ERIE, PENNSYLVANIA – Jim Wertz was a longtime TV news cameraman and proud CWA member who, a few years ago, never imagined running for office.
Then, in 2022, longtime Erie Republican State Senator Laughlin sued Wertz and the local alternative monthly, The Erie Reader, for $1 million in defamation, a legal defeat that would bankrupt Northwestern Pennsylvania’s last surviving alt-biweekly.
In his article entitled “Erie at Large: A Congressman and a State Senator Walk Into a Bar,” Wertz wrote that Laughlin signed an amicus brief in Texas vs. Pennsylvania, which sought to invalidate mail-in ballots cast in Pennsylvania; thus, Laughlin supported insurrectionists. He also reported that Laughlin and local Congressman Mike Kelley were on proposed pardon lists in front of Trump’s top circle.
Wertz is currently being defended by the Reporters’ Committee for Press Freedom, which feels confident that Wertz will win in court.
“This is protected speech. It’s protected by the First Amendment. And this lawsuit just has no merit,” Paula Knudsen Burke of the Reporter Committee for Press Freedom told WJET/WFXP earlier this year.
The defamation lawsuit intended to intimidate a beloved, small-town reporter seems to have backfired, propelling Wertz into a competitive State Senate race against Laughlin that could decide control of the PA State Senate, which has been in Republican hands since the “GOP Revolution” in 1994.
In recent years, the seat in Erie has flipped back and forth between Obama, Trump, and Biden, so the high profile PA State Senate race will likely be a bellwether of whats happening nationally. Wertz, the veteran newsman, is confident that a coalition between labor, civil rights groups, and immigrants, whose families now make up nearly 25% of Erie’s city population, will be able to carry the day and flip the PA State Senate.
“I think when a lot of people think about, like, you know, we’re gonna compete in Trump country to beat Trump, they don’t think about the immigrant communities,” says 31-year-old Erie City Council President Jasmine Flores as her, Jim, and I grab beers at Erie Labor Council’s Night, an Erie SeaWolves game, a Double-A affiliate of the Detroit Tigers.
Labor Night at the Ballpark also happened to be Latino Night at the Ballpark, with the Erie SeaWolves donning the bright multicolor uniforms of the Erie Piñata for the Night. The crowds of Latino and labor activists seemed to mingle effortlessly as people talked and drank at the minor league ballpark.
“Things are getting ready to change in this town,” says Wertz shortly after he threw the opening pitch at the ballgame. “I’m pumped up!”
Already, Laughlin, a Republican, is feeling the heat of the multicultural working-class coalition building in Erie. He has gone into damage control, sponsoring a resolution that would raise the state’s minimum wage to $15 an hour—the first time the state’s $7.25 minimum wage has been raised since 2009.
“Due to the rising costs, workers are unable to pay for basic necessities and forced to rely on public assistance. It is time we address the issue and I believe this bill is the most responsible way to approach it,” said Laughlin when introducing the measure last year.
Wertz thinks it’s unrealistic that Laughlin’s proposal will get anywhere but says Laughlin’s decision shows that he is feeling the pressure brewing from a multiracial coalition in Erie. Laughlin’s seat, a swing district, would be one of three wins Democrats would need to flip control of the PA State Senate and Wertz says Erie activists are fired up for the race.
“There are several pieces of legislation that have been passed by our democratic-led house and have stalled in the Republican-led Senate because they’re quite simply not interested in impacting the lives of working people in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania,” says Wertz. “We gotta have a chance to make a difference statewide here in Erie and we are gonna try.”
Refugees & Retirees Flocked to Lake Erie While Others Moved Out
Erie is a Rust Belt city of approximately 100,000 that has flipped back and forth between Democrats and Republicans in recent years. In response to the town’s depopulation, which saw it shrink by 25% over three decades, the city began recruiting immigrants, mainly through refugee resettlement programs.
“I would argue that the only reason that Erie remains the fifth largest city in Pennsylvania is because of our new American [immigrant] population,” says Laughlin. “Without that, we would, be around 80,000 people, and instead, we reside just around and probably a little bit over 100,000.”
Watching the rise of Trumpism, 31-year-old Jasmine Flores decided to run for Erie City Council in 2019. She lost by 187 votes in 2019 but decided to run again, winning in 2021.
“I was born and raised here in the city as a Latin person, there’s not much representation. But also, I understand that if I want representation, I’m gonna have to be that representation,” said Flores in an interview at an Erie SeaWolves baseball game on a Latino night when the team switched its jerseys to that of the Erie Piñatas.
The daughter of a Mexican immigrant and Puerto Rican citizen, Jasmine was born in Erie and has a tattoo of the sunset over Lake Erie on her left hand.
“I love it here. It’s beautiful here,” says Flores. “I’m home. This is home. I’m going to stay here.”
In her organizing experiences in Western Pennsylvania, she says a multicultural intersectional approach is critical to building power for workers in Erie.
“It really doesn’t matter who you are if you’re working for the issues that you’re talking about, family, sustainable wages, unions, healthcare, quality education,” says Flores. “Those are all things that Latin communities care about, poor Black communities care about, poor white communities care about them. These are things that will motivate all communities.”
She says that in recent years, many people—both immigrants and native-born residents of Erie—have been getting involved in organizing.
“I think a lot of regular people are getting involved because we’re tired of how bad our community is doing. We’re tired of how everything is deteriorating around us,” says Flores. “We want to see this city grow because we love Erie.”
A Union Cameraman Explaining Racial Divides & Going Viral on TikTok
Jim Wertz said he used his campaign to bridge diverse coalitions in the city. A lifelong union broadcaster, Wertz says that the labor movement in Erie taught him what trade unionism was all about.
A big part of Wertz’s coalition is bringing migrants in Erie—both international and domestic—together. In recent years, the town has seen an influx of refugees and retirees, both groups who seem to love the picturesque shorelines and beaches along Lake Erie.
As a poor college student in 1997, Wertz migrated from Reading to Erie when he got a job as a cameraman at the local NBC affiliate. With the job, he got a union card, dramatically expanding the area where he could work as a cameraman.
“My high school TV teacher had told me, if you want to work in TV, you have to have a union card. But you can’t get a union card until you work in TV. And so that was ingrained in me through my entire (life), this was the amazing opportunity,” says Wertz. “I joined the union for 75 bucks in Erie PA, and had this card in my pocket that was gonna be the gateway to the world. “
Wertz has used his campaign as a platform to unite immigrants and the old-school labor coalition in Erie. He recalls recently campaigning in a suburb of Erie, and an older white resident in his 80s asked him why so many Nepalese immigrants had settled in the neighborhood.
“I had heard it 10 or 12 times before I got to his door. People in that neighborhood were like, ‘Do you know how much real estate here has gone to the Nepalis?'” said Wertz. “And I go, ‘Yeah, I do, and I know exactly why they’re here,’ and so I just went through and answered simply and calmly, answered all his questions, and de-escalated any concern that he had about why all these Nepalis were in his in his neighborhood.”
A video of Jim talking to the older white voter about his new Nepalese neighbors went viral, garnering over 3 million views on TikTok.
Wertz’s campaign could flip control of the PA State Senate for the first time since 1994, but he says he is most focused on seeing Erie becoming a welcoming community for newcomers and longtime residents alike.
“I was on the beach this past weekend with my family, and the beach was full of immigrants and new Americans. And it was, it was exciting,” says Wertz. “It was invigorating.”
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