Chris Rabb Scores Big Win for Progressives in Pennsylvania Primary Battle
· Time
Chris Rabb, a bespectacled and fiery state representative with a reputation for taking on the Democratic Party establishment, scored one of the progressive movement's biggest wins of the 2026 midterms on Tuesday, defeating two more moderate candidates to secure the Democratic nomination for a Philadelphia-based U.S. House seat, according to the Associated Press.
The race, which had largely gone under the radar nationally, had emerged as a priority for the Democratic Party’s left wing, part of a larger trend of progressives rallying behind candidates vowing to be louder, bolder, and more willing to confront their own party.
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“They told me this was impossible,” Rabb said from his election night party in Northwest Philadelphia. “That’s what they said. Well, I don’t know who they are but I know who we are and I’m looking at ‘We the People.’”
Pennsylvania’s third congressional district is the most Democratic in the country, supporting Vice President Kamala Harris in the 2024 election by a margin of 78 points. No Republican filed to run, all but guaranteeing Rabb’s victory in November. For the last 40 years, it’s been represented by two members of established political factions in the city: retiring U.S. Rep. Dwight Evans, elected in 2016, hailed from the powerful Northwest Coalition, and before him Chaka Fattah, a South Philadelphian, held the seat for 21 years before he resigned following a racketeering conviction.
“These are the places where we should have the boldest, most progressive champions,” Nick Gavio, Mid-Atlantic Communications Director for the Working Families Party, said of the Philly district. “There’s a hunger for someone who is going to be outspoken and who’s willing to criticize the Democratic Party.” Gavio called it the biggest national win for progressives since Analilia Mejia’s win in February in a special election for a U.S House seat in New Jersey.
Two more moderate candidates, state senator Sharif Street and pediatric surgeon Ala Stanford, split votes and struggled to catch fire. Street’s loss was particularly revealing, given he’s the sort of candidate that may have cruised to higher office just a few years ago. The son of former Philadelphia Mayor John Street, Street had a long list of labor and local political endorsements, including Mayor Cherelle Parker. He formerly led the Pennsylvania state party—a designation that may have hurt more than it helped as the state flipped back to President Donald Trump in 2024. Few national moderates lined up behind him, save for New Jersey Democratic Sen. Cory Booker.
Rabb had built a reputation as a fighter over five terms as a state representative who consistently butted heads with the local Philadelphia Democratic Party. He drew endorsements from Democratic U.S. Reps. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Summer Lee, Rashida Tlaib, Ilhan Omar, Pramila Jayapal, Ro Khanna, and Jamie Raskin, as well as U.S. Sen. Chris Van Hollen. “The question here is not whether this community will elect a Democrat,” Ocasio-Cortez said at a rally for Rabb at a church in North Philadelphia. “The question is what kind of Democrat will this community elect? And if you want to change the Democratic Party, we gotta change the kind of Democrats that get elected to serve in Congress.”
Before joining the state legislature, Rabb, 56, taught social entrepreneurship at Temple University's Business School and prior to that worked as a legislative aide in the Clinton Administration focusing on small businesses. His paternal grandfather was a civil rights activist and his maternal great-great-grandfather was born enslaved, fought for the Union in the Civil War, and later founded an African American newspaper in Baltimore.
Gov. Josh Shapiro, the popular two-term governor who is rumored to have 2028 presidential aspirations, did not endorse in the race despite weighing in on other contested primaries elsewhere in the state. Axios reported Shapiro was working behind the scenes to slow Rabb’s ascent, though, which would make political sense for the more moderate governor. “The last thing Gov. Shapiro needs is Summer Lee in the West and Chris Rabb in the East,” Larry Ceisler, a Shapiro backer and public affairs consultant, says of the outspoken progressives, who he said could “needlessly attract the attention of the Trump Administration,” causing headaches for Shapiro.
Lee, for her part, tells TIME that Democrats need to foster more vocal pushback against the GOP and from within the party. “We’re actually not a strong party when we’re all shaking our heads, nodding yes.” She says Rabb’s success demonstrated a rejection of the status quo. “Right now, all over the country, Democratic voters of all different types of backgrounds are finding themselves answering the question, Is this the best we can get? … As authoritarianism runs roughshod over our country, people are starting to say, ‘This is not where I want to plant my flag,’ and wondering: if Republicans and MAGA are willing to fight this hard, why can’t they?”
The race had an outsized focus on Gaza, reflecting a broader national debate within the party about how far criticism of Israel should go. Rabb advocated on the trail for Palestinian rights and openly labeled Israel's military actions in Gaza as a “genocide.” He lambasted his opponents for their unwillingness to do the same. Rabb drew some heat when he appeared at multiple campaign events in April with Hassan Piker, a left-wing political commentator and Twitch streamer who has made a series of inflammatory statements critical of Israel and of U.S. foreign policy. Stanford, a first-time candidate, benefited from the backing of 314 Action, a PAC dedicated to electing scientists and doctors to Congress. But rumors swirled that the dark money group was funded by AIPAC in the race. The head of 314 Action denied AIPAC was a funder. “I don’t think the residents of West Philadelphia, North Philadelphia, think Israel and Gaza are in the top 20 things impacting them but the way the issue was used and accentuated by Rabb was effective at stirring people up,” Ceisler said.
State senator Nikil Saval, a Rabb backer, thought Rabb’s distinction on Gaza helped him stand out to voters who were given three candidates with mostly similar policy agendas. All three candidates supported a Medicare for All-style healthcare program, and abolishing the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency. “People draw very clearly the connection between the wars and the decrepitude of our local wealthfare state,” Saval said. “Cutting taxes for billionaires, endless money for war, and yet somehow we can't pay for Medicaid and SNAP.”
Philadelphia’s a blue bastion but one that’s still home to a wide variety of Democrats. Rabb had stressed building a coalition beyond the progressive movement. Results late Tuesday showed him beating his two opponents by double digits, with support across the district. “He picked off the kind of Democrats who watched the 2024 election, thought it was very bad,” Gavio, of Working Families, said, “and who wanted to see the party working harder to win people’s votes and deliver for working people.”