Why I had to drop out of the race for Pa.’s 2nd Congressional District

I have lived in Kensington for 38 years and during that time I have witnessed decades of neglect and disinvestment. We have extreme poverty. Our children walk to school in fear of stepping on needles, getting mugged, or being killed. Hundreds of housing-insecure people sleep in tents. Some inject themselves with drugs in front of police. Many people living in the 2nd Congressional District are simply too afraid to walk in their communities.

Politicians have failed Philadelphia and many people want a fresh voice. That is why I decided to run for Congress in the district. On March 5, I walked the streets of the district to collect signatures with a group of volunteers. Most of the people we spoke to did not know who represented them in Washington. Our team was often pulled into people’s homes to address their concerns and listen to their frustrations.

My campaign volunteers and I realized that most people felt as we did: that we have no one representing our voice in government. Unfortunately, that will continue to be true, because I was forced to leave the race due to an inequitable process that makes it nearly impossible for average citizens to run for office to represent the communities they live in.

I’m not naive enough to think the system hasn’t been skewed over the years to give incumbent candidates an advantage. But my experience during the primary season taught me that — especially when it comes to working-class candidates — the playing field has become so uneven that it can be a real struggle to even get on the ballot.

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My campaign had a short window to collect signatures. This was due in part to Pennsylvania’s lengthy redistricting process. Every 10 years the districts for candidates are redrawn and this election year was that 10th year. The process gave establishment candidates an edge over grassroots candidates, because they already have systems in place to collect their signatures. Philadelphia has 66 wards, and each ward has anywhere from 11 to 51 divisions, and each division has up to two committee people, who often help incumbents collect signatures. This structure, combined with resources and money, gives establishment candidates a leg up.

Along with about 15 campaign volunteers, I hit the streets in an effort that resulted in more than 1,500 signatures on our nominating petitions, 500 more than required by the Pennsylvania Bureau of Commissions, Elections and Legislation. My team had enthusiastic volunteers to gather the signatures, but unfortunately not everyone was properly trained on the importance of following instructions for signature collections.

After looking over all the signatures, my campaign manager, Donnel Casey, and I discovered that more than 400 could not be submitted, mostly because the signers wrote their zip code instead of the date. The form is simple, but it does need to be exact. Registered voters in the district must provide their signatures, print their name, house number, street name, city, state, and the date the petition is signed.

On March 14, I drove with Casey to Harrisburg to drop off our signatures. The signatures were accepted, and we celebrated our victory by calling and texting our family and friends. The democratic process had worked as it should. We were ready to identify solutions, and find ways that we, as a community, might collaborate on change.

Then, on March 21, we learned that our signatures were being challenged by a lawyer and a client with ties to various unions. I don’t know why these men don’t want me on the ballot.

Five days later, on March 26, I discovered legal documents inside a large envelope taped to my door. The documents challenged almost every signature. I was overwhelmed.

The legal team left us with two working days before the filing deadline to mount a defense, which is less than the five days they had to research, file, and challenge our work. That evening, Casey and I organized our team and had a meeting. Disappointed but not dispirited, we reached out to friends and associates. The one overriding response was: We need a lawyer! More than 900 of our signatures had been challenged and all they needed was 80 rejected signatures to take us out of the race. We did not have the money, experience, or bandwidth to defend our work.

I was left with no option but to withdraw from the primary. Now, the people in our district who supported us will not have an option in the Democratic primary on May 17. Brendan Boyle, who has been representing my neighborhood since 2019, is running unopposed.

What this experience taught me is that it’s too hard for working-class and poor people to run for office. This is a fundamental breakdown in the democratic process. This system is part of the reason why there’s a disconnect between the largely affluent people who govern us and the people they are elected to serve. Yes, my team could have done things differently, but the deck was stacked against us from the start.

The tactic was to hire high-priced legal representation to overwhelm us by challenging virtually every signature we collected, regardless of whether the signatures were valid. This election cycle, there were at least 59 challenges to candidates across the state. More than 20 of those candidates, like me, withdrew. An additional 30 or so were removed from the ballot.

Big money puts campaigns beyond the reach of the everyday person looking to run for office. According to Fox Business, 2022 midterm election spending is expected to break records. Every candidate — regardless of wealth, education, and position — should have the same funding and access to resources in a primary through public campaign financing.

Currently, campaigns are funded by candidates and donors, but it doesn’t have to be this way. Access to equal campaign financing would create a more level playing field for everyone. In Norway, government funding accounted for nearly 74% of political parties’ income in 2020. And unlike in the United States, where candidates and their supporters can buy as much television time as they can afford, political ads are banned from television and radio.

“The process in our state is stacked to keep those with money and power in office and to discourage people from the most disenfranchised communities from even aspiring for office.”

Boots-on-the-ground volunteers like myself are doing the tough and gritty work in this city to improve our neighborhoods and find solutions to the stubborn plague of drugs, violence, and poverty. We work to clean our blocks and parks. We sit in on meetings with city officials and listen to their empty promises, and we worry that decisions will be made without our perspectives.

When elected, your job is to craft legislation that will have a positive impact on people and their communities. Having grassroots leaders who walk our communities with lived experience would bring a much-needed perspective to drafting legislation.

A regular citizen like you or me, raising a family, should have the right to run for office to represent the people in our communities who are looking for positive change. Access to money and lawyers should not determine who stays on the ballot and who gets kicked off.

In Philadelphia you can become a state representative with fewer than 3,000 votes in a district with more than 65,000 people. You can become a district Council person with fewer than 5,000 votes in a primary in districts with more than 160,000 people. We have become accustomed to coming out only for general elections and ignoring primaries. Philadelphia has more than a million registered voters. The primaries matter.

I encourage all Philadelphians to vote on May 17 and in every primary after that. Even if our options are limited, let your vote be your voice. Participating in the primary election will be the catalyst for change we want in our city.

In the coming weeks, I will be meeting with other community leaders to organize another run for office. My team is weighing our options. We learned from this last effort, and we will be better prepared. I’m determined to make sure that my volunteers, supporters, and the people who signed our petitions understand that their efforts were not in vain. We will be back.

Gilberto Gonzalez is a designer, filmmaker, community activist, and television host of Entre Nosotros. @gilbert_artist