State representative Chris Rabb, a progressive legislator who twice won the election without support in a democratic place in the city, is running for Congress.
55 -year -old Rabb told Inquester that he was running to fill the headquarters of the retirement of the American representative Dwight Evans.
“The work of Philadelphians is squeezed by the same status quo and political cowardice supported by the corporation, which have failed our community for generations,” Rabb said in a statement before its announcement on Tuesday. “I am moving because our communities deserve something more than a performance policy. I run because we must fear a government that provides economic possibilities, dignity and justice for all of us.”
The announcement of Rabba appears a week after Senator State Sharif Street, chairman of the Pennsylvania Democratic Party, began a campaign to nomination in the democratic Primary of the next spring.
A representative of the state Morgan Cephas, representing West Philadelphia, said he could escape. Two less known candidates for the first time began campaigns: Robin Tellens, real estate agent and retired city worker and David Oxman, intensive care who lives in Bella Vista.
The third Congress District place, representing about half of the Philadelphia, is the most democratic in the country and the only black majority district in the state. This will probably cause a lot of interest in ambitious Democrats, selected and necessary in the city.
Rabb represents the State House district, which is 75% black and one of the most rotating areas in the city, including Chestnut Hill, Mount Airy and West Oak Lane. He is a founding member of the Progressive Caucus chamber and remains one of the most progressive members of the narrowly democratic state house. He is the author of the provisions on environmental justice, economic justice, criminal justice and racial justice, including Compensation through tax breaks For black inhabitants.
He described his campaign as “undeniably progressive, based on movement” and said that he would reject the contribution from corporate PAC.
“We can’t afford the same. Our campaign is to disrupt the broken systems that serve the rooted power,” said Rabb.
Former professor at the Temple University, Rabb graduated from the University of Yale and the University of Pennsylvania.
Rabb grew up in Chicago, and earlier worked in Congress as an advisor at the time. Carol Moseley Braun (D., Ill.), The first woman from African Americans. He also worked at the White House conference on petite companies during Clinton’s administration.
Record of defeating the candidate for a party
Rabb stunned with political observers in the city, when in 2017 he defeated the current representative of Tonyelle Cook-Artis, who won special elections to fill in a place released by Cherlle L. Parker, who at that time left her place in Harrisburg for the PHILADELPHIA City Council.
Cook-artis had the application of the then Gova. Tom Wolf, former Governor Ed Rendell and then Mayor Jim Kenney. But Rabb attributes his victory to aggressive knocking on the door and campaigns in districts where the place was not seriously questioned since 1983.
He won again in 2018, and then in 2022 he was in conflict with the party, when his district was drawn into the district of the second democratic representative of Isabella Fitzgerald.
Rabb defeated Fitzgerald, which was supported by the City Democratic Party, and in 2024 he did not face the main claimant.
“He comes from the most rich part of the city, he never lost the race and is an organizer in his heart,” said Kelllan White, a political consultant in Philadelphia, who worked here on presidential and mayor races. “You know he will put a job. There is no doubt that he knocked on all the door.”
But the basic field will probably boost, while other progress candidates can get to the race, especially after the candidate for the mayor of New York Zohran Mamdani.
“If I am one of the extremely leftist progressors in the city, of course I think about it,” said White, who does not work for any of the candidates in the competition.
There is a lower risk of applying for a congress for representatives of the state in Harrisburg who do not have to give up applying for the office, in accordance with the required members of the Philadelphia City Council.
Expecting urban legislation may change the right to “resign from launch”, but it is unclear whether he will receive support that he must go on time to appear in the November vote in front of the basic one.
By announcing his offer, Rabb advertised some progressive reasons that have become a mainstream, such as fully financing public schools, raising the minimum wage and taking predatory public companies.
In Harrisburg, Rabb introduced legislation creating a nationwide database of improper police proceedings, which was then approved and he sponsored bills that would implement regenerative justice for criminals in the judicial system and set aside the death penalty in the state. In 2017, he founded the Climate Club in Pennsylvania, and in last year he introduced regulations against “rinsing green” or duplicitous marketing, which suggests that the product is good for the environment. In 2023, he introduced a bill to enable independent voters to vote in the original elections in Pennsylvania.
Rabb is a descendant of black fighters of freedom and abolitionists. His mother’s grandmother, Madeline Wheeler MurphyHe was a community activist from Baltimore. His great -great -grandfather, John H. Murphy Sr.He was born in slavery and founded Baltimore Afro-American Gazeta in 1892
Staff writer Gillian McGoldrick contributed to this article.
