Over half a million Pennsylvania voters will see a member of the Socialist Workers Party on the general election ballot this November. Three members of the Socialist Workers Party are contesting office this year, with one candidate now successfully achieving ballot access.
The Socialist Workers Party is a communist party strongly supportive of Cuban solidarity. It is the American affiliate of the loosely organized Trotskyist group Pathfinder tendency and the public face of the Militant, a socialist newsweekly founded in 1928. Other than Pennsylvania, it is also fielding candidates in Georgia, New Jersey, Illinois, and New York this election cycle.
Chris Hoeppner earned a spot on the ballot earlier this month, making him the first Socialist Workers Party candidate to achieve Pennsylvania ballot access in decades. Hoeppner, an active member of the party and previous congressional candidate, is running for Congress from Pennsylvania’s third congressional district. The district encompasses West Philadelphia and parts of Center City and North Philadelphia and has a population of over 740,000 residents.
Hoeppner is also the lone candidate running to unseat incumbent Rep. Dwight Evans in the general election. Evans, a member of the Democratic Party, has represented the district since 2019 and previously represented the second district.
Joining Chris Hoeppner on the campaign trail are Candace Wagner and Osborne Hart. While not officially on the ballot, both are Socialist Workers Party members who are mounting organized write-in campaigns; Wagner for governor and Hart for U.S. Senate.
Wagner and Hart are also both experienced candidates. Wagner previously ran for New Jersey lieutenant governor in 2021 to secure the Socialist Workers Party ballot access before being replaced by Vivian Sahner. Hart is a civil rights advocate who has run for office under the Socialist Workers Party banner several times, including as their vice-presidential nominee in the 2016 presidential election.
Hoeppner and his supporters collected over 2,400 signatures to earn a spot on the general election ballot, much more than the minimum required in an effort to fend off potential challenges. While most campaign teams typically engage population-dense areas like Philadelphia, the Socialist Workers Party has focused on more rural areas, including the surrounding communities of Allentown, Hershey, and West Chester.
Voters outside Pennsylvania’s third congressional district should still anticipate a visit from the Socialist Workers Party candidates ahead of November. The Militant attributes Osborne Hart as having told the local media following news of Hoeppner’s success that they will continue to campaign “all across the state and beyond” in their effort to promote a “working class program and joining in actions by the labor movement, farmers and others fighting capitalist exploitation and oppression.”
The general election in Pennsylvania is on November 8, 2022.