Doing the Work for Every Vote: Our Meetup with Izzy
On September 28, Diversity Matters supporters had the opportunity to have a great discussion with Democratic candidate Izzy Smith-Wade-El, who is campaigning to win a Pennsylvania State legislative seat, on September 28. We’re sharing just a bit here from the wide-ranging conversation, and hoping it gets you as excited as we are to get Izzy elected on November 8, and help him build that bench!
Izzy is a proud Lancaster City native. He has spent his career serving the community, most recently working with LancCoMyHome (the Lancaster County Homelessness Coalition) to secure housing for Lancaster’s most vulnerable populations. His compassion, he told us, reflects the values he learned from his mother. He told us a memorable story about his mom stopping one day in the middle of a highway to pull over and help a homeless person, giving him the last few dollars in her wallet. He told us: “I asked my mom, what will we do if that was all the money we had? My mother replied: We have people who care about us, and we will always have someone who can take care of us if we need. That man does not.”
This story, and what it reflects about Izzy’s values, is a big reason we are supporting him. We need representatives in government who recognize that no one succeeds alone. They know they are part of communities that step up and care for one another. Candidates like Izzy know exactly why it is so important to ‘pay it forward’ by helping bring others with him.
On an immediate and practical note, Izzy explained why we need to invest in down ballot candidates. He noted that fortunately for Pennsylvania, top of the ticket candidates like Josh Shapiro who is running for Governor are doing very well. In fact he gave us the great news that that Shapiro has raised substantially more money for his campaign than his opponent! But he cautioned that sometimes campaigns just focus on ‘top of the ticket’ messaging and that doesn’t help motivate people to vote all the way down the ballot. That’s why the Diversity Matters strategy is to educate people about the importance of their state level races. Because when candidates like Izzy win, they bring the top of the ticket with them!
We encourage you to invest in this important campaign that will not only help win a state legislative seat, but also flip an important Senate race. Diversity Matters has committed to the final stretch fundraiser taking place October 13th, even if you can’t attend please consider supporting through this link to help with Izzy’s final stretch!. And if you want to have a little fun with us and do even more- join our DC-to-PA canvass day on October 15, and enjoy knowing we helped yet another Diversity Pipeline champion to another victory for all of us!