Press Release
NARAL Pro-Choice America Celebrates Josh Shapiro’s Victory in Pennsylvania’s Gubernatorial Election
For Immediate Release: Tuesday, November 8, 2020
Contact: [email protected]
Washington, DC — Today, Pennsylvania voters elected NARAL-endorsed Josh Shapiro as governor. Shapiro’s victory over anti-choice, anti-freedom Republican Doug Mastriano marks a huge win for reproductive freedom.
In response to Shapiro’s victory, NARAL Pro-Choice America President Mini Timmaraju released the following statement:
“Congratulations to Governor-elect Josh Shapiro, whose win tonight is proof that voters will support candidates who talk to them about everything impacting their lives. Reproductive freedom matters. It matters to people who are working in factories and struggling to make ends meet. It matters to college kids on campuses and families in small towns and farmers. And it matters to voters—because when your options are a public servant who believes in your freedom to make your own decisions and an anti-choice zealot, the choice is clear. Governor-elect Shapiro has always understood this—that’s why he sued the Trump administration to protect access to birth control, and it’s why he’s pledged to veto any abortion ban that comes his way. ”
Attorney General Shapiro is a vocal champion for reproductive freedom that has consistently fought to protect abortion access in Pennsylvania and across the country. Last year, Shapiro joined a coalition of 24 attorneys general in filing an amicus brief opposing Mississippi’s 15-week abortion ban in the Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization case before the U.S. Supreme Court. Shapiro also signed onto amicus briefs in support of the Biden-Harris administration’s new Title X rules to restore the nation’s only federal funding program dedicated solely to providing family planning services and in support of ending medically unnecessary restrictions on medication abortion care. Shapiro joined amicus briefs in opposition to Texas’ vigilante-enforced abortion ban (SB 8), a series of abortion restrictions in Indiana, and a ban on abortion in South Carolina before many people know they are pregnant.
In June, the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade in its decision in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization—ending the constitutional right to abortion and opening the door for extremist state lawmakers to put total bans on abortion in place. This decision is already having a devastating impact throughout the country as 15 states are enforcing extreme or total bans on abortion. The people hurt most by these bans and restrictions are those who already face barriers to accessing abortion care—including women; Black, Latina/x, Asian American, Native Hawaiian, Pacific Islander, and Indigenous people; those working to make ends meet; the LGBTQ+ community; immigrants; young people; those living in rural communities; people with disabilities, and other historically oppressed communities.
NARAL endorsed Shapiro as part of its largest-ever midterm electoral program to elect candidates up and down the ballot during this critical moment in the fight for reproductive freedom. The program focuses on deep field investments in phone banking, door knocking, youth organizing, and canvassing, along with a robust communications campaign to support endorsed candidates and ballot initiatives in Pennsylvania, Georgia, California, Michigan, Arizona, and Nevada. Read more about NARAL’s endorsed candidates here.
NARAL’s work in Pennsylvania included:
- Knocking on over 120,000 doors, sending over 113,000 texts and making over 132,000 calls; and
- Hosting 60 candidate events with local reproductive freedom champions.
Key components of our midterm campaign included:
- Harnessing the full power of our 4 million members to mobilize their communities through traditional organizing tactics. In total, so far we knocked on over 330,000 doors, made over 641,000 calls, sent over 682,000 texts, and filled over 4,600 volunteer shifts.
- Continuing to broaden the impact of our cutting-edge research into voter sentiment on abortion, including our pioneering freedom-centered messaging, by training candidates, volunteers, and activists to speak to their communities in ways we know align with their values and move them to act on their beliefs.
- Rolling out a pilot program in Michigan with 14 organizers working on seven four-year college campuses and over 20 community college campuses to enroll voters and activate over 721 volunteers.
- Endorsing candidates in over 200 races nationwide for federal and state offices.
- NARAL, Planned Parenthood Action Fund, and EMILY’s List announced a partnership in May to collectively spend a historic $150 million on the 2022 midterms to elect reproductive freedom champions up and down the ballot across the country.
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For over 50 years, NARAL Pro-Choice America has fought to protect and advance reproductive freedom at the federal and state levels—including access to abortion care, birth control, pregnancy and post-partum care, and paid family leave—for every body. NARAL is powered by its 4 million members from every state and congressional district in the country, representing the 8 in 10 Americans who support legal abortion.