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Voice of Westmoreland was among the wave of pop-up progressive groups that spread like dandelions in the wake of the election of Donald Trump.

Many doubted VOW, as the group has come to call itself, would ever be a force in politics. In a county that leans decidedly red, theyve yet to elect a candidate.

But four years after its first rally on Courthouse Square in Greensburg, where a handful of activists gathered in February 2017 to protest President Trumps Muslim travel ban, the group that is fueled through monthly member dues is feeling its way in the political landscape.

Tapping skills in door-to-door canvassing and phone banking honed during a get-out-the-vote drive for Joe Biden, VOW is starting small in this years municipal elections. The organization has endorsed a slate of three candidates for school board openings in Greensburg Salem and Norwin and two candidates for Greensburg City Council.

The move reflects the sentiments of VOW co-founder Clare Dooley, who explained the groups decision to get involved in the presidential election last fall as part of its commitment to change and social justice.

Were in it for the long run. Elections are how you change things, said Dooley, of Unity.

The group recently affiliated with Pennsylvania United. The umbrella group with loose ties to Democratic Party and organized labor now boasts affiliates in seven Pennsylvania counties including Allegheny, Beaver, Centre, Crawford, Erie, Washington and Westmoreland. All told, the local chapters are running 24 candidates in school board and municipal races in four of those counties, including Westmoreland.

One of the ways we believe we can create long-term change we want is by building power from the grassroots up, said Sarah Skidmore, one of the leaders of VOW.

She said the multicounty slate of activists that local groups are mounting puts people over politics and wants to be sure everyone, regardless of brown, black or white, can earn a good living.

This slate of candidates took a candidate pledge not to take corporate cash and committed to a multiracial, multigenerational grassroots change, Skidmore said. Were having conversations, being a presence in the community and caring about our neighbors, no matter what they look like.

In Westmoreland, their candidates include Dana Barvinchak William and Carrie McConnell Muniz in the Norwin School Board race. They are calling for more transparency in school operations, data-driven decisions and an emphasis on the well-being of students.

In Greensburg, their slate includes Sara Deegan, a librarian at the Greensburg-Hempfield Area Library. She wants to ensure students in the Greensburg Salem School District have access to well-staffed libraries and arts programs.

VOW also endorsed a pair of candidates for Greensburg City Council: Yukie King, who is Black and transgender and who once experienced homelessness, and data analyst Ceil Kessler. Their campaigns have emphasized meeting community needs in areas such as housing, transportation and health care.

Into the void

Lara Putnam, a professor at the University of Pittsburgh who tracks grassroots movements, said its been interesting to watch groups such as VOW evolve in areas where the Democratic Party has been in decline.

Theres a pattern were seeing broadly, nationally, that PA United may be a part of, Putnam said. The groups that have emerged and consolidated were not just in suburban, upscale Philadelphia collar counties that have been trending Democratic, but also in places Democrats electoral fortunes have been declining in recent years in Southwestern Pennsylvania.

In quite a few places, the groups that have coalesced and endured over the last couple of years have affiliated with PA United. Theyve moved into network issues. Theyre not affiliated with the Democratic Party, but they are left of center.

The theme of starting local has a familiar ring to Kim Ward, the Hempfield Republican who is the first woman to serve as Pennsylvania Senate Majority Leader.

Ward got involved in the Westmoreland County Republican Committee 29 years ago on the tail end of the Reagan Revolution. Back then, many were dismissive of the former respiratory therapist turned stay-at-home wife and mother to three young sons.

There were 148,000 Democrats and 52,000 Republicans in the county, Ward recalled.

Democrats had held nearly every elected position in the county for decades.

But Ward saw a way.

She persisted and persuaded the Tribune-Reviews late publisher Richard Scaife, a longtime figure in conservative circles nationally, to make a contribution that enabled the local committee to open an office in an old Greensburg storefront.

We had to be present, Ward said. We opened an office and staffed it. We started going out to events, taking out local candidates, knocking on doors and talking to people. It was fun.

Gov. (Tom) Ridge came in and held a fundraiser for us, and we raised $50,000. We started pulling people in, but we still couldnt win anything.

In 1996, local GOP candidates won two township supervisor races. After that, Republican wins started piling up. Registration numbers also inched upwards, finally eclipsing Democrats in 2019. And Ward rose from committee member to township supervisor to county commissioner and finally state senator in 2008.

Along the way, the Tea Party movement, which was seeded by Republican national donors in 2010, helped boost the development of local conservative grassroots activist groups.

Ironically, Trumps continued influence in the GOP may be one factor keeping grassroots groups that supported President Biden active at the local level, said Shippensburg University political scientist Allison Dagnes.

One of the things Ive found interesting is that, on the Republican side, there is still a very Trump kind of candidate who is vying for attention. You saw that in national senate races, and you also saw that down ballot, Dagnes said. So when I look at the municipal races in an off-year election, when a community is still using Trumps name to say this is who I am, that I supported President Trump and I did not believe in the (Biden) election, it keeps the fire going for punch back against that wing of the Republican Party.

Dagnes suspects GOP efforts in state legislatures to mobilize support for laws that would restrict ballot access also may be fueling the efforts of liberal grassroots groups.

The local grassroots groups on the left do not seem to have the deep pockets that funded the Tea Party. Although theyve received some support from Democratic lawmakers, they seem anxious to be associated with issues instead of party politics.

Fueling the fight

Tracy Baton, of Pittsburghs Park Place neighborhood, is a social worker with a degree in community organizing who studied authoritarian governments in South Africa as a Fulbright Scholar. She organized the first Pittsburgh Womens March and is active in the Indivisible movement, a collective of grassroots political organizations.

Last year, Indivisible rallied small groups of supporters for the Biden-Harris ticket and helped push the Democrats to victory in Pennsylvania. This spring, in an effort to bump up turnout in the low-participation municipal primaries, Baton said they are reprising some of the same themes that inspired record turnout in November. That includes calls for racial justice.

Were telling people justice is on the ballot, Baton said.

She has been urging voters to educate themselves about the 39 candidates running for judge in Allegheny County and, most importantly, to vote.

If you care about George Floyd and Breonna Taylor, you have to vote, Baton said.

Locally, Putnam said the covid-19 pandemic also appears to be playing a role in some of the grassroots efforts. She noted that some of the lead activists in VOW include current and retired health care workers who have connected with labor organizers.

Theyve been outspoken, lobbying for increased testing and vaccine equity. Putnam said the public health crisis is an issue that the pandemic brought to the forefront of the public conversation, along with questions about whether long-term care counts as infrastructure and how society will value those who do this work.

And issues, rather than party politics, she said, are fueling the grassroots efforts.

Deb Erdley is a Tribune-Review staff writer. You can contact Deb at 724-850-1209, derdley@triblive.com or via Twitter .

Excerpt from:
Grassroots groups that supported Biden remain active in Westmoreland, Western Pa. - TribLIVE