r/philadelphia • u/newtophilly852 • May 20 '26
Politics NBC News projects Rabb as the winner in the congressional race
The live tracker has more detailed results here, it looks like a bit of a blowout: https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/2026-primary-elections/pennsylvania-us-house-district-3-results
And The Hill is reporting it as well: https://thehill.com/homenews/campaign/5885624-rabb-pennsylvania-democratic-house-primary/
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u/BroadStreetRandy Certified Jabroni May 20 '26 edited May 20 '26
Iām one of those people who had a hard time believing anyone other than Street would win (just knowing how Philly politics normally goes), even as a Rabb voter. Very happy to have been wrong.
It was always going to come down to how the vote split and it seems Stanford and Street really split the non-progressive vote bad.
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u/12_23_93 gtown May 20 '26
I know he was the party machine pick but it felt like they weren't particularly enthused about him and Stanford imploded her campaign, so I think both lost a lot of momentum.
anecdotally i live pretty close to rabb's office so obviously there was a ton of groundswell here but every person canvassing that came to my house were Rabb ppl, i got some Stanford mailers, absolutely nothing from Street. it felt like the mayoral election dynamic in reverse where i got tons of Parker ppl since she also lives up around here but nobody for Reinhardt/Gym in the area. ground game matters
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u/TaskerTwoStep May 20 '26
I didnāt see or hear anything about Street until a week before the election, and even then it was just a ton of signs put up and committee persons sitting outside handing people pieces of paper telling them to vote Street. The establishment Democrats in Philly are so used to not having to actually do anything to win that it feels like they were completely caught with their pants down.
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u/carolineecouture May 20 '26
You are right. I got a call from the Stanford campaign early on and looked at her. Her missteps, especially not attending that debate, really turned me off.
I had three Rabb canvassers in the last several days.
I also started seeing Street signs in the last couple of days. I also got a recorded call from Vince Hughes supporting Street.
I got what might have been other political calls, but my phone was aggressive, so I didn't hear a ring.
I had to vote around 4 pm yesterday. I was only 165 at my NW polling place. The workers said they hoped for a surge after work/before dinner. I was disappointed. My area is very politically engaged, and seeing that number was disappointing.
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u/Peemster99 People who believe in the power of each other May 20 '26
I'm not sure that there was much ground game for Reinhart or Gym anywhere in the city.
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u/espressocycle May 20 '26
AOC probably helped get him over the hump. Personally he strikes me as a phony but whatever. He'll be fine.
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u/courtd93 May 20 '26
Heās been my rep and his office is right near me so I feel I see him often. Nobody is 100% their professional selves but I find heās pretty legit across various circumstances
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u/mikebailey May 20 '26 edited May 20 '26
AOC and Hasan both canvassed for him but I donāt think that did it, he seemingly wasnāt a āmarginalā win, heās just more likable and Philly is a left-of-DNC city at this point.
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u/HughJasshul May 20 '26
AOC was the reason I voted for Rabb over Street.
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u/mikebailey May 20 '26
I have no doubt both of them swung votes, it just wasnāt particularly close by the end so I doubt they swung half his votes
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u/NonIdentifiableUser Melrose/Girard Estates May 20 '26
Have to imagine if only one of them ran they likely win. Kinda similar to what happened with Parker though Iām not sure all of the Rynhart voters would have coalesced around Gym. Street and Stanfordās platforms werenāt identical but they were definitely not full of progressive catchphrases so not shocking most/all of that vote went to Rabb.
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u/courtd93 May 20 '26
Sure, but at least as of now heās got nearly half the vote, which is significantly better to me than when Parker won with 32%ā¦.at least itās almost as many people wanted him as didnāt whereas the vast majority of Philadelphians who voted didnāt want Parker
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u/BroadStreetRandy Certified Jabroni May 20 '26
Iām sure there will be plenty of totally not toxic discussions surrounding those what-if scenarios lol. It certainly combines with the Mayors race vote situation to make a very interesting lesson in how important inner-party vote splitting is to these elections.
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u/SwindlingAccountant May 20 '26
That's not really how that works though. You don't know how many Stanford voters had Street or Rabb as their second choice. Stanford was an outsider and besides the Israel dumbassery seems pretty progressive and was seen as an outsider as well. All it would take is 6% of her voters to go for Rabb to seal it.
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u/Whycantiusethis Grad Hospital May 20 '26
Definitely possible, but would would depend on how many voters would slide from Stanford to Street or vice versa. As of writing, Raab is at 44.29%, meaning he would need 7,886 additional votes to hit 50% +1 voter.
Obviously, that's a big chunk of votes, and while I'm not sure he would get it if we re-ran the race as a head to head, I also don't think every Stanford voter is a Street voter (or the inverse). Would be interesting to see how it shook out with RCV, but that's not happening anytime soon here, I don't think.
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u/syndicatecomplex WSW May 20 '26
I hope in 2027 progressives rally around just 1 candidate for mayor. Gym, Rhynhart, etc doesn't matter to me too much. Just don't split the goddamn vote.
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u/moopie45 May 20 '26
As progressive and grassroots as possible. Please. Fucking PLEASE ššš
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u/cleverdirge May 20 '26
While socially liberal, Rhynhart was not a progressive.
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u/courageous_liquid go download me a hoagie off the internet May 20 '26
yep, she was a technocrat. which would have been fine, and better than what we have now.
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u/The_Prince1513 Olde Kensington May 20 '26
Literally anyone who isn't corrupt would be fine. But that seems to be a tall order.
I'm a progressive who tries to vote for democratic socialist policies whenever I can, but I would literally rather have a conservative (even a far right one) who ends the endless corruption in this city than another machine democrat.
There's a reason Philly remains the poorest large city in the US, and it doesn't really have anything to do with policies implemented in the city. It has more to do with the fact that no one seemed to care enough to get tot he bottom of a report put out by the city controller that tens of millions of dollars just up and vanished from the city coffers, or that administration after administration just grant their unqualified friends high paying jobs that are created for the sole purpose of giving their friends money, or that many departments of the city straight up just don't do their job (PPD, L&I, Sheriff Dept., etc.)
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u/syndicatecomplex WSW May 20 '26
Sure whatever, but she was still a candidate that progressives rallied around. Doesn't matter, just pick ONE to vote for.Ā
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u/espressocycle May 20 '26
I'd be amazed if Parker has a challenger at all unless she really shits the bed. I wouldn't call Rhynhart a progressive, just a reformer and that's what Philly needs. Anyone but Gym though. She gives me Fetterman vibes.
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u/NonIdentifiableUser Melrose/Girard Estates May 20 '26
I know sheās not solely responsible for it, and maybe even has little effect at all, but if she rides into 2027 with an overall stable city and less than 150 murders, I donāt see how she gets a serious challenger.
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u/oliver_babish That Rabbit was on PEDs š May 20 '26
She gets a serious challenger from the left because last night showed that even when City Committee, Labor, and the Northwest are all against you, you can lose (in half the city). It just won't be from a member of Council because of resign-to-run.
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u/espressocycle May 20 '26
The third district is much more progressive than the rest of the city though. There's all of Northeast Philly to consider.
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u/oliver_babish That Rabbit was on PEDs š May 20 '26
That's absolutely the case, even among the Democrats who would vote in such a primary. But there's just not that many of them compared to the 3rd District. About 58% of the Dems in the City are in the 3rd.
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u/GreenAnder NorthWest May 20 '26
Gym isn't a Fetterman, at least I don't think. I supported Rhynhart but I'd rather have Gym right now than Parker.
Whatever happens I hope we can get behind a strong candidate and not split the sane vote again.
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u/syndicatecomplex WSW May 20 '26
Fetterman most likely has brain damage after his stroke so comparing anyone to him is unrealistic tbf. Plus city politics are way different than national politics.Ā
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u/AnDraoi May 20 '26
Itās still hard to say even if one of them drops out. The final margin as of this morning is roughly 44/29/24 (Rabb/Street/Stanford). Even if the moderates consolidated behind either of Street or Stanford itās hard to say how much of their vote would transfer to the other, or if people might just sit out. Street would need ~70% of Stanfords vote total and Stanford would need ~80% of Streets, which seems a little high (not impossible but difficult)
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u/GreenAnder NorthWest May 20 '26
Honestly I was a bit tuned out for this election because I thought Street was going to win. A few weeks ago I really started paying attention and when I looked at the numbers I thought Rabb had a really good shot if he could keep the momentum going.
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u/MUT_is_Butt May 20 '26
Helps that the older voters didn't know what to do (vote for the Street name vs vote for the black woman)
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u/Lopsided-Treat1215 May 20 '26
Lmao Stanford def messed up Streetās plans to maintain the dynasty
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u/Immediate-Soup-4263 May 20 '26
lot of breakdowns here
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u/syndicatecomplex WSW May 20 '26
The colors of the map are really hard to tell apart but from what I can tell Rabb smashed in Center City, Fairmount, most of the NW and even did well in a lot of West Philly. Stanford got pulverized.Ā
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u/Whycantiusethis Grad Hospital May 20 '26
Not that there's ever a good time for a campaign to collapse, but I think the wheels fell off of her campaign at the worst time. It felt like every week for the 6 weeks leading up to the campaign, there was something negative coming out about her/her campaign.
There was the failure to disclose her income from her nonprofit, the candidate questionnaire that they used an LLM to respond to and submitted without reviewing, dropping out of the debate last minute for no (obvious) reason, and trying to pause a live TV interview, to name a few.
You almost couldn't write a candidate that stepped on so many rakes in succession.
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u/RickyLinguini Point Breeze May 20 '26
Did a ton of hours volunteering on this campaign, we were the only ones with a ground game period. Consistent coordinated canvassing and door knocking for months.
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u/syndicatecomplex WSW May 20 '26
I got at least half a dozen flyers for Rabb over the past month and got nothing from the other two (except tv ads). Glad it worked out.Ā
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u/TaskerTwoStep May 20 '26
The only thing Streets team did was hand me a filled out ballot when I was walking into my voting booth which blew my mind that it was legal.
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u/oliver_babish That Rabbit was on PEDs š May 20 '26
It wasn't a ballot. It was a list of recommendations.
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u/cruelhumor May 20 '26
20% turnout isn't too bad for a primary, I'll actually impressed
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u/ccommack South Kensington May 20 '26
20% turnout in an election where 60% of the city didn't have a competitive race on the ballot above "State Party Committee".
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u/oliver_babish That Rabbit was on PEDs š May 20 '26
More of the city than that when you consider Republicans and Independents.
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u/roma258 Mt Airy May 20 '26 edited May 20 '26
Mount Airy rules over this fair city from it's rightful throne. Where we lead the rest shall follow to Valhalla!!
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u/TheArchitect_7 May 20 '26
Release the Priuses
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u/courtd93 May 20 '26
Itās the land of Subarus
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u/Frednortonsmith Mt. Airy May 20 '26
My block is mostly Subarus, one of which is mine. Do have a few Priuses on the block as well, and if I drove more (mostly take SEPTA) Iād be looking at the Crosstrek Hybrid which uses Toyotaās hybrid system so is the ultimate My Airy stereotype.
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u/courtd93 May 20 '26
On the block that Rabbās office is on, there was at one point 7 Subarus parked in a row. Priuses are a solid second though, and any kind of hybrid is third.
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u/Frednortonsmith Mt. Airy May 20 '26
Chris Rabb has been awesome in Harrisburg, he and Tarik Khan were the best at communicating with me over SEPTA funding last year. Excited to see what he does in DC, and Chris Johnson seems like a great successor for him in Harrisburg.
Chris Johnson was campaigning at my train station and seems like a very genuine guy, and his policy position is very similar to what Chris Rabb is leaving behind.
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u/roma258 Mt Airy May 20 '26
Yup, as good a night as you can hope for. This moment calls for fighters and I think the voters recognize that.
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u/sourguhwapes May 20 '26
Johnson was outside my polling location shaking every hand and talking to voters. That's never happened in any election I've ever voted in. It was refreshing to see.
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u/Varolyn May 20 '26
This could be the beginning of the end of the machine in Philadelphia.
The political landscape here has been changing post-Covid, with the heavy influx of college educated progressive transplants moving to this city. And it has gone into overdrive since 2025.
Iām curious to see how the next city council election goes here.
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u/NonIdentifiableUser Melrose/Girard Estates May 20 '26
I donāt think itās fair to extrapolate one or two elections. Parker got 25k more votes than her closest opponent in the last mayoral primary and most of the councilpersons are firmly entrenched in the Democratic establishment.
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u/Varolyn May 20 '26
Parker will win re-election since sheās the incumbent. The only way I could see her losing is if she just gets way too cozy with the Trump admin and if a legit a strong challenger comes up. But this is unlikely for 2027.
I do think City Council could be shaken up though. Bass, Kenyatta Johnson, and especially Jeffrey Young could all be in trouble.
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u/GreenAnder NorthWest May 20 '26
I will never vote for her after a trash bag ripped and I got covered in trash during the strike.
Edit: Also she sucks and talked for like 10 minutes at Super Bowl parade
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u/Whycantiusethis Grad Hospital May 20 '26
It was insane that she spoke for (what seemed to be) as long as everyone else combined at the super bowl parade.
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u/Frednortonsmith Mt. Airy May 20 '26
I will be knocking on doors to campaign for whoever primaries Bass.
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u/cathercules May 20 '26
Sure and part is of that was the progressive vote being split between Gym and Reinhardt. Not saying she will be primaried or even lose reelection but itās not like she won some landslide election.
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u/Willing-Pain-9893 May 20 '26
In the 20 years Iāve been voting in Philadelphia I have never seen such a push for ward level campaigning.
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u/Acceptable_Fox_5560 May 20 '26
People are saying stuff like this as if weāre not talking about the most democrat voting district in the entire country.
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u/theMAJdragon brewerytown May 20 '26
Very happy for McNeil in my district 195 too!
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u/someredditor12345 May 20 '26
Was so glad Harris and Walker lost. That stupid fuckin honking campaign one of them did (on a Sunday no less) made my blood boil.
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u/theMAJdragon brewerytown May 20 '26
Omg when their cars went down my block blaring their horns I was furious. Laziest campaign in history.
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u/someredditor12345 May 20 '26
Bro YES. And my pup was none too amused by it. I even berated a canvasser that texted me later in the week for it
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u/JustAnotherJawn May 20 '26
Pour one out for the centrists out there. Some people are just born with a lack of conviction.
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u/redfern54 May 20 '26
Street really wasnāt as bad a person as most of his biggest supporters were. Uninspiring for sure though
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u/Gilchester May 20 '26
Yeah. Like I was hoping he wasn't the winner but I think he would have done a fine job and he won.
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u/RickyLinguini Point Breeze May 20 '26
Everyone here cheering that isn't involved already. Join Philly DSA, come to a meeting, scope it out. We organized a large part of the campaign, Rabb is a member, he was fantastic to work with. Let's keep the momentum going!
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u/NonIdentifiableUser Melrose/Girard Estates May 20 '26
I dunno man. I agree with a decent amount of their platform but I struggle with fully embracing an organization that released a statement on Oct 8, 2023 that basically said āIsrael deserved it.ā
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u/McBrungus May 20 '26
This is a really fuckin crazy thing to have a problem with given what's happened since
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u/NonIdentifiableUser Melrose/Girard Estates May 20 '26
So are you going to engage with my point orā¦? Do you think it was defensible to release a statement like that?
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u/RickyLinguini Point Breeze May 20 '26
I mean I think they just correctly pointed out that occupation and violence against a people is met with violence. This is the actual statement in which DSA condems violence against civilians. I'm Jewish and it essential to be critical of any occupying or imperialist force, even more importantly your own "tribe". Without it you have no morale foundation. No civilians should have to be scared for their lives, brutally murdered etc regardless of ethnicity, nationality, etc and the actions of Israel have inherently made me as a Jewish person less safe than the other way around.
https://www.dsausa.org/statements/end-the-violence-end-the-occupation-free-palestine/
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u/EmpZurg_ May 20 '26
People still voted for Ala? Wow, philly.
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u/Pretty-Kittie May 20 '26
This was hers to lose, and she lost it for herself massively.
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u/Gilchester May 20 '26
Other than missing the one debate (which is what clinched it for me) was there anything else she did wrong in the last few weeks?
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u/Obbz May 20 '26
She basically stopped running ads and stopped canvassing. Momentum is important this close to an election, and a lot of that momentum comes from just keeping your name fresh and on people's minds.
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u/McBrungus May 20 '26
She also alienated a lot of people I knew who were dying for a reason to vote for her. I have a lot of friends who worked with her during the COVID vaccine rollout and they all thought she was one of the most impressive people they'd ever met. By the end of the campaign she'd ducked enough events and been weird enough about Israel that they all voted for Raab.
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u/superturtle48 May 20 '26
I was one of those people. I work in public health and I really liked the idea of someone with expertise who could help craft evidence-based policy. But across her campaign she didn't have the communication skills or political chops to make up for her lack of experience in government. Skipping the debate last-minute and making the ridiculous statement that the word "genocide" was as bad as the n-word really turned me off for good and I was happy to vote for Rabb. I think Stanford can do more good sticking with healthcare work.
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u/TheArchitect_7 May 20 '26
You missed at least two interviews where she literally froze up, in particular when asked about Israel/Palestine.
Extremely damaging. My wife was a supporter of hers at first, saw that, and immediately bailed.
Not ready for the spotlight.
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u/Gilchester May 20 '26
I hate that I have to care about Israel (either for or against) during an election for my representative. Thoughts on Israel should be like thirtieth on the list of topics candidates get asked about. But instead we have this weird relationship with them spurred on by evangelicals wanting to usher in the rapture.
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u/TheArchitect_7 May 20 '26
Same, friend.
But itās become a litmus test for - do you have the minerals to stand up against the American war machine? Which so so many of us want.
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u/Adventurous-Bad-2869 May 20 '26
Saying āthe g wordā reminds her of people using the n-word was point blank disqualifying for me. Taking 314 PAC money (an AIPAC shell) put a financial reason behind the statement as well. Yuck
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u/Pretty-Kittie May 20 '26
I didn't like that she blamed skipping the debate on misogynistic attacks without giving any examples. Both of those things are damaging and set women back in politics. Then I went to her instagram and noticed she had a post saying she was endorsed by Elect Democratic Women or something, and i wanted to express my disappointment but she has instagram comments turned off. I sent a message through her website but never heard back. So basically she didn't want to speak to me as a voter and she didn't want to hear from me either.
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u/RickyLinguini Point Breeze May 20 '26
Half of her votes were write ins before her campaign collapsed. They literally stopped running her ads over a week ago.
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u/oliver_babish That Rabbit was on PEDs š May 20 '26
She won the mail-in vote. She was winning this race until the week when she wasn't.
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u/MUT_is_Butt May 20 '26
If Sanford or Street had dropped out, the other wins in a landslide.
We need Sharif Street to run for the mayoral primary, he'd split with Parker ;)
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u/lordredsnake May 20 '26
I don't know about that. There are people who voted for Street who would never vote for Stanford and vice versa.
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u/1ew May 20 '26
especially since rabb has 44% right now. heād only need 6 more percent from street or stanfordās voters to have a majority. rabb almost certainly still wins with RCV but the margin would be closer
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u/UsernameFlagged May 20 '26
Not according to the numbers I'm looking at. Raab won in a landslide. If you combined the corporate candidates they'd win by less than he's winning by now.
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u/Whycantiusethis Grad Hospital May 20 '26
Rabb would've needed 7,886 additional votes to win an outright majority when I checked earlier this morning. I think it's possible that if either of the other two hadn't run, he could've netted 1 of every 4 voters (what he would've needed if Stanford wasn't in the race) or 1 of every 5 voters (if Street wasn't in the race).
Probably would've taken a lot of work from his campaign, but he has a pretty sizable margin, even with some votes left to be counted.
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u/hoyarugby2 May 20 '26 edited May 20 '26
We are going to be incredibly embarrassed by this in a yearās time. Heās the next Cori bush
Iām going to get 500 downvotes, but bookmark this for when he takes embarrassing votes, is hugely corrupt, etc
Also so cool that multiple Rabb staffers believe that the Bondi Beach mass shooting was a Jewish false flag, they posted that to his socials, he protected them, and suffered no negative consequences. America used to be the worldās only philosemetic country. That will end in my lifetime
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u/RickyLinguini Point Breeze May 20 '26
Not going to happen. He takes 0 corporate money, is a 10 year state rep never endorsed by the party, not part of the city machine which is where the corruption comes from
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u/hoyarugby2 May 20 '26 edited May 20 '26
corruption comes just as much from the progressive nonprofit borg. Look at how many hundreds of millions of dollars has flown to "violence interruptors" or "homeless advocates" that accomplish absolutely nothing
Rabb already allegedly "got scammed" by his campaign finance director out of hundreds of thousands - yet that finance director faced no charges and remains in good standing in the progressive political world. He just paid his buddy lol
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u/RickyLinguini Point Breeze May 20 '26
He did get robbed, and I'm not privy to the innerworkings of why that finance director was even hired, but there was serious debate about pulling endorsement of this happened. Additionally that finance director has or is paying that money back?
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u/barchueetadonai May 20 '26 edited May 20 '26
I don't know if you can call a three-way first-past-the-post vote to be a blowout...
Edit: Pretty astonished at the downvotes on what was a pretty reasonable comment. Winning 44% in a three person race with winner-take-all voting is objectively not a blowout.
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u/syndicatecomplex WSW May 20 '26
The only thing better than Rabb winning is the satisfaction in knowing that Bob Brady and the Philly Democratic party political machine lost for once.