taylorvilledailynews.com: https://taylorvilledailynews.com/local-news/srn-us-news/92c9ddbd8b63cdea8c665e06d7a4da4c

Speaker: —
Subject: E000296
Source: GDELT news · original
Published: Saturday, May 23, 2026

HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) — It looked like progressive Chris Rabb had a mountain to climb to win the Democratic nomination for a congressional district in Philadelphia. The mayor and the city’s Democratic Party had endorsed another candidate in this week’s primary. So had members of Pennsylvania’s delegation in the U.S. House. One Rabb rival was backed by millions of dollars. A second benefited from a get-out-the-vote operation run by the influential local building trades unions. But Rabb finished 15 percentage points ahead of his closest competitor in Tuesday’s election, and the state representative is likely on his way to Washington because no Republican sought the GOP nomination. Rabb was propelled by a constellation of progressive groups, charting a path to victory

Full text

3,000 chars

HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) — It looked like progressive Chris Rabb had a mountain to climb to win the Democratic nomination for a congressional district in Philadelphia.
The mayor and the city&#8217;s Democratic Party had endorsed another candidate in this week&#8217;s primary. So had members of Pennsylvania&#8217;s delegation in the U.S. House. One Rabb rival was backed by millions of dollars. A second benefited from a get-out-the-vote operation run by the influential local building trades unions.
But Rabb finished 15 percentage points ahead of his closest competitor in Tuesday&#8217;s election, and the state representative is likely on his way to Washington because no Republican sought the GOP nomination.
Rabb was propelled by a constellation of progressive groups, charting a path to victory partly by assailing his own party as listening more to donors than voters. He credited a grassroots movement inspired by New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani, alarmed by Republican President Donald Trump and hungry for a government responsive to their needs.
“That was at the heart of why I was running and that is what I built my campaign around and that, I believe, is a chord we struck in this electorate that showed up and came out like gangbusters,” Rabb said in an interview with The Associated Press.
The progressive left counts Rabb&#8217;s success as one of its biggest victories of the year and the latest warning sign that Democratic voters see the party’s leadership as weak and feckless in countering Trump. Progressives are also running for House seats in New York, California and Michigan where they are challenging Democratic incumbents or aiming to take on vulnerable Republicans.
Rabb, 55, is a self-described Democratic socialist and “proud troublemaker” who reliably supported the most progressive causes in the state House during his five terms. His backers said voters sent an important signal this week.
“They want someone who knows what they stand for and is ready to fight, whether it’s fighting Donald Trump now or fighting an economy and political system rigged for billionaires in years ahead,&#8221; said Adam Green, a co-founder of the Progressive Change Campaign Committee.
Traction by progressives in midterm races has stoked concerns from moderates that far-left candidates will alienate middle-of-the-road voters and squander a politically advantageous year to unseat Republicans, retake control of Congress and block Trump’s agenda during his last two years in office.
Mike Mikus, a Pittsburgh-based Democratic strategist, said progressives could be a problem down the road for the Democratic Party, but not this year.
&#8220;Regardless of who we nominate, gas prices are still too high, grocery prices are too high and people generally think the economy is not in a good place,” Mikus said. “And voters will vote for change.”
Perhaps Rabb&#8217;s biggest supporter was the Working Families Party, which says the Democratic and Republican establishments have sold out

More on this subject (8)

Mentioned in /ask threads

pac.dog is a free, independent, non-partisan research tool. Every candidate, committee, bill, vote, member, and nonprofit on this site is mirrored from primary U.S. government sources (FEC, congress.gov, govinfo.gov, IRS) and each state's Secretary of State / election commission — no third-party data vendors, no paywall, no editorial intermediation. Citations to the originating source are on every detail page.