What is COPE? How does it work?

COPE stands for Committee on Political Education. AFT Washington’s COPE is chaired by Mark Gorecki of our Centralia local and is made up of AFT Washington members. This committee works diligently every election cycle to...

• draft candidate questionnaires for each of the respective offices to ensure the questions being posed are relevant to changing conditions and represent our members’ interests and our union’s values;
• review completed questionnaires to assess candidates’ answers;
• conduct follow-up candidate interviews;
• discuss the various legislative and statewide electoral races, and decide on which, if any, of the respective candidates to endorse;
• recommend these endorsement decisions to our AFT Washington executive board for their approval.

The committee’s work is crucial to our legislative advocacy and our goal of building strong communities in Washington. If you would like to learn more about this committee or serve on it, please contact Richard Burton (RBurton@aftwa.org)

Endorsements are one thing. But what about political donations?

There’s another key step to the work of this committee, and that is deciding on how much money we should donate to those candidates we’ve endorsed. Where does this money come from?

It does NOT come from member dues. AFT Washington is firmly committed not to use dues money for political donations. Instead, this money comes from our COPE account. The money in this account is entirely made up of voluntary donations from members – over 250 of them! These donations are typically not very large; they usually are between $1 and $10 per paycheck. But they add up and provide us with the hugely valuable funds to advance our collective interests. It’s one thing for our COPE team to recommend endorsing a given candidate. Contributions are what help our endorsed candidates win their elections. Making campaign donations is fundamental to this.

Why donate to COPE?

Candidates are already planning their runs for the 2026 elections, and future elections loom on the horizon. We know that some of the issues we’ve faced in the last few years are still present, and we want to elect strong candidates at all levels who will prioritize solving Washington’s challenges. We want to make the maximum possible donations so that our endorsed candidates have the best possible chance to win. The more COPE donors we have, the more candidates we can support and the stronger we can make our communities and our state! Many members donate at $10 per month, but any amount you can afford is welcome.

You can sign up to be a COPE donor here.