letter to the editor<\/a>, McGuigan, a candidate for the local and state Democratic committees, accused Marty and the Machine of using MAGA Republican tactics to challenge her signature on a nominating petition for Democratic newcomer Jeffrey Lake, who is challenging Marty in the May 19 primary election.<\/p>\nMcGuigan recently updated her voter registration to reflect her married name, an \u201cirregularity\u201d ripped straight from the\u2019 so-called \u201cSAVE America Act,\u201d which could strip voting rights from 2.8 million married Pennsylvania women and 69 million nationwide, according to the Center for American Progress.<\/p>\n
\u201cFor lack of a better word, it seemed really hypocritical to me, but it also aligned with what I feel like this group of \u2018MAGAcrats\u2019 have been showing us all along,\u201d McGuigan said Monday. \u201cAnd I feel like they\u2019ve been getting away with it for so long that they\u2019re not even catching up to the fact that they\u2019re not getting away with it anymore. They\u2019re so empowered by what they\u2019ve gotten away with for so long that they don\u2019t even stop and think, \u2018Is this too blatant?\u2019 \u201d<\/p>\n
McGuigan, 41, is part of a growing cohort of younger Democrats who want better from party leadership and are willing to challenge the Machine on the ballot.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think that what we\u2019re actually doing is being role models for what Republicans who are not MAGA could be doing in their own party, which is standing up,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
I\u2019d be remiss if I didn\u2019t acknowledge the elected Democrats who attended the protest. State Reps. Bridget Kosierowski and Kyle Donahue were there. State Rep. Kyle Mullins skipped it for a family commitment, but attended previous \u201cNo Kings\u201d rallies. Jeffrey Lake was also in the crowd, as were former Sen. Bob Casey and his lovely wife, Terese.<\/p>\n
Lackawanna County Commissioner Bill Gaughan \u2013 the Machine\u2019s Public Enemy No. Two \u2013 seized the moment to deliver a stirring speech promoting unity and decency over political affiliations.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe should ask ourselves what kind of people we are and not what party we are from,\u201d he said to raucous cheers. Gaughan challenged the crowd to reject fear and division and lay the groundwork for reform and reconciliation after the Trump regime and its MAGA minions in the House and Senate are dethroned.<\/p>\n
\u201cChoose the path of empathy, courage, truth,\u201d he said. \u201cNot to merely win an election, but to care for others.\u201d<\/p>\n
Even when you don\u2019t care for their company.<\/p>\n
CHRIS KELLY, the Times-Tribune columnist, cares about you. Contact the writer: ckelly@scrantontimes.com; @cjkink on X; Chris Kelly, The Times-Tribune on Facebook; and @chriskellyink on Bluesky.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Saturday\u2019s \u201cNo Kings\u201d protest on Courthouse Square in Scranton was a joyful, defiant showcase of inspiring messages delivered…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":80619,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[15],"tags":[1590,6375,182,139,1559,1560,178,180,179],"class_list":["post-153885","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-scranton","tag-chris-kelly","tag-democratic-party","tag-local-news","tag-news","tag-opinion","tag-opinion-columnists","tag-scranton","tag-scranton-headlines","tag-scranton-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/153885","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=153885"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/153885\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/80619"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=153885"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=153885"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=153885"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}