by David Ford
(All “From The Frontlines Of COVID” articles are summaries based on Zoom calls between Airlift and group leaders. Full audio is available upon request from donors.)
“People are at home and they want to talk!”
So says Hannah Laurison, Executive Director of Pennsylvania Stands Up, in a conversation with the Airlift team. Hannah reported that their canvassers are having an easy time getting voters to open up about the problems they face: “The Covid crisis has really magnified all the issues that were on our radar.”
As many of us have done, PA Stands Up went through several weeks of revamping the way they work. Through March, their game plan had been about making contact person-to-person by knocking on doors. Since they’ve had to change to calling people, it’s a good thing they can now get people on the phone! Hannah explains the change, “It’s scary and precarious, I won’t deny that. But I feel very proud of our team and how they’ve been able to pivot and identify new tactics.” This in spite of the fact that four of them have already lost family members to COVID-19.
Like many of the groups Airlift supports, PA Stands Up is providing local aid as well as political advocacy, asking people in the communities they serve what’s needed. One of the many areas of focus for Hannah’s group is health care: “With mass unemployment, people are losing their employer health care.” In response, PA Stands Up hasn’t missed a beat, disseminating information on where to find free food and helping with aid applications.
PA Stands Up has also begun a series of virtual forums with people like Varshini Prakash. She is the Executive Director and co-founder of Sunrise, a youth organization supporting the Green New Deal. Varshini can help voters make connections between the administration’s failure with addressing COVID-19 and its failure in addressing climate change.
Meanwhile, Pennsylvania has passed its first vote-by-mail bill, but it’s new and confusing and it requires voters to re-register. So PA Stands Up is doing crucial work in assisting voters with the new procedures. Hannah reports that Republicans have been much quicker to engage their electorate than Democrats have, leaving organizations like PA Stands Up on the front line of preparing voters for the new system.
The Democratic candidate for president has been chosen, but Hannah is as excited by the down ballot candidates as the national ones. She knows what gets voters to the polls—candidates who have a direct, local impact on voters’ lives.
“I want to emphasize the cohort of movement candidates that are running in PA. We have more than a dozen candidates running down ballot for state house and state assembly in competitive seats. We are working together to retake the gavel from the Republicans. So we will be sending some progressive voices to Harrisburg next year and not just from liberal Philadelphia but from central and western Pennsylvania, as well.”
These candidates put their hearts into it just like PA Stands up does, and they are proving, through COVID-19, who will have voters’ backs.