The building trades unions have endorsed State Sen. Sharif Street in the crowded race for Pa.’s 3rd Congressional District

The politically powerful Philadelphia building trades unions on Wednesday endorsed State Sen. Sharif Street in next year’s race to succeed the retiring U.S. Rep. Dwight Evans in Congress, furthering solidifying Street’s support among the Democratic establishment.

“With what’s going on in Washington, you don’t need an apprentice learning the job,” said Ryan Boyer, who leads the Laborers District Council and the Philadelphia Building and Construction Trades Council, a coalition of more than 30 unions that spend big on local elections. “You need a skilled journeyman like the senator, who’s been in politics his whole life.”

Street, the son of former Mayor John F. Street, was endorsed unanimously by the council, Boyer said.

Street accepted the endorsement at the Sheet Metal Workers Local 19 union hall on Christopher Columbus Boulevard.

“We do need someone who can stand up against [President Donald Trump] who, before he ever became a president, was a guy who was cheating his contractors, who was mistreating his workers‚” Street said.

Street, who recently stepped down as chair of the Pennsylvania Democratic Party to run for Congress, listed endorsements from eight locals in the trades on his campaign website earlier this year. His campaign may have jumped the gun at that time — a leader of one of the unions said it was not yet ready to make an endorsement — but he will now benefit from the full backing of the trades council, which has for decades been one of the most potent forces in local politics.

In electing the last two mayors and much of City Council, the trades have given hundreds of thousands to their chosen candidates’ campaigns, taking advantage of campaign finance rules that allow each local’s political committee to give a maximum contribution. The unions have also funded super PACs, outside spending groups with no contribution limits. Although a majority of the trades’ roughly 50,000 members live outside Philadelphia, they work to get out the vote in the city before and on Election Day.

More institutional support may be on the way for Street. Bob Brady, who chairs the Democratic City Committee, said the party also plans to endorse Street some time after this year’s election cycle wraps up.

Although the party’s endorsement is decided by a vote of the Democratic ward leaders who represent the district, Brady said Street was a lock.

“He won’t have a problem,” Brady said.

Street’s competition in the crowded field for next spring’s Democratic primary so far includes a mix of ambitious politicians and political newcomers: State Reps. Morgan Cephas and Chris Rabb, physicians Ala Stanford and David Oxman, real estate agent and former city employee Robin Toldens, and Temple University professor Karl Morris.

The winner of the primary is all but guaranteed victory given that the 3rd Congressional District, which includes parts of North, Northwest, West, and South Philadelphia, is one of the most Democratic in the country.

While Street, who lives in North Philadelphia, is locking down establishment support, several other candidates appear to have separate potential lanes. Rabb is a progressive insurgent who has defeated establishment-backed candidates in his legislative runs in Northwest Philly. Cephas may be able to capitalize on her deep ties to West Philadelphia’s political organization.

And if Wednesday’s news conference was any indication, Street’s allies view Stanford, a first-time candidate who gained national acclaim as a founder of the Black Doctors COVID-19 Consortium during the pandemic, as one of his biggest threats.

Without naming Stanford, several speakers at the union event took veiled jabs at Stanford’s lack of political experience and her recent move into the city so that she can run for Congress as a resident of the district. (Stanford grew up in North Philadelphia but has lived for years in Montgomery County. She recently purchased a home in Chestnut Hill and is in the process of moving into the city.)

“[Street] is the right person for this job,” said Jim Snell, business manager of Steamfitters Local 420. “He didn’t just move into Philadelphia recently."

Stanford campaign manager Aaron Carr said “the only endorsement that matters most will come from the voters themselves.”

“Her roots are in Philadelphia, and her service has never stopped at any county line,” Carr said. “Whether treating patients in parking lots, union halls, or neighborhood centers, she’s been there for her city when it needed her most.”

Boyer emphasized Street’s Philly bona fides by referencing a comment the late Pope Francis made when visiting Philadelphia in 2015.

“He said you cannot be a shepherd unless you smell like the sheep,“ Boyer said. “Sharif smells like the sheep.”