State Rep. Chris Rabb wins Democratic primary for Philly congressional seat, a decisive win for the progressive left
Rabb is now all but certain to win a two-year term to represent Pennsylvania’s 3rd Congressional District, a seat that has been held for a decade by retiring U.S. Rep. Dwight Evans.
State Rep. Chris Rabb, a democratic socialist who has repeatedly challenged Philadelphia’s political establishment, has won the tightly contested 3rd Congressional District primary — a striking victory for the city’s left-leaning coalition after a combative and rare open contest.
The Associated Press called the race at 10:42 p.m. on Tuesday. Rabb, a five-term state lawmaker from East Mount Airy, handily defeated two other top contenders in the hard-fought race, according to unofficial returns.
In the bluest district in the country, the result sets Rabb on an almost guaranteed path to succeeding U.S. Rep. Dwight Evans, who is retiring after a decade in the seat. Rabb’s election would mark a significant shift from half of Philadelphia voters being represented by a more mainstream Democratic voice to one in the most left-wing faction of Congress.
Rabb’s election night party at Victorian Banquet Hall in Germantown erupted as his victory appeared near. The candidate danced and hugged his way through the crowd.
“I did not win tonight. We won,” he said from the stage. “This is just the beginning.”
The win represented a major blow to leaders of Philadelphia’s Democratic Party, who largely rallied around the other candidates and have clashed with Rabb for years. And it was something of a turnaround for Rabb, whose campaign nearly ran out of money after he said his former treasurer embezzled more than $160,000 in contributions.
“There was a moment a couple of months ago, not long ago, that I was on the precipice of withdrawing from this race,” Rabb said Tuesday night. “And there were people who showed up for me at my worst, in depths of adversity.”
Rabb, 56, focused his campaign on railing against establishment and “status quo” politicians, though all of the major candidates vying for the 3rd District seat supported progressive policies like Medicare for All and abolishing U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
His frequent criticism of Israel became a particular flashpoint as he called on his opponents to refer to the war in Gaza as a genocide, which they declined to do. The rift symbolized a larger national debate as the party wrestles with how far it should go in criticizing Israel and its allies like the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC), a pro-Israel organization.
During the campaign, Rabb repeatedly lobbed attacks at opponent Ala Stanford, a prominent local physician endorsed by Evans, for benefitting from a multi-million-dollar ad campaign from a super PAC that had in a previous election cycle received money from a group aligned with AIPAC.
State Sen. Sharif Street, the other major candidate, eventually joined in those criticisms, even as AIPAC rejected the accusations that it was involved in the race.
Rabb drew some negative attention during the campaign, including for an October post on his Instagram page that advanced an antisemitic conspiracy theory about the deadly massacre targeting Jewish people in Australia’s Bondi Beach. He said the post was made by a former staffer.
At the polls Tuesday, supporters cited Rabb’s outspoken criticism of Israel’s military campaign in Gaza as a key factor. Kristian Ogungbemi, 33, of East Falls, said she “care[s] deeply about genocide” and children killed in Gaza.
“There are people who can’t afford their basic needs all over this country, and particularly in this city,” Ogungbemi said. “The genocide is not the only thing, but it is a thing. And calling it what it is is important.”
While Street’s campaign, as of April, raised the most money in the race, Rabb saw a fundraising surge in recent months — collecting the most in both large- and small-dollar donations while also benefitting from roughly $1 million in television ads orchestrated by progressive groups.
With Evans and other local Congress members backing Stanford and Street running with endorsements from the Democratic City Committee and the powerful building trades unions, Rabb mobilized progressive local and national groups.
He ran with the backing of the Working Families Party, a third party that has seen success electing its members to Philadelphia City Council and in another Pennsylvania congressional district, supporting Rabb’s former state House colleague, U.S. Rep. Summer Lee, of Pittsburgh.
Also on Tuesday, Sierra McNeil, a progressive backed by the Working Families Party, defeated incumbent State Rep. Keith Harris to win the Democratic nomination for a seat representing parts of North Philadelphia.
“The people of Philadelphia made their choice clear: bold, working-class leadership, and an end to the broken status quo,” City Councilmembers Kendra Brooks and Nicolas O’Rourke, both of the Working Families Party, said in a joint statement Tuesday.
Rabb’s campaign also sought to energize young progressives with campaign events headlined by Lee, controversial leftist influencer Hasan Piker and — in a get-out-the-vote rally on Friday — U.S. Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D., N.Y.).
“If you want to change the Democratic Party, we’ve got to change the kind of Democrats that get elected,” Ocasio-Cortez said during the rally.
The 3rd Congressional District stretches from Chestnut Hill to South Philadelphia. The initial field of candidates was sprawling, though only four ultimately made their way onto the ballot.
Stanford, who became well-known for vaccinating thousands of Philadelphians during the COVID-19 pandemic, received an early boost through the super PAC that flooded the Philadelphia airwaves with $3.5 million in ads. Called 314 Action Fund, the Washington-based organization advocates for “pro-science” candidates.
Still, 314 stopped advertising on television in the final week of the race after Stanford made several public missteps, including her decision to drop out of a high-profile debate.
On Tuesday night, Stanford, who was the only woman on the 3rd District ballot, thanked her supporters and said that, above all, she did not want young women to be disappointed in the results.
“Life ain’t been no crystal stair. But we continue to break glass ceilings,” she said. “You might shed a tear tonight, but tomorrow, joy will come.”
Stanford then asked whether a pastor was in the room, and after a supporter came forward, she urged attendees to come together in a prayer circle and grasp hands.
Standing in the middle of the group, Stanford bowed her head as the supporter gave a blessing: “I pray that this union here grows to something magnificent.”
Street, meanwhile, struggled to build momentum despite consolidating support from most of the party’s establishment, including Mayor Cherelle L. Parker. A two-term state senator and former Pennsylvania Democratic Party chair, Street is the son of former Mayor John Street and would have been Pennsylvania’s first Muslim elected to Congress.
“While this isn’t the result that we wanted tonight, this isn’t the end of the process,” Street said in remarks to his supporters Tuesday night, with Parker alongside him.
“The work continues,” he added. “I still stand here. I still stand with you.”
Street also did not receive the same level of outside support as Rabb and Stanford.
A super PAC funded by the building trades called Philly First sent out mailers supporting Street and, along with the Democratic City Committee, organized get-out-the-vote efforts. But it did not launch television ads. Street’s own campaign paid for about $115,000 in television ads, slightly more than Rabb’s campaign and less than the roughly $200,000 spent by Stanford’s, according to AdImpact, a media tracking firm.
Television spots launched on Rabb’s behalf, meanwhile, described him as a “rabble-rouser” looking to shake up Washington.
The ads, paid for by a coalition of national progressive organizations that spent a combined $1 million on the race, featured other Working Families Party-endorsed politicians like Brooks and State Sen. Nikil Saval. Both are fellow democratic socialists who were banking on Rabb’s ability to build on their success and the momentum from places like New York City, where Mayor Zohran Mamdani won last year.
Entering the race, Rabb already had somewhat of a storied history of triumphing over more mainstream Democrats with a progressive platform.
He entered the state Capitol in Harrisburg for the first time in 2017 after defeating incumbent State Rep. Tonyelle Cook-Artis. He beat another Democratic City Committee-backed incumbent in 2022 after his district was redrawn to overlap with the one represented by State Rep. Isabella Fitzgerald.
In Harrisburg, he sometimes clashed with colleagues while introducing boundary-pushing bills — like around criminal justice reform or reparations for descendants of enslaved people — and not prioritizing relationship-building in the same way as other legislators.
Just two weeks before Tuesday’s primary, he cast controversial votes against otherwise widely supported bills aimed at increasing penalties for people who sexually abuse or traffic children.
Rabb said he believed the bills, in part, could inadvertently criminalize situations like when parents pay a friend or family member to care for their child. Stanford called the votes “disqualifying” and Street, who has personified a more conciliatory legislative style, said Rabb was “more focused on pandering to a small group of extremists than delivering results for Philadelphians.”
However, in his state House district, some voters said Rabb’s style is just what’s needed in Congress.
Mary Day Kent, 79, lives in Mt. Airy and said she hadn’t been so energized to vote for a political candidate since she first cast a ballot for progressive District Attorney Larry Krasner, who is now in his third term.
“I’m very enthusiastic about Rabb,” Kent said. “This is in Mt. Airy. Chris Rabb has represented us, and the people here are very supportive of him.”
Staff writers Jesse Bunch, Michelle Myers, and Dugan Arnett contributed to this article.
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