, I accepted the Democratic nomination for reelection as Governor of Pennsylvania. Here’s what comes next.
This week, I was proud to accept the Democratic nomination for Governor of the great Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. But the hard work will come between now and November.
This work I do comes with a responsibility. A responsibility to honor those who came before me and carry forward the baton of freedom, progress and democracy.
Our first executive arrived on the banks of the Delaware River on a ship named “Welcome” in 1682. His name was William Penn. And he set out to build a place that would be welcoming for all and an “example to the nations.” He was guided in his work by these core principles:
The freedom to worship as you please, a government that was fair to its citizens, and free elections where the people chose their representatives.
I know that all feels at risk right now. I know many people feel like the country they love is slipping away. That the values we hold dear are being squandered by a President and his enablers who have injected chaos, cruelty, and corruption into our daily lives.
But this November, we are ready to push back, to say enough is enough, to reclaim our power and to stand together in common purpose — the Pennsylvania way.
In these divisive times, and with a politically divided Legislature, we have shown that we can be the example Penn spoke of. Here, we’ve shown that we can get stuff done and do it in a way that shows respect to all Pennsylvanians — no matter what you look like, where you come from, who you love, or who you pray to or choose not to pray to.
But for all that we’ve done, we can’t ignore that we are facing very real challenges because of the chaos, cruelty, and corruption coming from Washington, DC.
Think about the chaos this President and his Administration have caused with the war in Iran — a war Donald Trump was wrong to get into, and has no idea how to get out of. He’s spent $30 billion on this war so far, depleting America’s resources, straining our alliances, undermining our national security and failing to achieve the constantly shifting goals he lays out.
And while his failed leadership has made us less safe and more isolated abroad, here at home it has made us worse off. This war has caused gas prices to soar to more than $4.60/gallon across Pennsylvania. Instead of bringing down costs as he promised, Trump and his enablers are pinching the middle class and then saying he doesn’t care “even a little bit.”
They’ve built a government whose entire goal seems to be to help enrich his friends, his donors, and his own family and then to shield them all from paying the price for their illegal conduct.
It started on Day One when he pardoned those who broke the law and assaulted cops at the Capitol on January 6th. Just this week, we learned that he would continue whitewashing history by using your money to pay those who broke the law and betrayed our country from a new, illegal billion dollar fund he fleeced from the taxpayers.
Somehow, he can’t find the money to pay for healthcare, but he can steal from you to pay off the criminals who stormed the Capitol.
But thankfully, there’s an antidote to all of this.
We have a lot of power and a lot of responsibility this year — and we should not lose sight of the privilege we have to live in Pennsylvania, the state that always decides it all. I mean, look at this Republican Congress — a Congress of weak sycophants who have abdicated their constitutional responsibilities and abandoned all of us in order to serve the will of Donald Trump.
The only way we can expect to change this is to win in November and bring some accountability back to our nation’s capital.
Think about what it will look like — after we flip four seats here in Pennsylvania and win all across this country in November — to have a Congress that actually fights for us.
You have the power to change the direction of this country and chart a course to a better future. No one is coming to do this work for us — it’s on each of us.
And now, this is our moment.