How Philly's Black Moderate Mayoral Candidate Beat a Bernie Sanders/AOC-Backed Progressive [View all]
If you were anywhere but Philly during Tuesday night’s primary election, you were probably shocked that Gym wasn’t elected as the City of Brotherly Love’s 100th mayor.
National headlines would have had you thinking that Gym, an activist-turned-politician, was going to complete a current wave of progressive mayoral victories across the country. For all of the momentum she had gotten leading up to Primary Day (a rally of over 1,200 people that included appearances by Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Sen. Bernie Sanders, endorsements from Hollywood actors), Gym came in third place.
The winner? The veteran Democratic establishment darling Cherelle Parker, a moderate who is now the first woman, and fourth Black candidate, to ever clinch the Philadelphia Democratic mayoral nomination. Given the electoral ratio of 7-to-1 local Democrats in comparison to Republicans, she’s highly expected to win in the November general election.
Parker, a longtime political powerhouse who had previously served as a Pennsylvania state representative and city councilmember, ran on a campaign that was tough on crime (such as calls to increase police funding and enforce “constitutional” stop-and-frisk) and took stanch stances against safe-injection sites and other progressive policies.
Cherelle Parker isn’t the exact carbon-copy of New York City Mayor Eric Adams, but her victory mirrors that of his: A charismatic, Black centrist who ran on a practical platform that addressed crime and kitchen table issues—while their more progressive challengers split the vote (runner-up candidate Rebecca Rhynhart was seen as a pragmatic progressive alternative compared to the more radical Gym). Unlike the Big Apple, Philadelphia is one of the poorest major cities in America with a skyrocketing gun violence crisis that impacts its majority Black and brown demographic.
https://www.thedailybeast.com/how-philadelphias-black-moderate-beat-a-bernie-sandersaoc-backed-progressive?ref=wrap
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