A Federal Campaign

Abstract

In the following chapters, I describe the work that the Health Care for America Now (HCAN) campaign in Pennsylvania did to build a base of labor and activist support in our state and to engage those supporters in a series of actions and events designed to encourage the members of our congressional delegation to lead the way to and vote for health care reform. While my focus is on Pennsylvania, it is critical to understand at the outset that everything we did was part of a national campaign directed in Washington by HCAN’s campaign manager, Richard Kirsch, and field director, Margarida Jorge. In the following chapters, I’ll be pointing to our actions, most of which implemented or built on the national plan. So it will be helpful, and save repetition, if I first describe the national campaign and how we worked with Richard, Margarida, and the other members of the DC staff.