NASW News


PACE-backed candidates fare well


Midterm Election Results

A strong majority of congressional candidates endorsed by the NASW Political Action for Candidate Election, or PACE, will serve in the new 114th Congress that starts this month.

As a political action committee, PACE endorses and can choose to financially contribute to candidates from any party who support NASW’s policy agenda.

At press time, the anticipated results of the Nov. 4 midterm elections showed approximately a 90 percent success rate of the 169 congressional candidates that were endorsed by the NASW PACE board of trustees.

Brian Dautch, senior political action associate at NASW, researches and reviews potential candidates for the PACE trustees to consider for endorsement.

He said that anticipated voting results for about five of the PACE-endorsed candidates were still outstanding at press time. Official results are expected to be available this month at socialworkers.org/pace/default.asp

“We’re really proud of the incumbents, challengers and candidates we endorsed who pulled out narrow victories, despite facing a challenging environment this cycle,” Dautch said. “These successful campaigns will result in members of congress who support bills that are beneficial to social workers and their clients.”

The endorsement process helps launch and maintain friendships in Congress, Dautch said.

“We’re establishing relationships with our endorsed candidates and challengers, and are maintaining friendships with our endorsed incumbents who will be returning to Congress,” he said. “This will give us a seat at the table for legislative gains we hope to achieve, and to also help us avoid any cuts or rollbacks to programs we support.”

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