Democratic state Rep. Chris Rabb has been elected to the U.S. House of Representatives after defeating independent Dennis Mahoney in the 3rd District midterm.
The Associated Press called the race at 8:28 p.m.
Rabb will replace Dwight Evans in January after announcing he would not seek reelection after a stroke in 2024. Evans has been in Congress since 2016 and previously represented Philadelphia’s West Oak Lane neighborhood in the state House for 36 years.
Supported by grassroots organizations, the self-described democratic socialist’s platform centered around affordable housing, Medicare for all, universal basic income and a living wage. Despite his alignment with the Democratic Socialists of America, he said that wasn’t something he focused on while running for Congress.
“People were not talking about socialism, they were looking for change,” Rabb said Tuesday afternoon. “They’re looking for a fighter. They’re looking for folks who are going to have bold policy directives that are going to move the country in the right direction and move us towards a multiracial democracy. I think the labels and the fiefdoms are the distractions.”
When asked what his first priority will be once he heads to Washington, Rabb said he’ll be focused on building relationships.
“I got to sit down with the people who are going to be leading the Democratic caucus and figure out how to lead together,” Rabb told WHYY News. “No one does it alone.”
In May, Rabb surged to a primary win over former Pennsylvania Democratic Party chair and current state Sen. Sharif Street and political newcomers Dr. Ala Stanford and Shaun Griffith.
He received significant national support from “the squad,” consisting of U.S. Reps. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Rashida Tlaib, Ilhan Omar and Ro Khanna. Rabb also received support from Philadelphia City Councilmembers Kendra Brooks and Nicolas O’Rourke, state Reps. Elizabeth Fiedler and Rick Krajewski, and state Sen. Nikil Saval.
On Tuesday evening, Rabb appeared on a Twitch stream featuring other DSA candidates nationwide with Hasan Piker, a leftist political commentator with a large online platform.
“You can’t fake the funk,” Rabb said. “People can smell inauthentic politicians a mile away, so if you meet people in good faith and you speak their language and the things that they care about and they see themselves in this campaign or any campaign, they get involved. And let me tell you, young people are coming out.”
More than half of Pennsylvania’s 3rd Congressional District, with roughly 768,000 residents, are Black, and nearly 1 in 5 lives below the poverty line, compared with about 12% statewide.
WHYY’s Tom MacDonald contributed to this article.
