This is Jeffrey Yass, a billionaire from outside Philadelphia who co-founded Susquehanna International Group. With over $28 billion to his name, he could support any number of causes, such as fighting poverty, solving hunger, or finding a solution to climate change. What has he chosen to do instead? Pour tens of millions of dollars into destroying public schools by supporting conservative charter school backers up and down the ballot all across Pennsylvania. Along with backing those candidates, Yass has also been funneling money to a host of “parents groups” that are now pushing to ban books all across the Commonwealth. Along with all of this, he also found time to send a boatload of cash to support our favorite snake oil salesman, Mehmet Oz, when he was running against John Fetterman.
So what has he been up to lately? Turns out he was pouring $750,000 into a PAC called The Coalition for Safety and Equitable Growth. The sole purpose of this PAC appears to be attacking Helen Gym, the progressive woman who, if elected, would be the first woman ever elected Mayor of Philadelphia. She’s a former teacher, a community organizer, a fierce advocate for educational equity, a fighter for working people, and a defender of regular Philadelphians against the rich and powerful. In short, Helen Gym is everything Jeffrey Yass has been spending years and millions fighting to stop. And now, he’s pouring money into the Democratic primary because he knows what every supporter of Helen Gym knows: she’s the real deal and she’ll stand up to billionaire bullies like him.
The primary is on May 16th and we’re fighting for every last vote. If you can spare a few dollars, we can put that toward putting even more canvassers out onto the streets to take the fight to Yass and his cronies. Please give what you can.