Cherelle Parker is poised to make history | Editorial

On Tuesday morning, four of the five major Democratic candidates for mayor showed up to vote at their Center City polling places.

Rebecca Rhynhart, Jeff Brown, and Allan Domb began the primary election day at Tenth Presbyterian Church at 17th and Spruce Streets, the shared polling location for each of their divisions. Not too far away, Helen Gym cast her vote as well.

But Democratic voters looked beyond Center City to elect the candidate who will likely be the 100th mayor of Philadelphia, casting their ballots for Cherelle Parker — a resident of “Uptown” — over her downtown-dwelling rivals.

It was a history-making election. While Parker still needs to defeat Republican nominee David Oh in the fall, the significant Democratic registration advantage, combined with the rightward march of the national GOP, make that race much less of a challenge than the grueling primary.

That means that after 341 years, a woman is now poised to lead Philadelphia.

Parker wasn’t this board’s pick. Nor was she the choice of the city’s burgeoning far-left progressive movement. In the city’s more affluent, white, and college-educated areas, Parker’s broadsides against “academicians” found little support. Yet, clearly, many Black and brown working-class voters were inspired by her own lived experience as a Black woman, and as a product of the city’s school system and neighborhoods. And while this was the most expensive election ever in Philadelphia, the candidate with the least personal wealth won.

What seemed to give Parker the edge? Philadelphia certainly has a long list of problems that need to be solved, but as columnist Jenice Armstrong found during a walk down Broad Street last week, public safety was the top priority for most Philadelphians going into election day. On Tuesday, those living in neighborhoods most affected by gun crime overwhelmingly selected Parker, the only candidate who pledged to both hire more police officers and lean into stop-and-frisk.

Parker was talking about public safety long before most of her rivals. As she said many times on the campaign trail, she was the first Democratic member of City Council to suggest investing more in police and policing, even as national progressives organized around the concept of defunding or de-emphasizing policing.

Even before she launched her campaign, she released a 20-page Neighborhood Safety and Community Policing Plan. Critics called Parker’s ideas wasteful, regressive, and outdated. A plurality of Democratic voters disagreed.

Parker also won over voters with her commitment to the city’s “middle neighborhoods,” like the ones she represented on City Council. During Mayor Jim Kenney’s first term, Philadelphia thrived according to some metrics — but not all Philadelphians felt the benefits.

Incomes in Black households are stagnant. For everyone else, incomes have risen by 25% since 2010. Black homeownership has been declining for even longer. More than any other member of Council, Parker has sought to protect Black wealth — by investing in the Housing Trust Fund, funding the Basic Systems Repair Program, and building clean commercial corridors through the Taking Care of Business program.

Sadly, the city was denied what surely would have been a barnstormer of a victory speech. While labor leader and close ally Ryan Boyer initially cited dehydration, the campaign later announced that a dental issue prevented Parker from attending her election night party. Whatever the case, we hope Parker recovers quickly and that Philadelphians hear from her soon.

Along with Parker, the Philadelphia Democratic Party also won big.

While party leadership was officially neutral in the mayor’s race, as the election neared it was clear that Chairman Bob Brady and a strong majority of ward leaders were firmly in the Parker camp. Additionally, party-endorsed candidates took the top six spots in the City Council At-Large race and are currently leading the races for sheriff, register of wills, and city controller. While one district Council race is currently too close to call, party-backed incumbents won comfortably in two others.

What mustn’t be lost in the celebration is that despite a diverse field of mayoral candidates, voter turnout was below 30% of registered Democrats, enabling Parker to win while receiving just around 75,000 votes.

Parker’s challenge will be to demonstrate that she can bridge the growing divide within Philadelphia’s Democratic Party and deliver change across the city despite being backed by so much of the status quo.