Mayor Cherelle Parker’s visit to the Democratic convention included speeches, socializing and VIP treatment

CHICAGO — Philadelphia Mayor Cherelle L. Parker gave motivational speeches, attended a housing policy forum and received VIP treatment to mark Vice President Kamala Harris’ historic moment at the Democratic National Convention last week.

Parker said that as the first Black woman to hold the office, she felt inspired and energized when she saw Harris accept the Democratic nomination to accomplish the same feat and take over the nation’s highest office.

“It was also very pragmatic,” Parker said after Harris’ speech accepting her party’s presidential nomination. “It was connected — connected to real people and what they go through in their everyday lives.”

Parker attended the convention as a delegate from a “party leader or elected official,” commonly known as a superdelegate, and stood next to Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro as he delivered the state’s votes to Harris in the ceremonial roll-call vote.

Even though she didn’t get to deliver a speech on the convention’s main stage, the week was a chance for the mayor to network with other Democrats and build relationships that, if Harris wins the presidential election, will be essential in securing federal funding for Philadelphia, Parker said.

Parker’s political team is in transition, and she has no campaign staff. She was joined in Chicago by a handful of senior administration officials, including Deputy Mayors Aren Platt and Sinceré Harris, who took leave and paid their own expenses, Platt said. A special assistant and the mayor’s traveling security detail also made the trip, with their expenses covered by the city.

Parker toured Chicago and spoke to various groups

Parker appeared at several events that took place before and after the prime-time conventions.

She spoke to delegations from Pennsylvania and New Jersey, Emerge, a political group that helps Democratic women run for public office, and Black Leadership Pennsylvania, a up-to-date nonprofit that aims to escalate turnout in this year’s election.

She attended a “late-night brunch” hosted by Higher Heights, an organization that promotes black female candidates, and as a former cheerleader known for her oratory skills, Parker had no problem organizing pep rallies in Harris’ honor wherever she went.

“Did you know the mayor of Philadelphia wore pom-poms?” she asked the crowd of about 200 people at a delegation breakfast in Pennsylvania on Monday. “I was a cheerleader for a little group called the Oak Lane Wildcats.”

Parker led delegates’ chants during an eggnog at the Palmer House in downtown Chicago, and she also modified some of her Philadelphia-related campaign slogans to suit a statewide audience, saying Pennsylvania would become “the safest, cleanest, greenest — you know — community in the country.”

In a infrequent, nonpartisan setting, Parker also participated in a Wednesday panel on the city’s housing policy that included the mayors of San Diego and Columbus, Ohio.

The moderator, former Chicago housing official Marisa Novara, invited Parker in part because she had heard about the mayor’s plan to build or preserve 30,000 up-to-date housing units. She noted that Chicago was only able to build 2,400 units when it received an unexpected $1 billion in low-income housing tax credits.

“30,000 is a really staggering number,” Novara said at the event, hosted by the City Club of Chicago and the U.S. Conference of Mayors. “How are you going to do that?”

Parker responded by referring to an upcoming announcement regarding a major partnership spanning “multi-sector, multi-industry.”

“Local government is a significant contributor,” Parker said, “but you have to look at the philanthropic community. We have other stakeholders — I don’t want to put the cart before the horse — who surprisingly we asked and they agreed to make a significant investment in the future.”

Changes in Parker’s political activities

The political carnival comes at a time of transition for Parker’s own political operation. After her victory in last year’s mayoral election, many of her top campaign staffers joined the administration, including Platt and Harris.

Since January, day-to-day operations of her campaign have been handled by lobbyist Will Dunbar, a member of Parker’s “kitchen cabinet” of unofficial advisers.

But Dunbar, who had been volunteering to support the campaign, recently left that role and has not been replaced. While Parker has communications and fundraising consultants, she does not appear to have a point person for her political operation.

Parker said Dunbar needs to focus on his lobbying activities.

“Will has been a precious friend to me and I’ll just say that life is beautiful now [for Dunbar] “And business is doing well and growing,” she said.

However, Dunbar said it was primarily Parker’s decision.

“I’m still an informal senior adviser, but the mayor has a different set of priorities and has decided to manage her own policies,” he said. “My business continues to grow as we work to support our clients.”

Dunbar’s departure in late July came just before two surprising campaign moves involving Harris and the DNC.

Earlier this month, as Harris was vetting potential vice presidential candidates, Parker’s campaign released a video that caused a stir because it seemed to suggest Harris had already chosen Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro. A few days later, Harris chose Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz.

And on Monday, the first day of the convention, her campaign sent out a fundraising email saying she was “honored and excited to be on stage this week at the Democratic National Convention.” A campaign spokesperson later clarified that she would not be speaking on the convention stage.

By the end of the week Parker no longer had these concerns in mind.

The mayor was invited to watch the speech from Harris’s VIP suite at the United Center, where he sat alongside notables including Don Cheadle and Spike Lee, members of Harris’ family, and Walz.

It was a poetic touch to a moment four years ago that helped propel Parker and Harris to power. In 2020, when she was President Joe Biden’s vice presidential candidate, Harris made her first in-person campaign stop in Philadelphia and appeared at an event in the backyard of Parker’s Mount Airy home.

The trip was a political boon for Parker, who was then a City Council member planning her 2023 mayoral run, and it helped connect Parker with Sinceré Harris, who was working on the presidential campaign at the time and later left the White House to become Parker’s campaign manager. (She is not related to Kamala Harris.)

Parker said that as she watched Harris’ speech Thursday, she thought about that day in 2020.

“There was a lot of potential and opportunity there,” she said.