PA Primaries Are Coming!
Get you a voting plan!
Hi all! Just a reminder that local primaries are coming in hot here in PA, on May 20th, 2025.
And they’re so important, friends! If you’re living in Pittsburgh, you’re basically electing the next mayor, in this election. There are also important decisions about judges, ballot initiatives, and school boards in these elections. If you’ve even glanced at the news in the last few years, you’ve seen a lot of judges and a lot of school boards doing Things—lots of Things—both good and bad. So these are such important elections, for your day to day. These are the people deciding what happens to you if you get in trouble, or your kid gets in trouble, or what your kids get to read and study, or what the generations underneath us learn about how to be citizens.
It might also be helpful to remember that our local politics define our state politics and eventually state politics define federal, and I think we’ve forgotten that. I’m going to go out on a limb here and use a sports analogy (something I do all the time even as I am uniquely unqualified to do so). Here it is: Only paying attention to the big, presidential elections is, I imagine, a bit like trying to do a rookie draft for a sports team having paid no attention to any high school or college games, or how those games are run. We have to pay attention to those institutions AND who’s up and coming, if we want to steer that ship (I’m mixing metaphors already!) so that our country goes in the direction we want.
That said, these local elections are also difficult to parse, and I get that! It’s hard NOT to know who the big, federal players are as every other commercial is beaming their face at us. But who are all these local people running for judge? It takes some real research. Luckily, there are lots of good sources. So I’m going to link just a few of these, here, that I’ve found super helpful.
Please share this post with anyone in PA who needs them and, yes, I will absolutely have a printed off list of everyone I want to vote for, come the 20th, because it’s too much to remember. So figuring out your vote is a bit of a lift but it’s SO IMPORTANT and here are some great resources to make it easier:
City Cast Pittsburgh’s Guide (IF YOU SHARE ONE RESOURCE, SHARE THIS)
Commonwealth of PA’s Important Dates PDF
As always, PBS has our back (this one is especially helpful for people in Eastern PA)
AND ON THAT NOTE: Have you reached out to Congress to protect our public media? DO THAT NOW (super easy!)
If you’re not in PA, make your own primary post, whatever it looks like, and spread it around however you can! Let’s get people voting! xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxo