A new political party has come to Mass. Here’s their plan to make a mark | John L. Micek

If you’re a Bay State Democrat or unenrolled voter who’s tired of your options on Beacon Hill, and would prefer a decidedly progressive alternative, the Working Families Party would like a word.

Already active in 17 states, the progressive-minded party officially hung out its shingle in Massachusetts on Thursday, announcing itself with a batch of endorsements in key races in Worcester and Lawrence.

The two Gateway Cities will serve as a dry run as the party revs up for more contests in the key 2026 midterm elections, where seats in the State House also will be up for grabs.

“This year has really been a time when lots of local leaders and folks have come to us and they’re like, ‘How do we get the … thing to work on our state and local politics?” Georgia Hollister Isman, the party’s regional director, told MassLive. “And we’re really excited to be able to put it together and get it rolling.”

The party has positioned itself as an alternative to a Democratic establishment that it believes has lost touch with the needs of the working-class voters that once made up its base.

“The richest people on Earth — and the political insiders who serve them — have rigged the rules of our economy and our democracy to grab up wealth and power for themselves,” the party asserts on its website. “They have defunded our schools, undermined community services, and stripped working people of the right to organize into unions. And then they blame poor people or people of different races or different places — aiming to divide us and distract us from what we have in common.”

Isman brings some serious organizing experience to the table. A former staffer for state Sen. Patricia Jehlen, D-2nd Middlesex, Isman spent eight years running the advocacy group MassAlliance.

Another veteran, Josh Wolfsun, who formerly worked for state Sen. Sonia Chang-Díaz, D-2nd Suffolk, both on Beacon Hill and on her 2022 bid for the Democratic nomination for governor.

While the party hopes to lure disaffected Democrats who are frustrated with the stasis field that hangs over Beacon Hill, Wolfsun said he also sees opportunities with the state’s vast ranks of unenrolled voters.

“One of the things that we’ve seen, not just in Massachusetts, but nationally, is the working-class voters in the 2024 election who drifted away from the Democratic Party and drifted away from political leaders [who] have not been fully representing what they need in their interests,” he said.

“And part of what we’re doing here at WFP is not just engaging with folks who are the usual suspects, the sort of progressive wing of the party, but engaging with and representing and bringing in working-class voters all across the state,” Wolfsun said. “And that starts by talking about and running candidates who are going to work on the issues that working-class people are, you know, really struggling with at this point.”

While both Isman and Wolfsun have their sights set on campaigns beyond this year’s municipal races, they are still no less important as a kind of proof-of-concept as the party gets its legs under it in the Bay State.

In Worcester, the party has endorsed mayoral hopeful Khrystian King, City Council candidates Cayden Davis and Jermoh Kamara for Worcester City Council, District 2 hopeful Robert Bilotta, and Etel Haxhiaj for Worcester City Council District 5. In Lawrence, they’re backing Jonathan Guzman for Lawrence’s School Committee.

Party officials expect to spend between $25,000 and $30,000 to support that slate with a campaign that mixes traditional door-knocking and phone-banking with digital outreach, Isman said.

In Worcester, the WFP is also concentrating its efforts on a group of 10,000 “nonhabitual” voters who aren’t paying much attention to local politics.

“We’re trying some things in Worcester,” Isman said. “It really is just us kind of dipping our toe in, in some ways. But part of our theory is about building political infrastructure in some of the places that have been kind of underorganized, especially for working-class voters.”

“And so that includes lots of cities outside of Boston. And Worcester happened to be a place where there’s like a really good crew of candidates running this year,” she continued.

The WFP has scored electoral successes in other places where it’s operating. That includes Philadelphia, where the party won seats on City Council and partnered with majority Democrats to pass legislation.

Wolfsun has a similar conception of the party’s long game.

“The goal here is not to win a few elections and then, you know, start over every cycle, like we often have to,” he said. “Or you know, pass some bills and then have to start that whole process all over again.

“It’s to build the party and the infrastructure to actually achieve real working-class governing power in the state. And that’s not going to happen overnight. We’re not waiting around for it to happen …. We’re getting started right now.”

And with polls showing voters laser-focused on the economy and affordability issues, Wolfsun said there’s plenty of policy ground for the party to cover.

That includes “the cost of housing, [the] cost of health care, [the] cost of child care, you know, all of those things that are making it harder to live here in the state,” he said.

“So, you know, that’s the mission … to build a political home for the working-class in the state,” he said.