By TABITHA MAE

Stunning electoral news has come from a district that has been served by the same Democratic state senator since the early 1990s. An independent socialist candidate is not just in the running for Connecticut’s District 11 seat; they have made the ballot.

With 965 signatures returned to the secretary of state after weeks of petitioning, Rosa Pepper-Macias has secured triple the amount of signatures necessary to obtain ballot access. The news first broke with an article by Paul Bass that was published in the New Haven Independent, after confirmation with state officials. The article aptly describes the candidate as “taking on the war machine.” It states that the campaign has a goal to “help advance an anti-war pro-worker movement rather than to try to change the two-party-dominated legislature from within.” This article also features an interview that Bass conducted with Pepper-Macias.

And Bass is entirely correct. The Pepper-Macias and Workers’ Voice campaign platform is rooted deeply in working-class values and seeks solutions that actually serve workers and students, and people all over the world, rather than appeasing large industry giants feeding the military complex or acquiescing to the shortcomings and falsehoods of the Democratic Party.

A crucial goal of this campaign is to spark conversations, to help open dialogue on the overlapping layers of the class struggle, and to show that there is a path forward for untangling these layers and forging a system that is supported by and supportive of the workers. During the petitioning process, this dialogue was opened with over a thousand people; it extended beyond those who offered signatures, since many people in the area were not registered voters in the district.

Campaign supporters were able to engage people in many places, which included the streets of District 11, while protesting ICE at Delaney Hall and in Biddeford, Maine, with frequent social media postings featuring critical updates on major issues plaguing the working class, and at events across the state.

Our campaign has been promoting the need to build mass action to oppose the MAGA agenda. Right now in Connecticut there is a mounting crisis; ICE agents are arresting dozens of immigrants off the streets, outside of their children’s schools, and outside of their homes. We need mass actions to take back the streets and stop ICE terror. This is a matter of extreme importance to this campaign.

Of course, simply gaining ballot access does not mean the hard work of Pepper-Macias and the Workers’ Voice campaign is over. In fact, with a full slate of upcoming public events, it seems as though the candidate is set for a busy fall.

On the morning of Sunday, Sept. 13, a meet-and-greet is scheduled at Best Videos Film & Cultural Center. Less than a week later, on Sept. 19, there will be an open campaign meeting at the New Haven Public Library.

Cafe Nine—a bar and entertainment venue that is iconic in the district—will be hosting “A World to Win” on Sept. 25. Speakers at this event will include Pepper-Macias in person, and there will be DJ sets. It will be a unique experience for those in the community looking to learn more about the campaign and about the alternative path for working-class action that extends far past the outcome of the vote this fall. In early October, an additional meet-and-greet with the candidate is scheduled to be held at Spruce Coffee.

Those looking to attend these events and to be alerted when new ones are added to the calendar can sign up on the campaign website Events page and the campaign Instagram. With the coupling of this slate of events and the candidate’s propensity for rapidly responding to crises with action and public outreach, the Rosa Pepper-Macias and Workers’ Voice campaign for Connecticut’s 11th District is one to follow. We look forward to supporting and working with activists across the state to build this movement.

Photo: Rosa (right) petitions together with Oli, a campaign supporter.