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

State Rep. Chris Rabb’s capture of the Democratic nomination to represent Pennsylvania’s 3rd Congressional District on Tuesday marked a striking triumph for the progressive left, which has over the last decade installed democratic socialists into Philadelphia’s lower-level city and state offices, but had yet to notch such a high-profile victory.

More broadly, Tuesday’s results in the nation’s bluest district were a notable rebuke of the city’s Democratic establishment, which rallied around State Sen. Sharif Street, a more centrist Democrat.

But Street’s long list of endorsements didn’t translate to votes. And in the end, the results weren’t particularly close.

Rabb — a longtime, unabashed opponent of the party establishment — prevailed over Street by nearly 15 percentage points. Physician Ala Stanford, another more moderate Democrat, had significant outside financial backing and was endorsed by retiring U.S. Rep. Dwight Evans, who has held the seat for a decade. Stanford finished third and about 20 percentage points behind Rabb, according to unofficial returns.

» READ MORE: State Rep. Chris Rabb wins Democratic primary for Philly congressional seat, a decisive win for the progressive left

That puts Rabb’s win in the hard-fought three-way contest well into “landslide” territory.

All told, three out of every four Democrats who cast a ballot in Philadelphia’s 3rd Congressional District chose a candidate who was not the preferred pick of the party.

Progressives also notched a victory in North Philadelphia, where Sierra McNeil, a social worker who ran with the backing of the left-leaning Working Families Party, ousted incumbent Rep. Keith Harris. And Bob Brooks, a union leader and retired firefighter backed by both the Working Families Party and Gov. Josh Shapiro, won the Democratic nomination in the Lehigh Valley-based 7th Congressional District.

The wins come amid a national wave of momentum among left-wing candidates who lean into economic populism.

In New Jersey, progressive organizer Analilia Mejia won a crowded primary to fill a North Jersey congressional seat. In Maine, Graham Platner, a Bernie Sanders-backed Democrat, is poised to win the nomination for a U.S. Senate seat after his establishment-backed opponent dropped out. And in Michigan, Abdul-El Sayed, a reform-minded leftist running for Senate, is leading in some polls over two more centrist opponents ahead of the August primary election there.

“The machine is dead,” said Maurice Mitchell, the Working Families Party’s national director. “This is a shock wave, not just in Philadelphia, but around the country. And what this means is that there’s potential for a new working-class alignment of voters.”

Adam Hamawy, a surgeon who worked in Gaza and is running to succeed retiring Democratic U.S. Rep. Bonnie Watson Coleman in New Jersey’s 12th Congressional District, is also hoping to ride the wave of progressive support on June 2.

He said he’s been in touch with Rabb and hopes their campaigns can work together.

“We expect more and more victories like this,” Hamawy said while celebrating at Rabb’s party Tuesday night.

In Philadelphia, Rabb’s win may also generate a new round of reckoning about the Democratic City Committee and its longtime chairman, former U.S. Rep. Bob Brady, who has led the party for decades. Brady faced calls to step aside in 2024 after Democrats saw disastrous results statewide and lost ground in deep-blue Philadelphia, but most of the local party leaders fell in line behind Brady, and he remained in the role.

Brady said Wednesday that the results did not indicate a wholesale rejection of the party apparatus.

He said the city committee provided funding even to wards that did not endorse Street. And he intends to back Rabb in the future, saying he’s not looking to field a candidate to challenge him in two years.

“They won and our candidate lost,” Brady said of the city’s progressive faction. “That’s happened before. We’ll keep working with them as long as they want to keep working with us.”

Brady said he was “a little surprised with the [Street] campaign,” which he said did not have the money to run enough television advertisements to compete with the influx of outside money that boosted Rabb and Stanford.

Street said during his concession speech Tuesday that the results were a “wake-up call,” and he mentioned the progressive organization, Reclaim Philadelphia, which played a critical role a decade ago in lifting progressive prosecutor Larry Krasner to the District Attorney’s Office.

“The movement that gave birth to the victory today called themselves ‘Reclaim,’ and they wanted to reclaim the party,” Street said. “Perhaps we need to reclaim our communities and get a little bit more engaged.”

Rabb’s win is also a loss for Mayor Cherelle L. Parker and her allies in the Philadelphia Building and Construction Trades Council, who rallied around Street, too. Rabb currently sits in Parker’s former state House seat, and he has long been a thorn in her side, winning his first election by defeating one of Parker’s closest aides.

Now, he’s all-but-certain to fill the seat long held by Evans, a longtime Parker ally and friend. In Rabb, the mayor will have to work with a member of Congress who once panned her as “not a grassroots candidate.”

Asked if he imagines the Democratic City Committee and the local political apparatus changing after his successful campaign that railed against them, Rabb spoke of “structural change.”

“They want to remain relevant and impactful in the most meaningful ways? They’re going to have to be committed to more accountability, transparency, and integrity,” he said.

Others in Rabb’s coalition said the results showed Philadelphia voters are looking for elected officials who understand their daily struggles. Rabb is an impassioned speaker and self-proclaimed “rabble-rouser” who has been unafraid to rankle Democratic colleagues, including by taking controversial votes on measures that have broad support in the legislature.

Steve Paul, executive director of the progressive group One PA, which endorsed Rabb early in the race, said the Democratic electorate is furious at President Donald Trump’s administration and wants to elect candidates like Rabb who are responding in kind.

“We have to stop treating people who have bold ideas as unserious,” Paul said. “Overly cautious politics are not meeting the scale of the crisis that people feel on the ground right now. That’s what people are responding to.”

U.S. Rep. Summer Lee, who won a Pittsburgh-based district in 2022 with the support of the same progressive coalition and endorsed Rabb, called Rabb’s win “electrifying” and said it builds on national momentum.

“The people of this nation — including Philly, including Western Pennsylvania, including everywhere else — are looking for something better, bigger, bolder," Lee said. “They’re looking for politicians who are ready to meet the moment, and they’re tired of Democrats who don’t know which master they’re ready to serve.”

Staff writer Dugan Arnett contributed to this article.