Reclaim Philadelphia’s Steering Committee is excited to recommend that our members endorse Helen Gym for Mayor and Amanda McIllmurray for City Council At-Large.

Philadelphia’s upcoming primary season offers us a chance to elect leaders in our movement to municipal office. Two candidates who resoundingly represent the values of Reclaim members and our ally organizations have recently announced their campaigns. Reclaim Philadelphia’s Steering Committee is excited to recommend that our members endorse Helen Gym for Mayor and Amanda McIllmurray for City Council At-Large. 

Reclaim’s Steering Committee recommends this first round of municipal endorsements due to the overwhelming support we’ve heard from members including through our recent member survey.  We plan to interview a second round of candidates for potential endorsement in Spring of 2023.     

Reclaim Philadelphia’s Steering Committee enthusiastically recommends endorsing Helen Gym for Mayor. You can watch her video here

Our city has an incredible opportunity to elect an amazing organizer, a trusted partner of movements for justice, a courageous and visionary trailblazer, and an experienced legislator as our next mayor. Helen Gym will be all of these and Philadelphia’s first Asian American and woman mayor. Helen began organizing as a mom fighting for her kids, a teacher fighting for public schools, and a community member fighting against exploitative development plans. Her insurgent 2015 Council At-Large campaign led the way for using electoral politics to build power for ordinary Philadelphians and grassroots movements. Reclaim members overwhelmingly endorsed her for re-election in 2019 (her questionnaire is available here); she went on to come in first—in a landslide, in every neighborhood in Philadelphia.

On Council, Helen has an incomparable track record of accomplishment. Her office has been a major driver in: ending the 17-year state takeover of Philadelphia’s schools and fighting to restore nurses, counselors, arts, music, and clean water to every public school; building the most successful eviction prevention program in the nation and winning guaranteed legal defense for renters; expanding funding for mental health crisis response teams and intervention programs for high-risk youth; passing Philadelphia’s cutting-edge Fair Workweek law guaranteeing workers stable schedules; fighting youth homelessness and courageously shining a light on abuses in Philadelphia’s residential youth homes when few others cared, and maintaining Philadelphia as a welcoming city for immigrants. 

We know Helen from her track record on Council and as an organizer. She prioritizes our public schools and public institutions, from trash collection to libraries and rec centers. She understands that funding public programs requires that corporations and the rich pay their fair share. She relentlessly supports unions and worker rights, as she has shown not only legislatively but also by direct intervention in labor struggles at the Art Museum, Starbucks, and the Philadelphia Defenders, to name but a few. She believes and fights for housing is a human right. She has proven time and again the city’s most reliable political advocate for workers, youth, immigrants, LGBTQ and trans people, and poor and exploited residents. She knows that her—and our—vision of prosperity and opportunity for all Philadelphians is only possible when the most marginal and vulnerable are free.

Let’s be blunt: that a true progressive, a trusted partner of grassroots movements and labor, is the most popular politician in Philadelphia and in an incredibly strong position to be our next mayor is an amazing and all-too-rare opportunity. The Steering Committee believes it is not one to be wasted.

Reclaim Philadelphia’s Steering Committee enthusiastically recommends endorsing Amanda McIllmurray for City Council At-Large. You can watch her video here

Since our founding as an organization in 2016, Amanda McIllmurray has been a key force behind Reclaim Philadelphia’s values and strategy. It would be difficult to overstate just how important Amanda has been to the leaders and members of this organization and to Philadelphians across the city.

We know there is no such thing as a “natural born leader” - instead, we believe that with training, investment, and practice, anyone can lead. For seven years now Amanda has been leading, learning, and growing—as an organizer, a winning campaign director, and as Reclaim’s Political Director.  Amanda has trained and mentored leaders all across the city of Philadelphia because she knows that the big change we need requires all of us working together.  Without Amanda’s organizing, leadership, and vision, we would not have nearly so many people elected to office from our movement—from State Representative Elizabeth Fiedler to State Senator Nikil Saval. With her decision to run for City Council At-Large, we know that she will be taking that work to an even higher level—and all of us will reap the benefits. 

Born and raised in Philadelphia and the daughter of union workers, Amanda learned from an early age that when workers stand together they win better lives for their families. But she’s also experienced the problems in our city—the divestment from public schools, gentrification, and lack of renter protections that led to her family being forced out of their home in Fishtown. Amanda knows what it is like to try to live when one job isn’t enough and understands that poverty, neglect, and loss of community are the root causes of violence. We have been sold the lie that locking up our neighbors will make us safer, but as Amanda says “If prisons made us safer, Philly would be the safest city in the country.” Amanda’s plan will create true community safety by investing in our communities. You can read her questionnaire here

She was arrested while demanding healthcare for workers at the airport with UniteHere. She stood up against police violence during the George Floyd uprisings, and against white supremacists at Marconi Plaza.  Amanda has and will continue to organize white people to see that they have more in common with their Black and brown neighbors than they do with their bosses.

We need to build power on both the inside and outside, and Amanda will continue this work of inside/outside organizing on City Council. Amanda knows that real progressive politics means never leaving anyone behind, and working to build trust—and coalition—with anyone. We can’t let greedy developers, education privatizers, union busters and the wealthy few pit us against each other based on what we look like, where we come from, or how much money we make. It’s time to make Philly a place for everyone, with no exceptions. 

We know firsthand the benefits of Amanda McIllmurray’s organizing, and we are thrilled for her to continue this work across Philadelphia as a member of City Council. It’s for this reason that we wholeheartedly recommend Amanda McIllmurray for endorsement for City Council at-Large. 

Reclaim Philadelphia’s Endorsements Are Decided by Members

Dues-paying members of Reclaim Philadelphia will have until Weds Dec 14 to vote on this first round of municipal endorsements. You can find the ballot here to vote. Join us as a member by signing up here.

In advance of candidate endorsements, Reclaim’s Steering Committee leads a process of gathering information and viewpoints from candidates, Reclaim staff members and other advocates, and aligned organizations. Based on this research while considering both the values of candidates and our confidence in their ability to drive change once in office, the Steering Committee makes recommendations to membership. 

*Note to members: Steering Committee member Tess Kerins is Amanda McIllmurray's campaign manager and recused themself from voting on this recommendation.