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Senators Santorum and Wofford to Lead Pennsylvania’s ONE Vote ’08 Effort

Former senators work jointly to make global poverty and preventable disease pertinent issues in the 2008 presidential election

Harrisburg, PA – Former U.S. Senators Rick Santorum (R-PA) and Harris Wofford (D-PA), once political opponents, will be campaigning on the same side this summer and fall to educate Pennsylvania voters and engage the presidential candidates on issues of extreme poverty and global diseases, such as AIDS, malaria and tuberculosis.

Wofford and Santorum will serve as Pennsylvania Co-Chairs of ONE Vote ’08, a non-partisan, national grassroots effort by the ONE Campaign to encourage both Sens. John McCain and Barack Obama to develop initiatives that can save lives from global diseases and help those living in brutal poverty in Africa and the world’s poorest countries.

“I am extremely pleased to lead this effort in Pennsylvania with Senator Wofford. During my time in the Senate, combating poverty around the globe and tackling the HIV/AIDS epidemic were some of my top priorities, and I see no better partner than Senator Wofford in continuing to raise awareness of these difficult matters,” said former Sen. Santorum.  “I look forward to hearing from Sens. McCain and Obama on how they intend to address this should they enter the White House.”

“In the 1990s, Senator Santorum and I joined forces in the search of common ground, on faith-based initiatives and national service,” said former Sen. Wofford. “It’s good to be working with him again on a cause like the ONE Campaign where we do not need to search for common ground; it is here in Pennsylvania and all America in front of us, beyond party and partisanship, calling us all to work together for our common humanity.”

As a critical battleground state in the 2008 presidential election, Pennsylvania is being targeted by ONE Vote ’08 to showcase the opportunity the next president has to make a lifesaving, game-changing difference in the fight against extreme poverty and global disease.

To break through in a crowded political process, ONE Vote ’08 combines high-energy grassroots mobilizing with an unprecedented non-partisan team of political strategists, policy experts, security and military advisors, entertainers and influential faith leaders.

The grassroots effort puts in motion thousands of voters and ONE Campaign members, including 86,000 in Pennsylvania, to engage directly with the candidates on the campaign trail. ONE members, known for their ONE t-shirts and white wrist bands, are tireless advocates for the world’s poor, attending town hall meetings, speeches, rallies, and diner stops to educate other voters and ask the candidates themselves about their proposals to help save lives from AIDS and malaria, increase access to clean water and give more children a chance at a basic education.

These advocates on the ground are amplified by ONE Vote ’08’s high-level policy and ambassador team, led in Pennsylvania by Sens. Santorum and Wofford and nationally by former U.S. Senate Majority Leaders Tom Daschle and Bill Frist. ONE educates the candidates and their staffs on global poverty issues and encourages them to support commonsense, effective and proven initiatives to include in their foreign policy platforms.  

As a result of this grassroots mobilization and policy-level interaction, both Sens. McCain and Obama are releasing plans that address ONE’s core issues in an unprecedented fashion. As part of ONE”s “On the Record Challenge,” both candidates have developed substantial and tangible proposals on issues ranging from AIDS, malaria, child and maternal health, access to clean water and education. These commitments can be viewed at www.ONEVote08.org. Thanks to a petition signed by more than 100,000 ONE members, both candidates also said they will visit Africa during his first term if elected.

Throughout the general election in Pennsylvania and other key states, ONE Vote ’08 will work to secure stronger commitments from the candidates, and when the next administration takes office, ONE will ensure those commitments are kept for the poorest of the poor.

Senator Rick Santorum served as United States Senator from Pennsylvania from 1995 to 2007 and as a member of the U.S. House of Representatives from 1991 to 1995. Among his many accomplishments as a United States Senator, in 2006 Sen. Santorum was instrumental in securing $4.83 billion to combat the global AIDS epidemic, an increase of $900 million over the previous year. In addition, in April of this year, Santorum urged his former colleagues to support reauthorization of the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR) in an op-ed in a Washington, DC publication, writing: “…PEPFAR is now a big part of our foreign policy. It offers people hope instead of hopelessness. It shows the world our heart and that America is a blessing to the oppressed and suffering across the globe. And it needs reauthorizing now.”

Senator Harris Wofford, a longtime champion of health care and civil rights, represented Pennsylvanians in the U.S. Senate from 1991 to 1994. After serving in the Senate, he was appointed by President Clinton to be CEO of the Corporation for National and Community Service, which oversees AmeriCorps, the Senior Corps, Service-Learning and other national service programs. Prior to his election to the Senate, Sen. Wofford also served as chairman of the Pennsylvania Democratic Party. Under President Kennedy, he served as Special Assistant for Civil Rights, helped organized the Peace Corps, and, with his family, went to Ethiopia for two years as the Peace Corps’ Special Representative to Africa.

ONE Vote ‘08 is a project of the ONE Campaign and ONE Action. It is not endorsing or opposing any candidate, but is encouraging all presidential candidates to address these critical issues. 

The ONE Campaign is a global organization uniting millions of people to press government leaders to fight extreme poverty and preventable disease around the world. For more information, visit www.ONE.org.