PENNSYLVANIA — As Pennsylvanians are targeted by extremist, anti-equality politicians trying to strip away the rights of LGBTQ+ people, women, and people of color, the Human Rights Campaign PAC (HRC PAC) has been mobilizing voters in support of pro-equality, pro-choice, and pro-democracy candidates across the state. HRC PAC is committed to engaging volunteers, members and supporters to mobilize the 3 million Equality Voters in Pennsylvania in support of pro-equality candidates up and down the ballot.

HRC-endorsed candidates include Josh Shapiro for Governor, John Fetterman for US Senate, Summer Lee and Chris Deluzio for Congress, and a slate of pro-equality champions for Pennsylvania House and Senate races. Additional priority races include Congresswoman Susan Wild’s reelection race in the Lehigh Valley, Congressman Matt Cartwright’s reelection in Northeast PA, and a number of state legislative seats in Bucks County.

In addition to direct voter contact work, HRC continues to share factual information so trans, nonbinary, and LGBTQ+ voters can vote safely in this year’s election, and has hosted a community social for Equality Voters in the Philadelphia area, where HRC team members and trusted LGBTQ+ community messengers answered questions about voting, candidates, and policy for this year’s election.

Ahead of Election Day, Human Rights Campaign Pennsylvania State Director Ryan Matthews released the following statement:

“The stakes could not be higher and the choice could not be more clear in Pennsylvania’s midterm elections. We need Josh Shapiro in the Governor’s mansion, we need John Fetterman in the U.S. Senate, and we need equality champions representing us in Congress and the state legislature. We have endorsed a slate of candidates who will stand up for LGBTQ+ Pennsylvanians, protect our democracy, and ensure that everyone in the Keystone State has an opportunity not just to get by, but to get ahead.”

Polling released in September by HRC showed that about two-thirds (64%) of likely voters in 2022 battleground states – Arizona, Colorado, Florida, Georgia, Michigan, North Carolina, New Hampshire, Nevada, Ohio, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin – support a law “protecting the national right to same-sex marriage.”

69% of Pennsylvania residents support same sex marriage, according to a 2021 PRRI survey.

LGBTQ+ Americans are projected to become one of the fastest growing voting blocs in the country, growing at a scale, scope, and speed that will fundamentally reshape the American electoral landscape, according to a report from the Human Rights Campaign and Bowling Green State University. The report — Equality Electorate: The Projected Growth of the LGBTQ+ Voting Bloc in Coming Years — projects that by 2030 approximately one-in-seven voters will be LGBTQ+, representing a sharp increase over the current one-in-ten. The LGBTQ+ bloc is projected to continue surging in the decade following, nearing one-in-five voters by 2040, emerging as among one of the most influential voting constituencies in the country whose impact will permanently transform and reshape the American electoral landscape.

HRC’s Commitment to Pennsylvania

Equality Voters, including the 3 million in Pennsylvania, are a voting bloc of demographically and geographically diverse Americans who are united by the advancement of LGBTQ+ equality. Equality Voters are younger, more racially diverse, and more female than the general electorate, they recognize and trust the HRC brand, and they are more likely to identify with issue-specific organizations than candidates or political parties.

HRC has had staff and resources on the ground in Pennsylvania since 2017. Across the country, HRC PAC works every day to elect pro-equality leaders who support policies that will support the rights and lives of LGBTQ+ people. During the 2020 election cycle, HRC staff on the ground recruited 5,800 individual volunteers nationwide who completed 28,500 hours of voter contact in more than 2,650 volunteer events. HRC engaged in robust digital and online GOTV efforts, including sending over 2.7 million person-to-person text messages, a massive increase from 2018 when approximately 500,000 texts were sent. HRC sent over 2.5 million mail pieces, had over 930,000 phone conversations with voters, and engaged more than 200,000 voters through HRC’s voter dashboard at hrc.org/vote.

The Human Rights Campaign is America’s largest civil rights organization working to achieve equality for lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer people. HRC envisions a world where LGBTQ+ people are embraced as full members of society at home, at work and in every community.