Chris Rabb’s campaign was a massive win for Philly progressives. Now, he wants to replicate it across the country.

WASHINGTON — A surgeon who treated Palestinians in Gaza and is now running for Congress in New Jersey. A challenger to former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s handpicked successor in San Francisco. A young Denver lawyer trying to unseat a 30-year incumbent from her own party.

Spanning from coast to coast, the three progressive candidates are among the first wave of endorsements from State Rep. Chris Rabb since his decisive May 19 Democratic primary victory to represent half of Philadelphia in Congress.

Without a Republican opponent in November, Rabb — looking to build on the momentum of his campaign and make the most of his newfound political popularity — has quickly launched himself into other congressional races across the country.

» READ MORE: Chris Rabb’s path to victory in the U.S. House race ran through Northwest Philly and the progressive left

“I’m here for you,” he said last week during a mass call, organized by the national environmental group Sunrise Movement, supporting candidates in Michigan and Colorado. “We got this, but only if we step up when it matters most. And this is that moment.”

Rabb’s shift in focus comes after his takedown of State Sen. Sharif Street and physician Ala Stanford in the 3rd Congressional District. Street had the backing of much of the city’s political class and unions, while Stanford’s well-funded campaign was endorsed by several local members of Congress — including U.S. Rep. Dwight Evans who is retiring after a decade in the 3rd District seat. Rabb, a democratic socialist, saw strong support from both Philadelphia-based and national progressive groups.

Even in the emotional moments after declaring victory at his election night party in Germantown, Rabb said his intent was to pay it forward. If he can use his experience to inspire and energize like-minded progressives, he will, he said.

Rabb’s endorsements and appearances on the campaign trail in other states could also have a practical impact — helping to shape and grow the most left-leaning bloc of Democrats that he’s set to join in a prominent way in Washington.

“There’s power in numbers,” said Usamah Andrabi, spokesperson for Justice Democrats, a national progressive group that supported Rabb in the primary and helped elect Democrats like U.S. Reps. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, from New York, and Summer Lee, from Pittsburgh.

Andrabi said Rabb is a “core part” of Justice Democrats’ plan to more than double its coalition of nine current House members. Such a scenario, the group hopes, would help pressure House Democratic leaders to advance policies like Medicare for All or those that aggressively tax the wealthy.

“It’s not just going to be one Summer Lee or one Chris Rabb or one Adam Hamawy,” Andrabi said, referencing the progressive Pennsylvanians and another Rabb-backed candidate in New Jersey’s 12th District. “It’s going to be all of them working together as a bloc in Congress.”

Rabb, a five-term state lawmaker from East Mount Airy, has thrown his burgeoning political weight behind six candidates in recent weeks.

Three will face their primary tests on Tuesday. Hamawy is vying to represent the Trenton-area district where Democratic U.S. Rep. Bonnie Watson Coleman is retiring. In California, a pair of Justice Democrats-backed progressives are also competing in contested primaries.

» READ MORE: Here’s what New Jersey voters need to know for the June primary when Congress is on the ballot

Hamawy is a former combat surgeon who is credited with saving the life of U.S. Sen. Tammy Duckworth (D., Ill.) when her helicopter was shot down in Iraq in 2004. After the start of the Israel-Hamas war, he traveled to Gaza to provide medical care.

Hamawy attended Rabb’s victory party in Germantown last month. On Saturday, Rabb returned the favor by appearing at a rally with Hamawy and the controversial leftist streamer Hasan Piker, who also campaigned with Rabb in West Philadelphia.

In the California primary, Rabb is backing Saikat Chakrabarti in Pelosi’s congressional district and Mai Vang in a Sacramento-based district.

Both are kinds of referendums on established Democratic incumbents there. Chakrabarti, a former campaign manager and chief of staff to Ocasio-Cortez, is competing against a candidate supported by the retiring Pelosi, one of the most formidable Democratic leaders of her generation. Vang, a Sacramento City Council member, is challenging U.S. Rep. Doris Matsui, who has held the seat for 20 years.

That’s a familiar theme for Rabb, who spent his congressional campaign and the last decade of his state-level political career competing against candidates backed by Philadelphia’s Democratic leaders and party apparatus.

» READ MORE: Chris Rabb’s election marked a big night for Philly progressives — and a rebuke of the Democratic establishment

“We have such badass candidates — not just folks who happen to have a ‘D’ behind their name. Like, that is so uninteresting and uninspired,” Rabb said on the call last week that was titled “How to take over the Democratic Party.”

“But folks who are doing the work, who are closest to the pain, who are sacrificing so much, who are leading to be public servants and not politicians,” he continued.

Melat Kiros, another Democrat who is challenging a longtime incumbent in her Denver-based district, was on the call and described Rabb’s win in Philadelphia as inspiring.

“That was really the fire that I needed as we’re heading into these final weeks of the campaign,” Kiros said.

Rabb has also endorsed Claire Valdez, a New York state assembly member and democratic socialist running for an open Brooklyn-based seat, and Will Lawrence, a Sunrise Movement cofounder running in Michigan. Lawrence’s Lansing-based district is the only one in Rabb’s first batch of endorsements where a Republican currently holds the seat.

Dan Hopkins, a political-science professor at the University of Pennsylvania, said it’s not surprising to see Rabb to prioritize intraparty Democratic battles.

Representing the bluest district in the country, most of Rabb’s challenges moving forward will be from within his own party, Hopkins said. And after decisively winning with an unabashedly progressive campaign, there’s “largely upside” for him to endorse candidates with a similar persuasion. Even if they ultimately don’t win, Rabb has as much incentive as Ocasio-Cortez and other high-profile progressives to build out their list of allies, Hopkins said.

“He has clearly captured the imagination of some more progressive activists in Philadelphia, but also more generally,” Hopkins said. “He is moving quickly to build a national reputation.”