Reclaim Philadelphia Steering Committee Recommendations for the 2023 Primary (2nd Round)
Reclaim Philadelphia members will be voting on endorsements in several council races beginning at our upcoming Citywide Meeting Saturday February 4 from 3-4:30pm at First Unitarian Church, 21st and Chestnut Street. RSVP Here!
Reclaim Philadelphia’s endorsements are decided by members. All members can and should participate in the endorsement process! Candidates who receive the votes of at least 60% of the participating members (members who submit a ballot) are endorsed. Not a member? You can become one now to weigh in on endorsements and other future important decisions about the direction of Reclaim Philadelphia and our movement. If you cannot afford to pay monthly dues at this time, you can become a member by emailing info@reclaimphiladlephia.org.
Membership voting continues from Saturday February 4, to Sunday February 12, 2023. Below are Reclaim Philadelphia’s Steering Committee’s recommendations to membership for endorsement votes. You can review the questionnaires submitted by candidates.
This is our 2nd round of endorsements. You can read more about our first round endorsements here.
For the City Council At-Large Democratic Primary in May, Steering Committee recommends members vote to endorse four additional candidates to join our at-large slate alongside Amanda McIllmurray, who members overwhelmingly voted to endorse in December. The four candidates that Steering Committee recommends now (listed alphabetically by first name) are Erika Almirón, Isaiah Thomas, Katherine Gilmore Richardson, and Rue Landau.
We believe that, if elected, this slate of candidates would significantly change the political trajectory of Philadelphia City Council. It represents the will of our members, as Amanda, Erika, Isaiah, Katherine, and Rue were the top five picks in our member survey late last year, and are the candidates we have heard from members about the most in all our member engagement since then. Although we are not in full alignment with each of them on every matter, the slate includes champions on all our important issues, reflects the diversity of our city, and taken as a whole represents the possibility of significant progress on Council.
Erika Almirón was endorsed enthusiastically by Reclaim Philadelphia’s membership in 2019, and we believe she merits the members’ endorsement again. A stalwart of the reproductive justice and immigrant rights’ movements, most recently as executive director of the South Philly Latinx community organizing group Juntos, Almirón has worked tirelessly on behalf of working-class people for over 20 years. In 2018, she worked in coalition to win the fight to end our city’s data-sharing agreement with ICE. Her platform this year speaks powerfully to the intersection of climate justice and economic justice, mass incarceration, immigrant rights and workers’ rights. If elected, she would be Philadelphia’s first Latina At-Large member: a distinction that is long overdue.
Councilmember Isaiah Thomas was strongly supported by Reclaim Philadelphia in 2019, and in his first term he has led on supporting organized labor and fighting for criminal justice reform with a focus on Black and Brown youth. Working with hospitality worker union UNITE HERE, he took on the hotel industry to ensure that housekeepers won their jobs back after being laid-off during the pandemic. His landmark Driving Equality legislation, which ensures that Philadelphia residents are not stopped by police for routine traffic matters, has won nationwide acclaim as a model for anti-carceral movements. A consistent voice for working-class Philadelphians, especially young people of color, Councilmember Thomas more than merits Reclaim’s endorsement and re-election to City Council.
Councilmember Katherine Gilmore Richardson was the youngest African American woman ever elected to Philadelphia City Council in 2019. She hit the ground running, passing legislation in her first year requiring transparency in the City’s contract negotiations with the Fraternal Order of Police. A staunch ally of organized labor, she has worked tirelessly to create more pathways for Black and Brown residents into union jobs. In addition, she was the single largest supporter at the city level of the Reclaim-supported Whole-Home Repairs program for PA. She is a strong supporter of traditional neighborhood public schools. For these reasons we believe Councilmember Gilmore Richardson deserves the endorsement of Reclaim Philadelphia’s membership and a second term on City Council.
Rue Landau has a distinguished history as a tenants’ rights attorney and activist for LGBTQ+ rights. She cut her teeth as an organizer with ACT UP, Kensington Welfare Rights Union, and Women’s Health Action and Mobilization. As an attorney at Community Legal Services, she helped thousands of low-income renters avoid eviction. As the director of the Philadelphia Commission on Human Relations during the Trump Administration, she worked in every corner of the city to mediate neighborhood disputes and uplift movements against racism when they were under enormous stress. If elected, she would become the first out lesbian member of City Council, where she would be what she has been for many years: a transformative and enduring leader in the movement for social justice.
For the City Council Democratic Primary in Council District 3 the Steering Committee recommends Councilmember Jamie Gauthier. During the uprisings of 2020, Gauthier stood on the front lines with members of our community against police brutality. She has passed legislation to ensure equity in development, including a pilot initiative that requires developers to make 20 percent of their apartments affordable in order to exceed zoning requirements. Her Just Services campaign, which pointed to the deep inequity in basic city services between neighborhoods, recognizes that equitable investment, rather than increases in policing or incarceration, are the most effective responses to quality-of-life issues and community violence. Responsive, hard-working, and visionary, Gauthier is a model for District Councilmembers everywhere.
For the City Council Democratic Primary in Council District 8 the Steering Committee recommends members vote to endorse Seth Anderson-Oberman. His decades of organizing with the American Federation of Teachers and SEIU lay a solid foundation for the sorts of coalition-building we need in City Council. In response to our question about addressing community safety, he proposes to triple funding for public housing to reduce homelessness and help provide housing stability. This proposed approach to addressing our community violence and housing crises together shows understanding that we need deep investment instead of over policing to heal and reverse the trauma of disinvestment. We enthusiastically recommend him for endorsement.
For the City Council Democratic Primary in Council Districts 2, 7, and 9, where we also received timely questionnaires from candidates, the Steering Committee needs more time to understand the dynamics of the races and assess our organizing capacity to engage in them powerfully. We may recommend endorsement votes in some of these districts in a few weeks when we endorse judicial candidates.
For City Council At-Large general election in November, the Steering Committee recommends members vote to endorse Kendra Brooks and Nic O’Rourke for the two At-Large seats reserved for non-majority party members.
Councilmember Kendra Brooks made history in 2019 when she ran as a Working Families Party candidate and successfully took one of Philadelphia’s two “minority party” seats away from the Republican Party. Moving quickly at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, Brooks was a lead drafter of the Emergency Housing Protection Act, which helped keep thousands of Philadelphians in their homes. She has protected community gardens, introduced legislation to tax the rich, and is poised to hold hearings on rent control: a program that represents a coherent and powerful effort to put power in the hands of working-class Philadelphians. Throughout her work, she has drawn on, and worked carefully with, social movements. We are excited for her next term.
Nicolas O’Rourke is one of the most dynamic organizers in the city. The child of a union household, he would bring into office his diverse experiences leading a congregation in northeast Philadelphia and an organizing director with the Working Families Party. During the 2020 election, he led an extraordinary effort to support counting every vote, despite incredible pressure from the Trump Administration. His campaign highlights investments in affordable housing, community anti-violence initiatives, and improving working conditions for ordinary Philadelphians. His candidacy represents a critical chance to unseat the last At-Large Republican on Philadelphia’s City Council. We believe deeply in his vision for working closely with social movements and are thrilled to recommend him once again for endorsement.
Reclaim Philadelphia’s Steering Committee is a leadership team directly elected by Reclaim Philadelphia members to two-year terms. The current Steering Committee was elected by members in the Summer of 2022 and is listed at the bottom of this page. If you would like to discuss our recommendations and our reasoning, please reach out to any Steering Committee member.