Goreham voices support for McGinty

State College Mayor Elizabeth Goreham on Tuesday joined two other notable women in Democratic politics to support Pennsylvania U.S. Senate candidate Katie McGinty and her announcement of an agenda for women and working families.

In addition to Goreham, McGinty was joined on a teleconference by Sen. Jeanne Shaheen of New Hampshire, and Jess O’Connell, executive director for EMILY’s List, an organization that supports female Democratic candidates nationwide.

“In the Senate Katie McGinty will work with leaders like Sen. Shaheen to ensure women across the country and in Pennsylvania will have a fair shot,” Goreham said. “Throughout her career Katie has sought out innovative, common sense solutions to some of our greatest challenges. As a senator she will take the same approach to policies that concern women and working families, because she gets that when women succeed we all benefit, both here in the rural counties of central Pennsylvania and nationwide.”

McGinty, Gov. Tom Wolf’s former chief of staff and Secretary of the Department of Environmental Protection under former Gov. Ed Rendell, is running for the Democratic nomination to face Republican incumbent Sen. Pat Toomey in the general election this fall. A Harper Poll in late January showed former Congressman and retired Navy Admiral Joe Sestak with 33 percent support and McGinty with 28 percent. Sestak had a 10 point lead last fall. Braddock Mayor John Fetterman polled at 11 percent.

The economic agenda for women and working families released by McGinty on Tuesday includes ending gender discrimination pay by supporting the Paycheck Fairness Act; raising the federal minimum wage to $15 an hour over the next four years; supporting the Healthy Families Act to mandate paid sick days for workers; advocating for the Child CARE Act to help families afford child care; Defending funding for Planned Parenthood; and supporting passage of the Women’s Small Business Ownership Act.

“We need policies that actually help women and their families move forward, not hold them back,” McGinty said

Sestak and Fetterman have expressed similar views for economic policies to aid working families.

Toomey has voted against the Paycheck Fairness Act and a measure to raise the federal minimum wage, saying it would lead to the elimination of jobs. He voted in support of a budget amendment to allow workers to earn paid sick time.

Goreham, whom McGinty called “a person of vision, accomplishment and skill,” has known McGinty since the candidate’s tenure as DEP secretary and has supported McGinty’s Senate bid since she first announced. 

“She was an exemplary leader and she was able to support renewable energy initiatives as well as to get some tough protections for our water and air that Pennsylvanians really value,” Goreham said. “We’re still benefiting from her leadership then. I love her energy and her approach to how she works. She sees the issues and in a common sense way wants to solve them. It was very easy for me to support her candidacy for Senate.”

Goreham also supported McGinty’s campaign for the Democratic nomination for governor in 2014.

McGinty praised Goreham’s leadership in helping develop “a vital, attractive, thriving community,” in an area with a complex population.

“I have learned from her how you manage even some of the biggest and most complex challenges and how you build out of that a really thriving, vibrant community,” McGinty said.

She also said that in Goreham’s position as mayor in a college town, Goreham understands the need for college affordability.

“Penn State is a crown jewel, but we have to be vigilant to bring down the cost of college, to vote for those tools like reducing the interest rate on federal student loans, enabling families to refinance student loans, and supporting the Pell Grant program so our kids can go to college and our families don’t go bankrupt from college,” McGinty added.

Goreham said she supports McGinty’s economic agenda because of income inequality in Pennsylvania and nationwide, noting that in Pennsylvania women represent nearly 75 percent of those earning minimum wage or less and that the state has no provisions for paid family leave.

“Changing these sorts of policies are crucial to helping women get ahead,” Goreham said.