Primary 23 Election Analysis - We'll keep fighting for the city we deserve!
To all members, leaders and volunteers who joined us in the fight for transformative, equitable government during this election: THANK YOU!
Your work is the foundation that’s setting the stage for bigger and bolder victories in future elections. And the best way for you to ensure we win big next time is to join us as a member or make a contribution today.
Since Reclaim started organizing in 2016, we’ve been able to achieve some huge and powerful wins electing leaders from the movement to City Hall and Harrisburg. Heading into this year's Municipal Primary, we set an ambitious goal of building a progressive governing bloc in Philly. We took a huge risk getting involved in more City Council races than before and setting our sights on the Mayor’s race, the most powerful role in the city. Reclaim leaders believe in taking risks because even when we come up short we grow stronger as more people encounter & join our joyous rebellion. Taking risks is how we grow.
We are proud of being part of the people-powered coalition in support of Helen Gym for Mayor. We want to personally thank Helen for running a campaign that put people first and dared to dream big and gave us hope when so many candidates were thinking small or offering ideas that we know don’t work and create more harm. Together we knocked close to 35,000 doors across the city for Helen and our slate. We played a big role in the wards that went decisively for Helen and our slate for City Council and judges. We want to give a huge thank you to our Field Organizers Liz and Sonja as well as the hundreds of volunteers, new and old, who stepped up to fight for the city we deserve. Leaders in our neighborhood groups are feeling proud of what they accomplished and grateful for the spaces to build leadership and engage their neighbors.
Ultimately we came up short. But we did have many wins and things to give us hope. We can celebrate that three of our endorsed candidates for City Council-At Large were the top vote getters in the race. We re-elected Isaiah Thomas and Katherine Gilmore Richardson who came in first and second and in third place we elected Rue Landau, a housing justice champion to become the first out LGBTQ Councilmember in our city’s history. We look forward to engaging with them in cogovernance around their and the movement's shared self interests in the next term.
We should be proud of the people-powered campaigns Amanda McIllmurray and Erika Almirón ran in the face of huge money from big businesses, real estate developers, and right wing billionaire Jeffrery Yass who all were invested in defeating progressives. Although they won't serve in Council this time, we know they will continue to be leaders in our movements for years to come.
In the district races we re-elected Jamie Gauthier and showed that the candidates running from the right in the 3rd against her don’t have the base to even get on the ballot. Although they didn’t make it, we honor the strength and courage of Andrés Celin and Seth Anderson-Oberman for taking on powerful figures also backed by the same dirty Philly for Growth and Jeffrey Yass money we saw in At-Large races. As of the writing of this analysis, Seth is only a little over 300 votes behind Bass. This was the first primary challenge the district had in years, and Seth running proudly as a progressive focused on housing justice has shown how unpopular and weak Bass is as a candidate. It’s not a question of if the 8th will have a progressive in that district, but when.
In the judicial races we are proud to say that 7 out of our 10 endorsed candidates for Common Pleas won! Congratulations to Natasha Taylor-Smith, Tamika Washington, Samantha Williams, Kay Yu, and John Padova. We want to uplift Caroline Turner and Jessica Brown for winning without the backing of the Democratic establishment. They have shown that you don’t have to kiss the ring to win a judicial race if you run on values. Our other endorsed candidates Wade Albert, Will Braveman, and Kenneth Joel unfortunately didn’t make the top 10 this cycle. But Caroline didn’t win her first run either, so we are eager to see what the future holds for them.
We also want to take a moment to shout out the important victories we saw in other parts of the state. Heather Boyd won her special election in Delco and protected our majority in the State House. In Pittsburg, the progressive movement crushed it, electing underdog Sara Innamorato to Allegheny County Executive running unabashedly on a progressive platform as well as electing Matt Dugan, a progressive District Attorney candidate, to unseat long term conservative candidate Stephen Zappala. They also elected a progressive city treasurer and re-elected a progressive on city council.
Congratulations to Cherelle Parker for winning and becoming the first Black woman to lead Philadelphia. We hope she uses this role to fight for housing justice for all, stronger and healthier public schools, and makes sure that no one in Philadelphia is left behind. Win or lose, after the elections it's up to us to hold leaders accountable. Our movement isn’t going anywhere.
We have our work cut out for us this next term. From stopping an arena from being built in Chinatown, showing up for harm reduction with a City Hall that doesn’t value the dignity or human lives of drug users, fighting back against youth curfews, stopping attempts to bring back the racist practice of Stop and Frisk and fighting for a vision of public safety that addresses the root causes of crime – which are poverty and disinvestments in Black and Brown communities.
No matter who’s in power in City Hall the next four years, we know it’s up to us to set the agenda for our city. We’ve learned a lot this primary and we still have some electoral fights coming up this fall from putting Democratic judges on statewide courts to electing candidates Kendra Brooks and Nicolas O’Rourke to the minority seats on City Council to kick Republicans out and put Working Families in. Sign up now to get involved in our General Election Electoral Work!
This election was a structure test for what our movement is able to achieve. And while we have more work to do, it's clear that we continue to have the power to support our progressive movement leaders in office and we have new insights into where the next fights will take us. In the meantime, we all need to stay active and connect with each other so we can show up more powerfully next time. If you haven’t already, sign up for one of the many neighborhood groups we have throughout the city to meet your neighbors with shared values.
We are also proud to announce the launch of our new Northwest Neighborhood Group! Together this new collective of leaders knocked 1,000 doors to support Helen, our At-Large Slate, and Seth Anderson-Oberman in the 8th District. If you live in Germantown or Mount Airy, sign up now to get involved and grow this base of leaders.
Lastly, we ask that you become a dues paying member to invest in our year round organizing and keep us independent and powerful. You can become a member at any amount today.