Bob Brady says he’s staying after some Philadelphia Democrats expressed concerns about his term

Vice President Kamala Harris has yet to deliver a concession speech, and there has already been an ugly public spat between her campaign and Philadelphia’s Democratic leader.

Longtime party chairman Bob Brady said just hours after President-elect Donald Trump’s victory that the Harris campaign was disrespectful to party leaders in the city. Harris’ team responded in kind, with a senior adviser obstructing Brady’s voter turnout operation.

Dissatisfaction with the party and Brady’s management of it extends beyond the Harris campaign. As the dust settles from the red wave election and a nationwide reckoning for Democrats continues, some Philadelphia Democrats are questioning the effectiveness of the Democratic City Committee under Brady, 79, a former congressman who has led it for nearly 40 years.

“It’s time for the party to think about bringing in new leadership and hiring new people who have a better sense of how to increase turnout,” said Terry Gillen, a former district leader and former mayoral candidate. “[Brady] there seems to be no problem. “It suggests he’s not sure how to deal with it.”

The election results re-ignited long-standing generational and ideological divisions in the city’s party. They also strengthened the position of Brady’s critics, who say Philadelphia Democrats need to modernize and develop more coherent strategies to increase turnout, a perennial problem.

» READ MORE: What to know about Bob Brady and Philly’s ward system after this week’s feud with Kamala Harris’ campaign

On Monday, Harris’ senior adviser in Pennsylvania, Brendan McPhillips, said in an Inquirer op-ed that Brady should step down “in favor of a modern generation of leadership.”

“Brady is the problem,” added Salaah Muhammad, organizing director of the progressive Families Working Party of Pennsylvania. “He is constantly concerned with how he will maintain control, not with how we will address the needs of voters?”

But Brady and his many allies in the party say he is not responsible for the nationwide shift to the right and point out that turnout in Philadelphia this year is only slightly down compared to four years ago. Few believe a larger turnout in the city would have affected the outcome, given that Trump improved his performance across Pennsylvania and won every swing state.

Brady says he’s not going anywhere and that district leaders who choose the chairman are largely loyal to him. He won’t run for re-election until 2026, and there is no evidence that a campaign has been organized within the city committee to push him out now.

“It’s not easy to keep all the factions together and all moving in the same direction,” said Lou Agre, a longtime Brady ally who leads the 21st District, which also includes Roxborough. “The Democratic City Committee is one of the few institutions in our country that represents the needs of working people, and that is what the party needs right now.”

Brady said the dynamics of the election are far beyond his control.

“We did a great job. We did everything we could,” he said. “The problem is the economy.”

Get-out-the-vote tactics and “street money”

Brady, a former carpenter, is an old-school political activist known for calming warring factions of the party through constant horse trading. Although the big-city Democratic machines no longer have the power they once did, the city committee still wields influence, especially in local elections, and Brady is one of the best-connected operatives in the Northeast.

Before each election, thousands of committee members – soldiers from both local parties – are tasked with deploying forces throughout the city and contacting voters. There are over 3,000 Democratic Committee members in various districts across the city. They work mainly as volunteers.

The Democratic City Committee has come under scrutiny in recent years as Philadelphia’s share of the statewide Democratic vote has declined and the Democrats’ margin over Republican presidential candidates has narrowed. Over the past four years, Democrats have lost about 55,000 registered voters in the city and Republicans have lost about 4,000.

Although some ballots are still being counted, it appears that the city’s turnout this year will be slightly lower than in 2020. Gianni Hill, a consultant working with the city committee, said he expects the city’s turnout to be around 97%. voters. what was four years ago.

But Trump increased his vote share in the city. The result is a smaller Democratic margin: Harris won tens of thousands fewer votes in Philadelphia than Biden did four years ago. She also performed worse than Biden in the suburbs and lost to Pennsylvania by over 140,000 votes.

» READ MORE: To win Pennsylvania, Donald Trump did exactly what he had to do in Philadelphia: he improved slightly.

Brady said the party has financial constraints and criticized Harris’ campaign for paying only “half” of the $1.2 million requested by the city committee in connection with his get-out-the-ballot effort. The party has long relied on campaigns to provide it with funds for expenses, including “street money” that is given to committee members to cover Election Day expenses such as lunch or paying people to help track down potential voters.

Local parties often ask presidential campaigns for money. But critics say the money doesn’t work here and that it shouldn’t depend on campaigns funding the city’s event in addition to their own expansive turnout programs.

McPhillips of the Harris campaign said in a statement that “Brady’s long-standing practice of fleecing campaigns for money to make up for his own lack of fundraising or leadership ability is a worthless endeavor that no future campaign should be forced into again.” “

He was also critical of Brady’s turnout, stating in the article that the party was “similar[s] more of a social club for former politicians than a functioning organization whose goal is to develop and build power for working people.

Strategy patchwork

Brady defended his get-out-the-vote operation. He has long empowered district leaders to develop strategies in their own districts, which he believes is intentional.

“Someone in North Philadelphia wouldn’t use the same strategy as someone in South Philly. Every precinct leader and committee members know their constituency,” Brady said. “We are a city of districts, and each of them is different. This is a benefit to district leaders and committee members.”

However, this creates a patchwork of strategies. Some county leaders and committee members organize vigorous door-knocking and registration drives for months, while others don’t mobilize until days before Election Day. Some utilize contemporary voter tracking technology; others don’t.

» READ MORE: Democratic turnout in Philadelphia was low. Harris’ campaign tried to step up its ground game.

Viktor Kagan, a Democratic committeeman in Northeast Philadelphia’s 58th District, said the party does not organize canvassing events effectively, especially outside of an election year, which makes it hard to build lasting relationships with voters.

More broadly, he said the city committee has alienated younger voters who are “full of the desire to make radical and productive change” but don’t see longtime party brokers as changemakers.

Kagan said the problem goes beyond Brady.

“This is an entire city party apparatus that only serves itself and funnels money to pay itself and itself alone,” Kagan said. “Young people and immigrant communities will continue to move away from Democrats because Philadelphia Democrats refuse to expand their electorate. They fear losing power, so they lose the election instead.”

Some of the tensions stem from last year when about 20 committee members were removed from their positions after supporting Labor candidates over Democratic candidates running for a seat on the City Council. Two members of the Working Families Party won seats that had been held by Republicans for decades, and all Democrats on the ballot also won.

Progressives and other critics of the city committee said it reinforced the sense that the party was not welcoming to outsiders.

Joe Corrigan, a Democratic strategist, said the “insular” nature of the town committee could be off-putting to teenage people, modern voters and “people who don’t normally think about politics.” He said this discourages candidates from outside the existing political system who might appeal more to working-class voters.

“As long as loyalty to Bob Brady and other establishment leaders in Philadelphia politics is the way to get to elected office,” he said, “we will continue to underperform, both in government and in electoral politics.”

Inquirer staff writer Max Marin contributed to this article.