Working Families Party

The Working Families Party (WFP) is a minor political party in the United States, founded in New York in 1998. There are active chapters in California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, the District of Columbia, Georgia, Illinois, Maryland, Nevada, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, Ohio, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Texas, West Virginia, and Wisconsin.

The Working Families Party of New York was first organized in 1998 by a coalition of labor unions, community organizations, members of the now-inactive national New Party, and a variety of advocacy groups such as Citizen Action of New York and ACORN: the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now. The party is primarily concerned with healthcare reform, raising the minimum wage, universal paid sick days, addressing student debt, progressive taxation, public education, and energy and environmental reform. It has usually cross-endorsed progressive Democratic and some Republican candidates through fusion voting but occasionally runs its own candidates.

Ideology

WFP follows the ideals of progressive politics, describing itself as a "grass roots independent political organization". The WFP has been referred to by some as the Tea Party movement of the left.

Electoral strategy

Like other minor parties in the state, the WFP benefits from New York's electoral fusion laws that allow the party to support another party's candidate when they feel it aligns with their platform. This allows sympathetic voters to support a minor party without feeling like they are "wasting" their vote. Usually, the WFP endorses the Democratic Party candidate, but it has occasionally endorsed moderate Republican Party candidates as a strategy for spurring bipartisan action on its policy priorities.

In some cases, the WFP has put forward its own candidates. In the chaotic situation following the 2003 assassination of New York City councilman James E. Davis by political rival Othniel Askew, the slain councilman's brother Geoffrey Davis was chosen to succeed him in the Democratic primary. As it became clear that Geoffrey Davis lacked his late brother's political experience, fellow Democrat Letitia James decided to challenge him in the general election on the WFP ticket and won Brooklyn's 35th City Council district as the first third-party candidate elected there in 30 years. Despite this success, James switched back to the Democratic Party when she ran successfully for re-election in 2008.

Some of the party's endorsed candidates include Connecticut Governor Dan Malloy, Chicago mayoral Democratic candidate Jesús "Chuy" García, US Senators Chris Murphy (CT) and Jeff Merkley (OR), former New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio, former New York Governor Andrew Cuomo, and New York Attorney General Letitia James.

In 2006, the party began ballot access drives in California, Delaware, Massachusetts, Oregon, and South Carolina.

Edwin Gomes, running in a February 2015 special election for the Connecticut State Senate, became the first candidate in the nation to win a state legislative office running solely as a nominee for the Working Families Party.

In 2015, NY WFP ran 111 of its candidates, winning 71 local offices.

In 2015, the WFP endorsed Bernie Sanders in his campaign for U.S. president, its first national endorsement. In 2016, after Hillary Clinton became the Democratic nominee, the WFP endorsed her for president.

In 2017, Joshua M. Hall, running in an April 2017 special election for the Connecticut House of Representatives, became the second candidate in the nation to win a state legislative office running solely as a nominee for the Working Families Party.

In 2019, the WFP endorsed Elizabeth Warren in her campaign for president of the United States. Warren won the endorsement with 60.91% of the vote, compared with 35.82% for runner-up Bernie Sanders. The WFP received some criticism for not releasing the individual vote tallies between the party leadership and membership base, each of which accounts for 50% of the vote. In the 2016 primary the WFP had endorsed Sanders, one of Warren's opponents in the 2020 primary. After Warren dropped out of the race, the WFP endorsed Sanders.

Campaigns

1990s

In the 1998 election for governor of New York, the party cross-endorsed the Democratic Party candidate, Peter Vallone. Because he received more than 50,000 votes on the WFP line, the party gained an automatic ballot line for the succeeding four years.

2000s

2000

Patricia Eddington of the WFP was elected to the New York State Assembly. In the 2002 election, the Liberal Party, running Andrew Cuomo (who had withdrawn from the Democratic primary), and the Green Party, running academic Stanley Aronowitz, failed to reach that threshold and lost the ballot lines they had previously won. This left the WFP as the only left-progressive minor party with a ballot line. This situation continued until 2011 following the party's cross-endorsement of Eliot Spitzer in the 2006 election, in which he received more than 155,000 votes on the Working Families Party line, more than three times the required 50,000.

2003

In the chaotic situation that followed the 2003 assassination of New York City councilman James E. Davis by political rival Othniel Askew, the slain councilman's brother Geoffrey Davis was chosen to succeed him in the Democratic primary in Brooklyn's 35th City Council district. As it became clear that Geoffrey Davis lacked his late brother's political experience, fellow Democrat Letitia James decided to challenge him in the general election on the WFP line. James prevailed, becoming the first third-party candidate elected solely on the WFP line.

2006

In 2006, the party began ballot access drives in California, Delaware, Massachusetts, Oregon, and South Carolina.

In South Carolina, the WFP cross-endorsed Democratic party congressional nominees Randy Maatta (District 1) and Lee Ballenger (District 3). In the SC State House elections, the WFP cross-endorsed Democratic Party candidates Anton Gunn

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