Pennsylvania
Malcolm Kenyatta at DNC: Project 2025 will ‘drag us backwards’
![Malcolm Kenyatta at DNC: Project 2025 will ‘drag us backwards’ Malcolm Kenyatta at DNC: Project 2025 will ‘drag us backwards’](https://whyy.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/08/Malcolm-Kenyatta-2024-08-20.jpg)
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A couple weeks ago, delegates from around the country — including from Pennsylvania — voted virtually for Kamala Harris as the Democratic presidential nominee. The vote is an official party act normally performed during the convention. However, Democrats wanted to avoid going into the convention without a chosen candidate.
The last time the Democrats had an open, or “brokered,” convention was in 1968 — a condition that may have contributed to nominee Hubert Humphrey’s loss to Richard Nixon in the general election that year.
However, the Democratic National Committee wanted to give their 4,700 delegates an opportunity to “vote” for Kamala Harris at the convention and held a “celebratory” roll call on the floor.
The unofficial and ceremonial nature of the vote didn’t make it any less meaningful to Anne Wakabayashi, a political consultant and delegate from Philly.
“It was thrilling to have my vote counted for Kamala Harris as president of the United States,” she said. “As an AAPI [Asian American and Pacific Islander] woman, I’m particularly excited about making history in that way.”
Wakabayashi, who is married to her wife, with whom she is raising a stepson, said the election is personal.
“Another Trump presidency threatens my marriage,” she said. “It threatens my family. It threatens women’s rights, LGBT rights — it threatens every aspect of my life and threatens my kids’ schools. Everything is on the line here.”
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Pennsylvania
Pennsylvania delegates looking forward to ceremonial roll call vote for Vice President Kamala Harris
![Pennsylvania delegates looking forward to ceremonial roll call vote for Vice President Kamala Harris Pennsylvania delegates looking forward to ceremonial roll call vote for Vice President Kamala Harris](https://assets3.cbsnewsstatic.com/hub/i/r/2024/08/21/e0f1eddf-efe9-4ff6-9bf7-1e245e3163b1/thumbnail/1200x630/876a7935cf833697a3ab50dd9ba07d53/cepeda-freytiz.jpg?v=fd6e213336f58b575c9e836e95546d26)
CHICAGO (CBS) — It’s day two of the Democratic National Convention in Chicago and local delegates from the Philadelphia area are looking forward to the events planned for Tuesday night.
This year’s roll call vote is ceremonial because Vice President Kamala Harris became the nominee after a virtual roll call earlier this month.
Regardless, some delegates from Pennsylvania are still looking forward to the moment including State Rep. Johanny Cepeda-Freytiz who says she’s hopeful for Harris.
“To be a delegate, to see it manifest itself and here I am working for her to make sure she’s the nominee, to make sure we get her elected is like a dream come true,” Cepeda-Freytiz said.
We also caught up with Sen. Vincent Hughes on the role Pennsylvania has in the upcoming election.
“The enthusiasm has picked up dramatically and every section of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania,” Hughes said. “Folks are getting engaged, folks are excited.”
Aside from the roll call vote, Philadelphia native Patti LaBelle is set to perform at the convention Tuesday night.
Speakers include second gentleman Doug Emhoff, Sen. Bernie Sanders and former first lady Michelle Obama.
Former President Barack Obama will be taking the stage to deliver the keynote address.
Keep up with our continued coverage of the 2024 Democratic National Convention on Instagram and TikTok
Pennsylvania
From Carter to Harris: Pennsylvania woman is oldest delegate at the DNC • Pennsylvania Capital-Star
![From Carter to Harris: Pennsylvania woman is oldest delegate at the DNC • Pennsylvania Capital-Star From Carter to Harris: Pennsylvania woman is oldest delegate at the DNC • Pennsylvania Capital-Star](https://penncapital-star.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/08/angie-dnc--scaled.jpg)
CHICAGO — Angie Gialloreto of Pennsylvania attended her first Democratic National Convention in 1976, when Jimmy Carter and Walter Mondale were on the ticket, and has been to every DNC since. And at 95, she’s believed to be the oldest of the thousands of Democratic delegates, stumping for Vice President Kamala Harris’ presidential bid this week with no plans to slow down, she told the Capital-Star in an interview Tuesday.
“I am a Democrat, and I started when I was very young,” said Gialloreto, who said she has been a committee woman in Wilkins Township for 66 years. This year’s election, she said, feels different than many past years. “It’s a new generation, women and people of color are finally not being overlooked and bypassed. It’s a beginning of a new American freedom.”
Gialloreto, who was a delegate for Hillary Clinton in 2016, said Clinton’s Monday night speech was moving. “She should have been president,” Gialloreto said. “But she’s like me, a true Democrat. And I’m so proud of the leadership of my state and this country.”
She advised younger delegates and younger women not to give up the fight, even on days when they are feeling discouraged, and to get involved in politics.
“Some days it fills your heart so much that you can’t explain to people; the enthusiasm that you get,” she said. “But if they feel they have something to contribute to their community it’s worth it. Come try it, you’ll like it.”
She couldn’t choose a favorite convention. But she said President Joe Biden is her favorite Democrat. “I first met him when he was just running as a senator, and I had a feeling about him,” she said.
The youngest Pennsylvania delegate, and one of the youngest at the DNC, is Ellie Goluboff-Schragger, 20, a rising junior at the University of Pennsylvania. “I wanted to see how all this works on a national level and meet all the people that make all of this happen,” she said.
Goluboff-Schragger said she met Gov. Josh Shapiro on Monday and was impressed. “He was so kind, and so amazing,” she said. She also wants to meet Vice President Kamala Harris, of course, but also U.S. Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY), whom Goluboff-Schragger said really resonates with younger voters.
She’s listening this week to how Democrats speak on the issues most important to her and her peers. “As a woman, obviously reproductive rights are important; as a gay woman, I think LGBTQ rights are really important,” she said. “The right for me to get married is really important to me, and the right to choose what I do with my body and be able to have a kid without being worried about, you know, what we heard at the convention last night happening.”
She referred to a group of women who told their stories of having difficulty accessing abortion care during Monday night’s start of the convention. “Kamala Harris has been an incredible advocate for abortion rights and reproductive rights, and Tim Walz has been an advocate for LGBTQ rights, since the very beginning. So I think those are the things that matter most.”
For Gialloreto, she’s planning to treat the upcoming election the same as she has all past elections: as a call to get to work. “I believe in freedom. I believe in America,” she said. “I’m just a happy 95-year-old woman that’s going to work my head off to get Kamala elected.”
Pennsylvania
Pa. opens public feedback on rate increases to 2025 health insurance plans
![Pa. opens public feedback on rate increases to 2025 health insurance plans Pa. opens public feedback on rate increases to 2025 health insurance plans](https://whyy.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/health-care-doctor-nurse-medicaid-AP-040324.jpg)
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Health insurance companies in Pennsylvania are looking to increase the prices of their coverage plans in 2025, which could raise monthly premium costs for people who buy plans through Affordable Care Act marketplaces.
The state Insurance Department wants the public to weigh in before it approves final health plan rates this fall, just ahead of the annual open enrollment period.
“We see the true value in transparency at every point in the rate review process,” Pennsylvania Insurance Commissioner Michael Humphreys said in a statement. “In doing so, we’re hoping to build on the trust we’ve already gained from consumers, while also doubling down on our mission to keep their best interests at the forefront.”
Every year, health insurance companies that offer individual and small group plans on the ACA marketplace must get approval from the state on how much they want to charge people for that coverage.
In Pennsylvania, people shop for most of these plans online at Pennie.
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