Working Families Party | |
|---|---|
 | |
| National director | Maurice Mitchell |
| Founders | Bertha Lewis Dan Cantor |
| Founded | 1998; 27 years ago (1998) |
| Merger of | New Party Citizen Action Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now |
| Headquarters | New York City, New York, U.S. |
| Membership(November 2024) |  59,779 (registered voters in state of New York)[1] |
| Ideology | |
| Political position | Center-left[7] toleft-wing[8] |
| Colors | Blue and white (formerly) Purple and orange (current) |
| Seats in the Senate | 0 / 100 |
| Seats in the House | 0 / 435 |
| Governorships | 0 / 50 |
| State upper house seats | 0 / 1,972 |
| State lower house seats | 0 / 5,411 |
| Philadelphia City Council | 2 / 17 |
| Hartford City Council | 2 / 9 |
| Website | |
workingfamilies | |
TheWorking Families Party (WFP) is aprogressiveminor political party in the United States. Founded in New York in 1998, it has active chapters in nearly two dozen states.[9][10][11]
The Working Families Party was first organized in 1998 by a coalition of labor unions,community organizations, members of the now-inactive nationalNew Party, and a variety of advocacy groups such asCitizen Action of New York and ACORN: theAssociation of Community Organizations for Reform Now.[12] The party is primarily concerned with healthcare reform, raising theminimum wage, universal paid sick days, addressing student debt, progressive taxation, public education, energy, and environmental reform.
Dan Cantor, the labor coordinator forJesse Jackson's 1988presidential campaign, andJoel Rogers wroteParty Time in which they called for a "party within the party". Cantor and Rogers formed theNew Party in 1990, and planned on taking advantage ofelectoral fusion. The party started running candidates, but was losing support by 1997. Cantor, staff from the New Party,Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now, and others formed the Working Families Party in 1998.[13] In the announcement of the formation of the Working Families Party, leaders of the party endorsedPeter Vallone forGovernor of New York. The party did this as he aligned with the party's policies and was the candidate most likely to gather 50,000 votes on the Working Families Party line, which in turn would fulfill the legal requirement needed for the party to remain on the ballot for the next election.[14]Bill de Blasio, the future mayor of New York City and friend of Cantor, was present for the party's foundation.[15]
TheConnecticut Working Families Party was formed in 2002, by organizations that included ACORN,American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees,Communications Workers of America, andUnited Food and Commercial Workers.[16] In 2010, the party recruited and trained thirteen candidates for seats on the New York City Council in the 2013 election. Twelve of these candidates won.[15]
WFP follows the ideals ofprogressive politics,[17] describing itself as a "grass roots independent political organization".[18] The WFP has been referred to by some as theTea Party movement ofthe left.[19][20][21]
Like other minor parties in New York, the WFP is enabled by the state'selectoral fusion laws to allow the party to support another party's candidate. By doing this, the WFP aims to leverage this support to push for candidates to support progressive reforms the party agrees with.[22]
In some cases, the WFP has put forward its own candidates. In the chaotic situation following the 2003 assassination of New York City councilmanJames E. Davis by political rivalOthniel 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 DemocratLetitia James decided to challenge him in the general election on the WFP ticket and wonBrooklyn's 35th City Council district as the firstthird 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.[23]
Some of the party's endorsed candidates include Connecticut governorDan Malloy, U.S. representativeJesús "Chuy" García,US senatorsChris Murphy (CT) andJeff Merkley (OR), formerNew York City mayor Bill de Blasio, formerNew York governorAndrew Cuomo,New York attorney generalLetitia James,Chicago mayorBrandon Johnson, and New York City mayor-electZohran Mamdani.[24]
In 2006, the party began ballot access drives in California,[25] Delaware, Massachusetts,[26] Oregon, and South Carolina.[27]
Edwin Gomes, running in a February 2015 special election for theConnecticut 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.[28]
In 2015, the New York WFP ran 111 of its candidates, winning 71 local offices.[29] That same year, the WFP endorsedBernie Sanders in his campaign for U.S. president, its first national endorsement.[30] In 2016, afterHillary Clinton became the Democratic nominee, the WFP endorsed her for president.[31]
In 2017,Joshua M. Hall, running in an April 2017 special election for theConnecticut 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.[32]
In 2019, the WFP endorsedElizabeth Warren in hercampaign for president of the United States.[33] Warren won the endorsement with 60.91% of the vote, compared with 35.82% for runner-up Bernie Sanders.[34] 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.[35] 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.[36]
Since 2019, the WFP has recruited major progressive elected officials to deliver aresponse to the State of the Union address by thepresident of the United States, as is customary for the opposition party of the President. The following elected officials delivered a response to the State of the Union, beginning in 2019 with a response to then-PresidentDonald Trump:
In the1998 election forgovernor of New York, the partycross-endorsed theDemocratic Party candidate,Peter Vallone. Because he received more than 50,000 votes on the WFP line, the party gained an automaticballot line for the succeeding four years.[44][better source needed] The WFP endorsedChuck Schumer's original 1998 New York Senate campaign against Republican incumbent Al D'Amato, who Schumer successfully defeated in the1998 election.[45]
Patricia Eddington of the WFP was elected to theNew York State Assembly. In the2002 election, theLiberal Party, runningAndrew Cuomo (who had withdrawn from the Democraticprimary), and theGreen Party, running academicStanley Aronowitz, failed to reach that threshold and lost the ballot lines they had previously won. This left the WFP as the only left-progressiveminor party with a ballot line.
In the chaotic situation that followed the 2003 assassination of New York City councilmanJames E. Davis by political rivalOthniel Askew, the slain councilman's brother Geoffrey Davis was chosen to succeed him in the Democratic primary inBrooklyn's 35th City Council district. As it became clear that Geoffrey Davis lacked his late brother's political experience, fellow DemocratLetitia James decided to challenge him in the general election. James prevailed, becoming the first third party candidate elected solely on the WFP line.[46]
In 2006, the party began ballot access drives in California,[25] Delaware, Massachusetts,[26] Oregon, and South Carolina.[27]
In South Carolina, the WFP cross-endorsed Democratic party congressional nominees Randy Maatta(District 1) and Lee Ballenger(District 3).[47] In the SC State House elections, the WFP cross-endorsed Democratic Party candidatesAnton Gunn (Kershaw, Richland) and Eugene Platt (Charleston).[48]
The WFP elected two party members to the city council ofHartford, Connecticut.[49]
The South Carolina Working Families Party convention endorsed five candidates for state and local office.[50] One candidate, Eugene Platt, running for SC State House District 115, was also nominated by theSouth Carolina Green Party.[51] The nomination of Michael Cone for theUS Senate race, opposing incumbentLindsey Graham, marked the first time the South Carolina party nominated anyone for statewide office.[52]
Two candidates for the Board of Education in Bridgeport, Connecticut were also WFP-supported members of the board.[53]
In August 2009, various media raised questions about the relationship between the WFP, a non-profit political party, and a for-profit private company called Data and Field Services (DFS).[54][55][56] An editorial inThe New York Times questioned whether DFS may be charging select clients below market rates for political services.[57] In August 2010, the federal investigation into the party ended with no charges being filed, and no charges being referred to other law enforcement agencies.[58]
In the same year, the Connecticut WFP endorsedDannel Malloy for governor. He received 26,308 votes as a Working Families candidate, putting him ahead of his Republican opponent, and securing ballot access for the party in that state.[59]
In Connecticut, the WFP won all three minority seats on the city council of Hartford, eliminating Republican representation. As of 2016, the WFP continues to hold all minority seats on the Hartford City Council.[60] In 2011 Connecticut WFP director Jon Green received a $10,000 fine for failing to wear his badge identifying him as a lobbyist while performing lobbying efforts.[61][62]
In Connecticut, the WFP backedChris Murphy's successful race against billionaireLinda McMahon for the US Senate seat that was vacated byJoe Lieberman, supported SEIU/CCAG[63] leader and organizerChristopher Donovan for Connecticut's 5th Congressional seat,[64] as well as defeated a ballot initiative inBridgeport, Connecticut, that would have abolished the elected board of education.
After consideringZephyr Teachout, the party re-endorsed Cuomo for New York governor despite some dissatisfaction and frustration with his first term. However, Cuomo resisted the party's influence and sabotaged the party electorally.[65] In 2010 more than 150,000 of his votes came on the WFP line.[66] As of November 7, 2014, 120,425[67] votes came on the WFP line for Cuomo.
Edwin Gomes, running in a February 2015 special election for theConnecticut 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.[28]
On May 5, 2015,Diana Richardson won a special election for a seat in theNew York State Assembly, running only on the Working Families ticket.[68]
NY WFP ran 111 candidates in 2015, winning 71 local offices.[29]
In December 2015, the WFP endorsedBernie Sanders in his 2016 campaign for U.S. president; this was the WFP's first national endorsement.[30] In 2016, afterHillary Clinton became the Democratic nominee, the WFP endorsed her for president.[31]
In the fall of 2015, the Working Families Party conducted a combined membership-drive and open poll among its enrolled members on whom to endorse for president in 2016; the result beingBernie Sanders.[30] Official numbers were not disclosed but party spokesman and co-founderDan Cantor said the results were "overwhelmingly" in favor of Sanders, with some sources stating it was an 87 to 12 to 1 percent vote with Sanders overHillary Clinton andMartin O'Malley respectively.[69]
The South Carolina Working Families Party cross- endorsed Democratic nominee Dimitri Cherry in his effort to unseat incumbent congressmanMark Sanford inSouth Carolina's 1st Congressional District; Cherry also garnered the endorsement of South Carolina's Green Party but lost to Sanford in the general election.[70]
In 2017,Joshua M. Hall, running in an April 2017 special election for theConnecticut 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.[32]
On October 3, 2017, a runoff election for Mayor ofBirmingham, Alabama, resulted in the election ofRandall Woodfin, who had been backed by the Working Families Party.[71]
In April 2018 an endorsement ofCynthia Nixon over incumbentAndrew Cuomo in Cuomo's bid for a third term as New York governor caused a schism in the party in which labor unions including New York's biggest unionService Employees International Union andCommunications Workers of America indicated they would not support the party in the election. The withdrawal was believed would significantly hurt the party's finances which in 2018 was $1.7 million and statewide staff of about 15 people. The battle received considerable attention since there were concerns that Nixon might have drained enough votes from Cuomo in the general election to allow a Republican to be elected.[72][73] On October 5, 2018, the WFP cleared Nixon from their ticket on the general election ballot and agreed to endorse Cuomo, who defeated Nixon in the Democratic primary, to preserve their ballot line placement.[74]
While campaigning in the2018 United States House of Representatives elections in New York, WFP candidateLiuba Grechen Shirley used campaign funds to pay a caregiver for her two young children. The FEC ruled that federal candidates can use campaign funds to pay for child care costs that result from time spent running for office. Grechen Shirley became the first woman in history to receive approval to spend campaign funds on child care.[75]
On September 16, 2019, the Working Families Party endorsedElizabeth Warren in the2020 Democratic Party presidential primaries.[76] In the 2016 primaries the party endorsedBernie Sanders, one of Warren's opponents in the 2020 primary. Some backlash ensued after that decision was made due to the refusal of the WFP to release the vote; they had previously released the vote in 2016.[77]Jacobin speculated that Sanders had likely won the party's membership vote, which mathematically implied that Warren received 82% to 100% of the leadership vote and only received between 22% and 40% of member support.[78]
On November 5, 2019, the Working Families Party candidateKendra Brooks won an at-large seat onPhiladelphia City Council. The City Council reserves two seats for a minority party, and this is the first time one of those seats went to a candidate not on the Democrat or Republican line in forty years.[79]
On March 9, 2020, afterElizabeth Warren dropped out of the2020 Democratic Party presidential primaries, the Working Families Party endorsedBernie Sanders for president.[80] They endorsedJoe Biden on August 13, 2020, during the run-up to the2020 Democratic National Convention.[81]
The Working Families Party initially gave a ranked endorsement for the2021 New York City Democratic mayoral primary, members voted to rankScott Stringer first,Dianne Morales second, andMaya Wiley third.[82] After Stringer was accused of sexual assault, they rescinded his endorsement and issued a dual endorsement of Morales and Wiley.[83] They then backed Wiley after Morales campaign staff allegedunion busting.[84]
The Working Families Party set up aCalifornia chapter in January 2022, naming formerSan Francisco supervisor and state director ofBernie Sanders' 2020 presidential campaignJane Kim as its executive director.[11]
CouncilmemberKendra Brooks won re-election in 2023 to her at-large seat onPhiladelphia City Council, and in the same election, Working Families Party candidateNicolas O'Rourke secured the other of the two at-large seats reserved for minority party members on Philadelphia City Council, bringing the total of Working Families Party members on Philadelphia City Council to two.[85]
The party released a statement in October 2023 responding to President Biden's address in which he reaffirmed U.S. support forIsrael in theGaza war and subsequentinvasion of Gaza. In the statement, federal affairs director Natalia Salgado expressed support for animmediate ceasefire and criticized Biden forproviding Israel with military aid, stating "there is no military solution to this conflict, and there never has been."[86] In the WFP response to Biden'sState of the Union in March 2024, delivered byNicolas O'Rourke, the party reaffirmed their opposition to the Biden administration's policies in handling thehumanitarian crisis in Gaza, calling again for an immediate and permanent ceasefire and denouncing the "arrogant and extreme-rightNetanyahu Regime."[87]
The party would join the largerprotest vote movements targeting Biden'sre-election campaign in theDemocratic primaries, with the New York chapter supporting an effort that urged voters to leave their ballots blank in theApril primary; the final vote tally saw 40,000 blank ballots, 11.5% of the total vote share.[88][89] In July 2024, Bidensuspended his re-election campaign followingconcerns about his health and endorsed Vice PresidentKamala Harris as his successor. The WFP officially endorsed Harris after she became the presumptive nominee, declaring "overwhelming support" in the effort to preventDonald Trump from returning to the presidency.[90]
In theopen election for California's Class 1 U.S. Senate seat, the WFP endorsed CongresswomanBarbara Lee to succeed the lateDianne Feinstein.[91] The party also expressed support for the re-election campaigns of incumbent senatorsChris Murphy of Connecticut,Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts,Martin Heinrich of New Mexico, andKirsten Gillibrand of New York.
 | This section needs to beupdated. Please help update this article to reflect recent events or newly available information.(November 2025) |
For the ranked-choiceDemocratic primary preceding theelection for mayor of New York City, party leaders planned a two-part endorsement process in which they would initially announce a slate of candidates before later consolidating support behind a single candidate closer to the primary in order to have the strongest chance against former governorAndrew Cuomo.[92] The New York chapter announced its "Working Families slate" of four candidates in March 2025: city councillorAdrienne Adams, city comptrollerBrad Lander, state assemblymanZohran Mamdani, and state senatorZellnor Myrie.[24][93] A separate announcement for a ranking of candidates was made in May, with Mamdani first, Lander second, Adams third, Myrie fourth, and state senatorJessica Ramos added as the fifth ranked choice.[94] Ramos' endorsement was revoked after she endorsed Cuomo on June 6.[95] Party officials indicated that they would not support Cuomo in the race, even if he won the nomination.[96] Mamdani won the primary by 12 points over Cuomo.[97] Mamdani later won the 2025 New York City mayoral election on the Working Families ballot line.[98]
In New Jersey, the WFP endorsed Newark mayorRas Baraka in theopen race forgovernor, as well as 13 state legislative candidates, with "special attention" being given toChigozie Onyema of the28th district andKatie Brennan of the32nd district.[99][100]
In Minnesota, the state’s WFP chapter endorsedMinneapolis City Council candidates Elliot Payne, Katie Cashman, and Aurin Chowdhury. They also endorsed themayoral candidacy ofOmar Fateh. While Cashman and Fateh lost, Payne and Chowdhury won.[101]
In Washington,Seattle City Council candidatesAlexis Mercedes Rinck,Eddie Lin andDionne Foster,Seattle City Attorney candidateErika Evans andKing County Executive candidateGirmay Zahilay won elections while endorsed by the state's WFP chapter, which does not run its own ballot line.[102]
The state directors of the WFP areAna Maria Archila and Jasmine Gripper (NY),[103] Sarah Ganong (CT),[104] Sue Altman (NJ),[105] Brandon Evans (PA),[106] Karly Edwards (OR),[107] Jay Hutchins (MD),[108] Delvone Michael (DC),[109]Marina Dimitrijevic (WI),[110] Ryan Frankenberry (WV),[111] Georgia Hollister-Isman (RI), andJane Kim (CA).[11]
WFP's national director isMaurice Mitchell.[112]
The following notable elected officials won elections solely on the Working Families Party ballot line:
| Name | Office | Took office | Left office | Ref. |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Ed Gomes | Member of theConnecticut State Senate from the 23rd district | 2015 | 2016[a] | [113] |
| Wildaliz Bermúdez | Member of theHartford City Council | 2016 | 2021 | [114] |
| Joshua M. Hall | Member of theConnecticut House of Representatives from the 7th district | 2017 | 2018[b] | [115] |
| Kendra Brooks | Member of thePhiladelphia City Council from the at-large district | 2020 | present | [116] |
| Joshua Michtom | Member of theHartford City Council | 2020 | present | [117] |
| Tiana Hercules | Member of theHartford City Council | 2022 | 2023 | [118] |
| Nicolas O'Rourke | Member of thePhiladelphia City Council from the at-large district | 2024 | present | [119] |
| Alex Thomas | Member of theHartford City Council | 2024 | present | [118] |
The Working Families Party, a center-left ballot line that has embraced Mamdani's mayoral bid, reacted to the news of Hochul's endorsement by doubling down on their pressure campaign to win an income tax hike for rich people.
The left-wing Working Families Party and Public Advocate Jumaane Williams are endorsing the political novice in his bid to rep parts of the Bronx and Westchester.
New York political parties | ||
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| Automatic ballot access |  | |
| No ballot access | ||
| Inactive | ||
