Chris Rabb, an unflinching progressive state representative, declared his campaign for Pennsylvania’s third congressional district was “indomitable” after winning the Democratic primary in a race that became a proxy battle over the direction of the Democratic party.
In a significant victory for the party’s left wing, Rabb took roughly 45% of the vote in Tuesday’s contest, comfortably ahead of the early frontrunner, state senator Sharif Street, who fell to under 30%, and surgeon Ala Stanford.
Rabb addressed supporters, in an emotional victory speech, who had powered a grassroots campaign backed by the Philadelphia Democratic Socialists of America and the Working Families party. “I have been critiqued along this campaign for being too radical, being too bold,” he told the crowd. “They ain’t seen nothing yet.”
Framing his win as a populist breakthrough, Rabb called the result “a triumph of the many over the money” before issuing a warning to those who might seek to undermine the movement his campaign had built. “They’re going to try and tear us apart. We’re not going to let that happen,” he said. “We are indomitable.”
The district, which includes most of Philadelphia’s urban core, is the bluest in the US: Kamala Harris won 88% of its votes in the 2024 presidential election, as the rest of the country re-elected Donald Trump.
Some Democratic operatives saw the party’s primary as a key test of whether the “Mamdani moment” – in Zohran Mamdani reshaping New York’s mayoral race last year, inspiring progressives across the US – could be replicated elsewhere.
Rabb, who was endorsed by the Congressional Progressive caucus, Justice Democrats, the Palestinian rights centered PAL PAC and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, is now on an almost certain path to Congress.
He will succeed Dwight Evans, the congressman who endorsed Stanford and is retiring after a decade.
Rabb ran on universal healthcare, a universal basic income, publicly owned grocery stores and ending US military aid to Israel. He has called the war in Gaza a genocide and describes Israel as an apartheid state.
Street, conceding to supporters at a north Philadelphia union hall, acknowledged the scale of the progressive mobilization that had undone his campaign. “This is a wake-up call,” he said, describing the movement behind Rabb as one determined to “reclaim their party”.
Justice Democrats framed the result as evidence that voters were demanding representatives willing to challenge corporate influence and party orthodoxy. The group said that deep-pocketed donors – reportedly linked to the pro-Israel lobbying network Aipac through a shell fund – had backed Stanford, without success.
“Chris Rabb is exactly what Democratic voters nationwide are demanding – progressive trailblazers who fight for their communities, not just when it’s politically convenient but when it’s morally necessary,” said the executive director of Justice Democrats, Alexandra Rojas, in a statement. “While the party machine has spent decades failing to meet the needs of its voters, Rabb has taken the fight to corporate interests, billionaire CEOs, and Republican extremists his whole career.”
