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Former City Council member and mayoral candidate Helen Gym joined progressive activists to celebrate their movement’s recent successes — including state Rep. Chris Rabb’s victory in last month’s congressional primary — at a national political conference in Philadelphia on Friday.
Gym, an outspoken and once ubiquitous figure in city politics, seen as motion star nationwide, she largely withdrew from public view after finishing third in the 2023 Democratic mayoral primary and refusing job interview requests.
But on Friday, she addressed a ballroom full of activists at the Netroots Nation conference at the Pennsylvania Convention Center, announcing the arrival of a “new democratic order” that prioritizes priorities like affordable housing, racial justice and abolishing ICE over the “whims of billionaires.”
“While there is a clearly authoritarian playbook based on the exploitation and harm of the bodies and lives of black and brown immigrants, its counterpoint is our ability to cultivate creative resistance and tap into long-cultivated relationships that no money can buy and that have yet to be written,” she said.
She welcomed Rabb and several city and state elected officials backed by the Working Families Party or Democratic Socialists of America, and said Philadelphia would “anchor the fight” in 2028 for the seat held by U.S. Sen. John Fetterman, a Democrat who has alienated many on the left.
When asked later what she was doing now, Gym replied, “It was really important for me to take the time I had in office to think about what lessons are really important to the community right now,” especially those that are under attack.
“While I’m really excited about all the progress in the growing movements that are transforming politics here, in our city and across the country… I’ve talked about the importance of communities that are hyper-local, able to stand up to authoritarianism, whether that looks like closing schools or is it literally ICE kidnapping people on the streets,” she said.
“I wasn’t supposed to win”
Gym delivered opening remarks at Friday’s event, followed by Councilmember Kendra Brooks of the Working Families Party, Pennsylvania Lt. Gov. Austin Davis and other speakers.
Other Philadelphia officials scheduled to speak at the three-day conference include: Rabb, who delivered the keynote address Thursday evening; state Sen. Nikil Saval, who spoke on a panel on housing; state Reps. Malcolm Kenyatta and Andre Carroll; and council members Rue Landau and Mark Squilla.
Rabb described the conference speech as “surreal” after attending it 20 years ago when he was a political blogger trying to land interviews with elected officials.
“I didn’t know I would be representing the bluest congressional district in the United States,” he said, referring to his expected victory in November’s race for the 3rd Congressional District. “Twenty years ago, in the new media classroom, there was a belief that technology would save us and be the great equalizer, and I was part of that small radical subgroup that said, ‘no, justice saves us.’ Am I right?”
He discussed his search for his ancestors in Philadelphia from hundreds of years ago, including an abolitionist priest whose actions inspire him to serve but also remind him of how much still remains to be done.
“I have a question for all of you, Netroots Nation, are you ready to fight this fight? I think so. I know you are because I shouldn’t have won. I am a socialist supporter of reparations for Black Democrats,” he said, drawing cheers and applause. “And here we are. And I want to put the emphasis on we, not me. We, the people.”
Radicalized by hardship
In her remarks, Brooks, who was the first Family Workers Party candidate elected to City Council, told her story becomes politically busy around 2011. Cuts in the state education budget led to the loss of his job, and the house was sold by the sheriff. Later, the school district planned to convert her children’s public school into a charter school, she added.
“I organized a campaign with other parents at Edward T. Still Elementary School and, against all odds, we won the fight to keep our school public,” she said. “I want you all to understand what it actually looked like. It was like parents showing up to meetings in double shifts, older people preparing food so people could stay late and strategizing, kids standing at microphones explaining why their school was important.”
“When you experience what ordinary people can do together, you stop accepting the unacceptable, and this fight will not [just] Change me, it changed this city,” she said.
Earlier Friday, Saval spoke on a panel on housing alongside officials and activists from Seattle, Phoenix, Los Angeles and New York, including Annemarie Gray, whose organization helped New York Mayor Zohran Mamdani formulate a housing agenda.
Saval said he initially ran for office with a focus on housing creation, equity and preservation, as well as supporting tenants’ rights and the ability to stay in their homes.
His greatest achievement was creation Whole house repair programwhich provides grants to low-income homeowners and moral loans to tenants to maintain homes and improve efficiency, he said.
It helped save 4,000 to 5,000 homes in Pennsylvania, was replicated in other states, and inspired efforts elsewhere.
“There is currently a whole home repair pilot program in Congress that we helped write that was passed as part of the THE ROAD to 21st century housing package in both houses and God facilitate us, Donald Trump can sign this bill,” he said. “You take your victories where you can get them.”
