Working Families Party Sending Unsolicited Text Messages to Burien Residents

by Text Message Recipient

The unsolicited texts read as follows:

“Hi, this is Katie with Working Families Party volunteering for Stephanie Tidholm for Highline School Board. I’m supporting Stephanie because she will fight to make sure every Highline student has the chance to thrive. Text stop to unsubscribe or SKIP to end this conversation. Can Stephanie Tidholm count on your vote by August 1?”

“Hi, Patricia Hudson is running for City Council to make sure everyone in Burien has affordable housing and a job with a fair wage to not just survive, but to thrive. Can we count on your vote for Patricia Hudson by August 1? Text stop to unsubscribe or SKIP to end this conversation. –Lois w/ Working Families Party.”

Working Families Party was established in 1998. It has grown to have chapters in 14 states. Washington is not listed as one of them. However, they are clearly active in our state, where they have endorsed 14 candidates, including four affecting Burien.

Patricia Hudson

Burien City Council, Position 4

Krystal Marx

Burien City Council, Position 6

Stephanie Tidholm

Highline School Board

Teresa Mosqueda

King County Council, District 8

One of the WFP organizational delegates is Candis Tolliver. Tolliver is the Head of SEIU’s 32BJ Political Team. The tie between the two organizations shows up in various places, from advisors to rally speakers. 

Maurice Mitchell is the National Director of the Working Families Party.

Mitchell is a nationally-recognized social movement strategist, a visionary leader in the Movement for Black Lives, and a community organizer for racial, social, and economic justice. Maurice went on to work as an organizer for the Long Island Progressive Coalition, downstate organizing director for Citizen Action of NY, and Director of the NY State Civic Engagement Table.

The list of organizations that supports WFP is on the left side of the spectrum, including MoveOn Political Action.

Over the years, WFP has experienced dissatisfaction with some members who have left. In a Politico story from 2016, one of the founding members was the Mason Tenders Union. The Union chose to leave WFP.

Mike McGuire, political director, said the Working Families Party “engages in selective application of its progressive principles; simply put, for the WFP, ideology triumphs over jobs and working families.”

McGuire has long-standing disagreements with the party. Encapsulating their philosophical differences, his email signature is followed by the sentence, “Our job is not to change the world. Our job is to put Laborers to work. The Working Families Party, by contrast, has a more ideological bent.”

It is not illegal to send unsolicited text messages from political campaigns as long as they are not robo-generated and each text is put in by someone. WFP must have a lot of folks typing.