Ahmed Moor, a Gaza-born Philadelphian, is John Fetterman’s first 2028 challenger
Sen. John Fetterman has not said if he's running again. His first official challenger is an outsider with a polar-opposite view on his top issue.
Ahmed Moor, a Palestinian American writer who was born in Gaza and worked in international development, on Monday became the first candidate for U.S. Sen. John Fetterman’s seat in 2028 — launching an early and progressive campaign set to reflect the polar opposite of Fetterman’s view of Israel and the war in Gaza.
A 42-year-old West Philadelphia resident, Moor has never held or run for political office aside from a recent stint as a committeeperson within the Philadelphia Democratic City Committee.
But in an interview with The Inquirer ahead of his campaign launch, he said he was inspired to mount an outsider bid for one of Pennsylvania’s top elected positions because of what he considers a series of national “crises” — around corruption, the cost of living, constitutional authority, and foreign policy.
“The truth is, I’m not really running against Fetterman,” Moor said. “I’m running for good government. I’m running for the rule of law. I’m running because I believe in America. And I believe in our capacity for renewal. I believe in our capacity for redressing wrongs in our midst.”
The end of the 2026 midterms last week marked the unofficial start of the 2028 election cycle, and Fetterman has not said whether he will seek a second six-year term.
Though campaign launches this early are rare, Fetterman’s widespread unpopularity among his party’s voters — because of his staunch support for Israel’s military actions, his shift to sometimes voting with Republicans, and his absenteeism in his role — has galvanized Democrats who want him out of office.
Several Democrats have openly weighed campaigns. U.S. Rep. Chris Deluzio of Allegheny County has cultivated a statewide network as he considers jumping in the race.
U.S. Rep. Brendan Boyle of Philadelphia consulted with senators about a possible run but said Wednesday he would opt to remain in the House as chairman of the powerful Budget Committee.
Moor said he knows he is facing an “uphill battle” in what could be a field of experienced candidates with more fundraising and political experience. It’s why he is getting in early — filing with the Federal Election Commission on Monday, hosting a launch event at Renata’s Kitchen next week, and making hires like Rasha Mubarak, a finance director who has worked on the campaigns of U.S. Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D., Mich.) and former U.S. Rep. Cori Bush (D., Mo.), progressives who have been outspoken about the war in Gaza.
He said he has been inspired by the success of other like-minded candidates this year, including State Rep. Chris Rabb, whose win to become Philadelphia’s first democratic socialist in Congress spurred conversations about a potential progressive challenger to Fetterman.
Moor, with a platform that has echoes of Rabb’s, said he wants to take his message on the road to all 67 counties.
“I’m hoping I can be a part of the movement that reignites ordinary people’s passion, ordinary people’s commitment, to American democracy and for a better quality of life,” he said.
Who is Ahmed Moor?
Born in Rafah — a city in southern Gaza that was largely destroyed in the latest conflict with Israel — Moor moved to Philadelphia with his family when he was a child and his father was working for the American Friends Service Committee, the Quaker-founded social justice organization. The family moved back to the region, in Ramallah in the West Bank, for three years but left after the second intifada started in 2000.
Moor graduated from Roxborough High School and the University of Pennsylvania and later earned a master’s degree in public policy from Harvard University. Before graduate school, he worked in New York at Swiss Re Capital Markets, a global reinsurance firm. A career change from finance to journalism led him to Beirut, where he covered the 2011 revolution in Egypt as a freelancer for the Guardian and other outlets.
Before returning to Philadelphia five years ago, he spent eight years in Jordan — launching and running a venture capital-backed lending organization for small businesses in Jordan and Egypt. He and his wife moved back to the city to raise their three daughters while Moor weighed in on foreign policy in op-eds and served on the boards of local community organizations, like the People’s Media Fund and the Parent Infant Center in West Philadelphia. He has also served as a fellow at the Foundation for Middle East Peace.
After the Oct. 7, 2023, attack by Hamas in Israel — which killed about 1,200 Israelis and sparked a war that has left more than 74,000 Palestinians dead — Moor also became a dues-paying member of the Philadelphia chapter of the Democratic Socialists of America.
The organization “took on a strong, values-based position” against what Moor calls a genocide that led to the deaths of his family members.
He supports not just withdrawing U.S. military aid to Israel — which polls show most Pennsylvania voters support — but imposing aggressive sanctions against Israel until Palestinians “have equal rights in that country.”
“We need to do away with the idea that Israel is a place where Jews have superior rights relative to Palestinians,” Moor said. “That is not consistent with my values as an American. I think it’s also a recipe for endless conflict. As Americans, we’re deeply implicated in Israeli apartheid. We fund it. We sustain it. We protect it.”
Moor said he would support a bill similar to the Comprehensive Anti-Apartheid Act of 1986, which imposed significant economic sanctions on apartheid-era South Africa. The law blocked the import of South African products, prohibited the South African government from having U.S. bank accounts, and banned all U.S. loans and investments in the country.
“We just need to copy and paste the legislation,” Moor said. “Just apply it to 2026. Here we are, 40 years later. The problem rhymes. The resolution rhymes.”
For Moor, the first candidate to run for Fetterman’s seat, his position is a striking departure from that of the incumbent.
Fetterman has spent much of his time in the public eye since the Oct. 7 attacks defending Israel and supporting its military efforts in Gaza. He has talked about the conflict relentlessly in interviews, appeared more frequently with Jewish groups, and met more times with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu than he has with Philadelphia Mayor Cherelle L. Parker. He has acknowledged that his unwavering view could cost him his seat and — while also drifting further from his party on a number of other issues — said he would abandon his lifelong association with the Democratic Party if it makes opposing Israel its official view.
“That’s a problem for Pennsylvania. It’s a problem for me as a constituent. It’s a problem for America,” Moor said of The Inquirer’s reporting about his meetings with Netanyahu and Parker.
Moor said his decision to enter the race, though, was more about a broader need for “systemic structural change.”
His platform includes universal free childcare, Medicare for All, a nationwide version of the California wealth tax on billionaires that failed in the election last week, rejecting the influence of corporations and other special interests in government, and holding President Donald Trump’s administration accountable for corruption. Paying $5,000 per month for childcare expenses when his kids — now 8, 7, and 5 — were younger made him think deeper about early childhood education as a “market failure” and made him want to get involved in finding solutions in a more meaningful way, he said.
Like other democratic socialists, he is highly critical of the current Democratic Party and said he has “no faith” in U.S. Sen. Chuck Schumer or U.S. Rep. Hakeem Jeffries, the New York Democrats who are in line to become the leaders of the new Democratic-controlled Congress after last week’s “blue tsunami” election.
“We’re facing a fight, which will define whether we continue to be a constitutional republic or not. So we need to fight. It’s a fight,” Moor said. “I don’t believe that the current leadership of the Democratic Party has what it takes to meet the needs of the moment.”
A fan of Rabb’s campaign this year, he said he also admires progressives like U.S. Sens. Chris Murphy of Connecticut and Chris Van Hollen of Maryland, as well as U.S. Reps. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York and Ro Khanna of California. New York Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s win in 2025 and Michigan U.S. Sen.-elect Abdul El-Sayed’s successful campaign this year also served as inspiration.
Whether Pennsylvania voters — who tend to elect more centrist candidates statewide — are ready for that kind of candidate in a Senate race is an open question. An Inquirer/New York Times/Siena University poll in September found 56% of likely voters had an unfavorable view of socialism and 57% of Democrats said they did not consider themselves democratic socialists.
But with momentum on the left this year, Moor said, he thinks “it’s wise and sensible to embrace all of the energy coming out of the DSA and to incorporate the best ideas.”
“The DSA is the most earnest — the best — chance, I think, for renewing a certain type of grassroots politics in American life,” he said.
