Maria Quiñones Sánchez is dropping out of the Philly mayor’s race due to the ‘obnoxious, obscene amount of money’

Former City Councilmember Maria Quiñones Sánchez is suspending her mayoral campaign, saying the flood of money into the race from self-funding candidates and outside spending groups made it impossible for her to keep up.

“The obnoxious, obscene amount of money that is shaping the race just got away from us,” Quiñones Sánchez said in an interview at her campaign headquarters in Center City. “There was no way we were going to be able to compete with that money.”

Quiñones Sánchez represented the Kensington-based 7th Council District for 15 years before resigning last year to launch her mayoral campaign. She and former Councilmember Derek Green became the first candidates to enter the race when they threw their hats in the ring on the same day in early September.

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With her base in the poorest Council district and with no major unions in her corner, Quiñones Sánchez knew that fundraising was going to be a major challenge, and she got in the race relatively early to give herself more time to build a campaign war chest.

She ended up taking in almost $800,000 from donors over the last two years, a respectable sum. But it wasn’t enough to break through in this year’s race, which is likely to be among the most expensive in the city’s history.

She made the decision to suspend her campaign after last week’s campaign finance reporting deadline, which showed that $22.2 million has already been poured into the race with about six weeks to go. That includes $7 million that real estate magnate and former Councilmember Allan Domb gave to his own campaign; about $2.5 million in “dark money” that anonymous donors have given to a super PAC backing candidate Jeff Brown; and hundreds of thousands from unions and wealthy donors supporting candidates Helen Gym, Rebecca Rhynhart, and Cherelle Parker.

“I’m very concerned about the money in the race,” Quiñones Sánchez said.

Her exiting the race leaves 10 candidates in the May 16 Democratic primary, including six who are considered serious contenders.

Quiñones Sánchez supports public financing of elections to level the playing field between candidates with major financial backing and those without it. Short of that reform, which would be a significant overhaul of the city election system, she said she supports revising Philadelphia’s campaign contribution limits. In the mayor’s race, the limits cap donations to campaigns at $6,200 a year for individuals and $25,200 a year for political action committees.

Those limits were intended to prevent special interests from currying influence with elected officials by writing enormous checks that regular voters couldn’t afford. But they were created before the U.S. Supreme Court changed the electoral landscape by allowing outside spending groups known as super PACs to spend unlimited amounts of money on politics with decisions such as Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission in 2010.

Now, critics say, Philly’s contribution limits are undermining their original purpose because they prevent candidates such as Quiñones Sánchez from collecting bigger checks from donors while allowing those backed by super PACs to benefit from unlimited fundraising.

“The contribution limits make it harder for candidates like me,” Quiñones Sánchez said. “Nobody can do it without a super PAC anymore, which was not the intent of campaign [contribution limits].”

With Quiñones Sánchez gone, there are no Latino candidates in the race.

She plans to endorse one of her rivals, but first she wants to hear where they stand on a new platform she is to release Sunday called Agenda Latina. It calls for the next mayor to include Latino representation at every level of their administration, improve language access in city government, and launch a new affordable housing subsidy program.

“I felt it was my responsibility for my supporters to try to shape the race,” she said. “Latinos are 18% of this city, and none of the candidates have been speaking to them, and I felt it was my responsibility as I exit to challenge all of the candidates to really speak to that community.”

Born in Puerto Rico, Quiñones Sánchez moved with her family to Philadelphia as a child. They lived in public housing in Spring Garden before buying a house in Hunting Park.

She went to Temple University, worked in the office of then-Councilmember Marian Tasco, and led voting rights campaigns and community nonprofits before running for office.

She won four elections to Council while being continually opposed by Democratic ward leaders in her district, a notable accomplishment in a city long dominated by machine politics.

She brought that independent streak into Council chambers. Quiñones Sánchez, who lives in Norris Square, was an early critic of Mayor Jim Kenney’s administration and the only Democrat to vote against his tax on sweetened beverages. She was also a longtime antagonist of the politically powerful Local 98 of the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers.

A self-described “pragmatic progressive,” Quiñones Sánchez developed a reputation on Council as a policy wonk, championing bills that established the Philadelphia Land Bank, exempted thousands of small companies from the city’s business tax, and allowed low-income residents to enroll in payment plans for property taxes and utility bills.

“I’m very proud of our legislative record,” Quiñones Sánchez said.

It’s a record that Quiñones Sánchez thought would have made her a top-tier candidate in the mayoral election. Asked what was most surprising to her about the race, she said, “That it doesn’t matter that you’re the most qualified.”

In 2021, Quiñones Sánchez was diagnosed with breast cancer, and shared her diagnosis publicly to encourage others to get regular screenings. She has been cancer-free since a successful surgery that year.

Quiñones Sánchez last year successfully installed her former chief of staff Quetcy Lozada as her successor in the 7th District. Lozada is now running for a full four-year term in this year’s election.

As for what’s next for her, Quiñones Sánchez said she’s going to take a beat.

“I’m going to be fine. I’m going to take a couple months off and make a decision,” she said. “I’m still going to have some community impact. I still see myself playing a role both at the state and the local level. That work will continue.”

But it’s unlikely Quiñones Sánchez will be running for office in the near future.

“I do owe it to my family to go make a little bit of money,” she said. “They’ve sacrificed our entire lives to public service.”