Working to flip the Pennsylvania State Legislature
Working to flip the Pennsylvania State Legislature
An Arena fellow breaks down what it’s like to work on a competitive state house campaign in 2022
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While the eyes of the political world are set squarely on major U.S. Senate, gubernatorial, and congressional races this cycle, other elections further down the ballot will equally have an impact on the future of American democracy. In Pennsylvania, where Republicans have controlled the state legislature for years, Democrats have an opportunity to flip the lower chamber by winning several competitive seats.
One of those places is Reading-based House District 129, where small business owner Johanny Cepeda-Freytiz is aiming to flip the state house seat from Red to Blue. What’s it like to work on a competitive state legislative race this cycle? How are Pennsylvanians engaging with down-ballot races? For this week’s Campaigner, we spoke to Alba Maria Roldán, an Arena-trained Staff Fellow and Finance Director on the Cepeda-Freytiz campaign.
Q&A with Alba Maria Roldán, Finance Director, Johanny Cepeda-Freytiz for PA State House
Campaigner: How did you get involved in politics?
Alba Maria Roldán: When I was growing up in New York, I remember so many big, tumultuous events happening, and I was always watching the local news. Local politics was part of our everyday life. I became involved in animal rights activism, environmental rights activism, and eventually became a political junkie. I left a corporate job as an underwriting analyst, went back to school at Penn State, studied energy and sustainability policy, and eventually joined campaigns. I checked out Arena, attended Arena Academy and joined their “Finance track,” and the rest is history.
Campaigner: Now you're in Pennsylvania working as an Arena Fellow on a competitive state legislative race as a finance director. Can you talk a little bit about what you're working on, who's your candidate and what’s the landscape?
Alba Maria Roldán: Yes. I’m working for Johanny Cepeda-Freytiz in PA House District 129. It’s a competitive race, one of roughly 10 in the region that are considered very “flippable.” There's generally a lot of energy and investment in her race. Johanny is also a former New Yorker and Dominican American who moved to Reading, PA in 2007. She opened a restaurant and small business called Mi Casa Su Casa that has now been around for a long time. She's become a staple in the local community. Eventually, she became a City Councilwoman and City Council President. So now she's running for State House.
She would be the first Latina to represent this area. The district itself is about 50/50 Republican - Democrat…it’s a lot of Latinos, many voters who are lower income. There’s a great deal of diversity and many Latino pockets that didn’t exist in past years.
Campaigner: Why are state legislative races like Johanny’s important this cycle and why should folks be paying attention to them?
Alba Maria Roldán: Especially now in the era of Donald Trump, state legislatures doing the right thing and certifying elections can determine the future of our Democracy. That’s particularly critical in Pennsylvania.
Democrats lost the [state legislative] majority in 2010 with the Tea Party movement and we haven't gotten it back since. Republicans have had a stranglehold on it for a long time. I've always thought of Pennsylvania as a purple state, despite many national Democrats considering it pretty solidly blue…I always thought that it was flippable, depending on the election cycle, and then Donald Trump came in 2016 and the rest is history.
Aside from that, state houses are also important more generally, because they help pass the laws that make your everyday life easier or more difficult. They do things that are more tactile, these are the people you can reach out to more, you can go to their local office and actually talk to them and get things done.
Campaigner: What are you working on on the campaign and what's your day-to-day look like?
Alba Maria Roldán: One of the things that I learned from Arena is that no two campaigns are alike, and a lot can go on at the same time. For example, this campaign is very family and community-centric. The candidate’s mom and one of her best friend's wives hold important roles on the campaign, so it's all in the family. As a Latina as well, it's ingrained in us to count on those folks.
My biggest priority is fundraising events and call-time, which we’re soon going to ramp up. I’m learning a lot as I go along. Through the Fellowship, Arena provides me a mentor and additional training, so I’m working to take advantage of that. Like many campaigns, in the beginning, it felt a little like being thrown in the middle of the lion’s den, but we just worked it out on the fly.
When someone new is coming on the campaign, a lot of work is just developing trust and relationships. I’m learning that the only way you can really get stuff done is to just communicate, communicate, communicate.
Campaigner: What have you learned about fundraising so far? How has it been going? What are kind of the main tactics there?
Alba Maria Roldán: Right now, we’re focusing a great deal on fundraising events. So mostly events, email fundraising, and a lot of word of mouth. The candidate is able to lean on relationships that she’s already established as a leader in the community – we often have donors literally bringing checks to her restaurant. There are many customers (and even Republicans) that know Johanny and her family.
Campaigner: Pennsylvania is going to see lots of engagement and investment in its top-of-the-ticket races this cycle. How involved and interested do you think folks are in the state legislative elections?
Alba Maria Roldán: I’m really seeing a lot of interest – there are several endorsements and money coming into some of these races. There will be plenty of local PAC money spent, from groups like Sister District, Change PA… I think normally voters aren’t that engaged in these types of races, but Democrats are just starting to wake up to down-ballot elections.
Conservatives have always turned out heavily in off years and in the midterms. I think Democrats are finally understanding, especially now with Roe v. Wade being effectively overturned, that there's so much more that depends on their vote. People are more engaged and I think a lot of it has to do with Roe.
This renewed sense of urgency also has to do with what we see as Democracy in peril. That's also galvanizing people to come out and recognize that we need to stamp out this craziness. With Johanny’s campaign, people are coming out that never would've thought of voting for a Democrat before.
In terms of the Democratic ticket, I think we have a fantastic ticket from Fetterman and Shapiro on down, and I think its a perfect funnel that will bring magnetism and support to everyone else running.
I truly believe voters are engaged, and as a result, we're going to see a surprising number of Democrats, young voters as well, participating in this election.
Campaigner. Awesome. Any advice you’d like to give to our readers?
Alba Maria Roldán: Work on campaigns. Whether you're volunteering, whether you find a single issue to support, go out and do something about it. You don’t have to actually go out and pound the pavement - you can organize online too. Get your feet wet - I’ve never regretted it.
Want to support Alba’s work with Johanny’s campaign? Donate here to help flip PA blue >>
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These interviews are meant to highlight different voices from across the campaign ecosystem. The views expressed therein are not necessarily reflective of the views of Arena or FWIW Media 🇺🇸