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Philadelphia is one of the last major cities in America that has never elected a woman to lead it. That could change soon. On Tuesday, the city is holding a crowded Democratic mayoral primary election in which three of the top five candidates are women.
Almost all candidates advocate tough-on-crime policies amid extreme gun violence.
The Democratic primary is the de facto general election: Democrats outnumber Republicans in Philadelphia by a margin of seven to one. Philadelphia Mayor James Kenney (D) is term-limited, and nearly a dozen Democratic candidates have rushed to try to win the seat. (Republicans have fielded only one candidate, David Oh.)
The next mayor could be one of their most liberal: there are five Democratic candidates who are considered to have a real chance of winning. They run the gamut from moderate to liberal, and it’s possible that one of the more liberal candidates will win. It would be an important victory for the left. While Philadelphia is a deeply Democratic city, its leaders have traditionally been establishment Democrats. The best candidates are:
Helen Gym is a former teacher and city councilwoman and fiery activist whose supporters have dubbed her “Philly’s AOC” after Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (DN.Y.), who endorsed her candidacy (Ocasio-Cortez and Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) were scheduled to campaign in Gym.) She’s probably the most liberal in the race. His supporters see the Chicago mayoral race, where liberal activist Brandon Johnson won last month, as a plan to turn Philadelphia further to the left.Rebecca Rhynhart is a former city treasurer who has been framed as a no-nonsense technocrat and has the support of three former mayors.Cherelle Parker is a former state legislator and city councilwoman who has the support of much of the city’s black political establishment and has been seen as particularly tough on crime.Allan Domb is a former city councilor and Philadelphia landlord who owns hundreds of properties in the city and has been dubbed the “King of Condos.”Jeff Brown is a wealthy owner of ShopRite grocery stores in Philadelphia, best known for opening grocery stores in the city’s food deserts, and the only candidate without political experience.
Crime is the biggest problem by far: Philadelphia has been crippled by gun violence. There have been more than 500 homicides a year in recent years, more than double the number a decade ago. A recent survey found that two out of three city residents have heard gunshots in their neighborhood in the past year. A canvasser in the mayoral race recently killed another canvasser. “My whole perspective is that you could basically say that Philadelphia is hell on earth,” Zuleyka Torres, 27. said in that survey.
Some of the leading candidates are taking a tough-on-crime approach: Philadelphia is one of many liberal cities that have mostly dropped out of discussions to reallocate money from police departments to community services. (In 2020 after the death of George Floyd, Philadelphia residents took to the streets to protest police brutality and leaders diverted millions from the police department.)
Now almost every major candidate wants to put more police on the streets. “Defunding the police is a toxic concept in this cycle,” said independent reporter Maura Ewing of Philadelphia. who wrote about the race for Bolts Magazine.
Several major candidates, including Parker, say they want to reinstate the the city’s defunct stop-and-frisk policy. This is a controversial police practice that allows police to stop and frisk pedestrians that critics say increases racial profiling, and for which the city has been under court scrutiny for the past decade, after a judge said that the police overwhelmingly used the policy on black and brown people.
That idea was criticized by Rhynhart, who countered that he doesn’t think the city should be “backing down to ‘law and order’ policies that are racist.”
hill has reported the city’s “culture of lawlessness” and said he would declare a crime emergency on the first day. There is great debate over whether to essentially ban teenagers from a downtown mall after school and where the money would come from to upgrade and reopen community centers and libraries.
Philadelphia’s Democratic Party is divided: Past mayors have lined up to support Rhynhart, while several unions have split between the other candidates. The gym seems to have the free lane as a progressive candidate.
