Progressive Chris Rabb wins closely watched Democratic primary in Pennsylvania: ‘We are indomitable’

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 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 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**”**.