{"id":194463,"date":"2026-05-16T20:36:18","date_gmt":"2026-05-16T20:36:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/194463\/"},"modified":"2026-05-16T20:36:18","modified_gmt":"2026-05-16T20:36:18","slug":"philadelphia-socialists-and-progressives-organize-ward-races-in-major-challenge-to-old-fashioned-big-city-political-machine","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/194463\/","title":{"rendered":"Philadelphia Socialists and Progressives Organize Ward Races in Major Challenge to “Old-Fashioned Big-City” Political Machine"},"content":{"rendered":"

PHILADELPHIA, PA \u2013 \u201cWards that Work<\/a>\u201d is a campaign around Philadelphia to challenge the city\u2019s establishment in this year\u2019s May primary election. Groups including the Riverwards Area Democrats<\/a>, Reclaim Philadelphia<\/a>, the city Democratic Socialists of America (DSA) chapter<\/a>, and the city Communist Party USA chapter (CPUSA \u2013 Debbie Amis Bell Club)<\/a>, have organized more than 100 events to rally residents. They are running more than 350 committee candidates<\/a> in the May 19 primary<\/a> under the Democratic Party line.<\/p>\n

A political surprise might be coming. As they see it, organizing through the obscure Democratic Party ward system could have a major effect on their neighborhoods and shift the direction of city politics, at a time when many residents are deeply upset as the Trump administration trashes the country, while the city\u2019s Democratic Party sputters along in an apathetic, opaque, entrenched and entitled fashion.<\/p>\n

We went on a deep dive into city politics with three people involved, from Philly DSA, CPUSA and the Riverwards Area Democrats (which operates in wards 18, 31, 25 & 5). The year-long campaign is built around local \u201cpods\u201d across the city along with an organizing spine of other working groups, backed up with a training blitz to introduce this system to newcomers.<\/p>\n

[ Third Time\u2019s the Charm? Ward Movements and the Political Machine System<\/a> \u2022 Mamdani Inspires More Involvement in Philly<\/a> \u2022 Openings around City, Write-In Candidates Sought<\/a> \u2022 Democratic Party Expelled Ward Committee Members over Support for Working Families Party in 2023<\/a> \u2022 Contested U.S. House CD3 Race Linked to Wards Campaign<\/a> ]<\/p>\n

Every four years in primary season there\u2019s an opening for a shake-up. During the 2018 and 2022 an \u201cOpen Wards\u201d movement tangled with the Democratic Party establishment. They aimed to remove endorsement control from the ward leader and move it to the whole committee, along with other reforms. \u201cThis whole undertaking started nearly ten years ago,\u201d said Shawn Moss from Philly DSA. \u201cOnly recently, like in this cycle and the cycle before that, we\u2019ve really increased our organizing, increased our scalability, our operations to what we have now.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIt came as a surprise when so many of our candidates won in the last cycle, right? It came as a surprise to ordinary people, the establishment especially,\u201d said Moss, who expects a similar result this time.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think the party establishment is pretty complacent right now. I think they are prone to underestimate how disgruntled everyday voters are. It\u2019s not just progressives or leftists that have a lot of concerns about the decisions being made by party leadership right now. there are many centrists, many everyday voters, people who don\u2019t even follow politics very closely right now who are feeling really frustrated and disgruntled with the Democratic Party and looking for change. I see efforts like Wards that Work as an opportunity to channel that frustration into something positive, and while keeping people within the folds of the Democratic Party,\u201d rather than via independents or the Republicans.<\/p>\n

Kate Rivera, Riverwards Area Democrats<\/p>\n

By door-knocking their neighbors they are finding new local connections and a sense of community, and they hope to change how the wards and thus the entire city function. \u201cDemocracy in our neighborhoods, in our city, is only so good insomuch as we are willing to fight for it, to maintain it, to strengthen it,\u201d Moss said.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Wards that Work has a policy platform<\/a> which includes rent stabilization, a higher minimum wage, a wealth tax on capital gains, and pushing giant nonprofit institutions to make \u201cpayments in lieu of taxes\u201d on \u201cbillions of dollars of real estate that they own tax-free\u201d, protecting residents from ICE, opposing incinerators and more. <\/p>\n

It started \u201cvery grassroots, very organically with people from a number of different groups. Very open invite\u2026 very open ended. \u2026 A way for each group to be able to feel like we had a voice in developing and framing the initiative,\u201d said Kate Rivera from Riverwards Area Democrats. \u201cThere\u2019s a good core backbone\u2026 If I\u2019m doing organizing in my neighborhood, I know that somebody else is working on a training template that we\u2019ll be able to use to train our folks\u2026 leaving lots of room for the people who are leading the organizing in their neighborhoods to take it a direction that will be most effective\u201d in their area, she said. <\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve seen so much joy from people who have gotten involved in this project, and have found this to be such an incredible way to connect with their neighbors. \u2026 The first step to get on the ballot is to get signatures from your neighbors. People who never canvassed before going out and knocking doors and coming back and saying, wow, I\u2019ve connected with my neighbors on a new level. I had no idea the power of local politics. Now I\u2019m going to make up for lost time.\u201d<\/p>\n

Kate Rivera, Riverwards Area Democrats<\/p>\n

Moss said, \u201cWe are doing something \u2013 the progressive left is coalescing together. And we are doing two things that the Democratic Party is not doing\u2026. These are all little schools of democracy, which we are embedded in, something that the Democratic Party does not practice, right? Everything is very top-down.\u201d Their alternative?<\/p>\n

\u201cA unified vision, a policy platform. \u2026 If I were to ask you or any person living in Philadelphia, what are our Democratic leaders unified around? What is their policy position? People wouldn\u2019t be able to identify that. It\u2019s not identifiable. Right? So we here in the progressive left have put together those platforms and those policy positions that we want to see to make a better Philadelphia.\u201d<\/p>\n

Shawn Moss, Philly DSA<\/p>\n

The Democratic party assumes that it has elections won and \u201ctake voters for granted,\u201d making promises and \u201ccycle after cycle after cycle, never delivers,\u201d Moss said. \u201cAll those people would have been replaced\u201d after getting \u201cthoroughly beaten by a felon twice\u201d in a European context, Moss said, \u201cBut that doesn\u2019t happen here, right? Because you know, they\u2019re complacent. They believe that these seats, these positions of power are owed to them and they don\u2019t need to leave, right?\u201d<\/p>\n

Emma Glazer from CPUSA noted, \u201cWe see in open wards that voter turnout is much higher.\u201d After Trump won in 2024, aside from the \u201c\u2018blame game\u2019 between the Philadelphia Democratic establishment and the Harris campaign,\u201d the organizations that drove turnout \u201cwere doing the leg work \u2026 which is what we\u2019re trying to bring together.\u201d<\/p>\n

Voter turnout in Philly \u201cis very important. Anybody you know nationally would say that, and we\u2019ve seen that the establishment in Philly is not doing everything that can be done to encourage the voter turnout. And that extends to not giving a vision for what is actually needed in our city.\u201d<\/p>\n

Opening the wards could encourage turnout, grassroots involvement and \u201cbuilding new leadership. The ward system and the committee person system holds power within certain people and doesn\u2019t bring new community members into the democratic process,\u201d Glazer said.<\/p>\n

\"\"An 1871 political cartoon by Thomas Nast satirized Tammany Hall political machine corruption in Harper\u2019s Weekly. (Source<\/a>)<\/p>\n

Third Time\u2019s the Charm? Ward Movements and the Political Machine System<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s actually an incredible amount of power and a good deal of money as well is flowing through [the ward] system, and it is largely invisible to most people in Philadelphia, including people who consider themselves to be engaged voters, well-informed voters.\u201d said Rivera. \u201cIt\u2019s a system that is very top-down and we really want to flip that on its head.\u201d<\/p>\n

In Philadelphia the foundation of political parties is at the ward system level. Philly\u2019s dates back to the 1700s<\/a>, a highly traditional system of transactional politics. Classic \u201cmachine politics\u201d like New York\u2019s Tammany Hall<\/a> was built on a boss & ward heeler system.<\/p>\n

\"\"The Tammany Hall political machine, led by boss Bill Tweed, was a central fixture of New York politics for decades. Thomas Nast cartoon, Harper\u2019s Weekly, 1870 (Source<\/a>).<\/p>\n

Since roughly forever, ward leaders have held unchecked influence over decisions and turnout organizing, without the committeepeople holding much power. The Democratic Party under its \u201ccity committee\u201d has 3406 committeepeople in each 4-year cycle<\/a>, who are essentially political block captains. Ward leaders follow the party chair\u2019s direction, and control candidate endorsement. The party chair largely controls how much money the ward unit receives. <\/p>\n

\u201cIf your endorsement decisions don\u2019t match the Philadelphia Democratic Party\u2019s recommendations, you may receive less funding from the party to carry out GOTV [get out the vote] activities. So open wards have fundraisers\u2026 a lot more activity in the ward, like working groups, a lot more conversations. \u2026 Once you have a voice in that endorsement process you\u2019re going to be a lot more empowered and motivated to get out there and knock on your neighbors\u2019 doors and explain to them why you selected this candidate.\u201d<\/p>\n

Kate Rivera, Riverwards Area Democrats<\/p>\n

The committee people should be actively connecting with their neighbors and bringing that to their ward leaders, which \u201cshould be happening with greater transparency than we see now,\u201d said Rivera. \u201cThere are many committee people who do an amazing job and there are many current committee people who don\u2019t knock a single door.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cOpening a ward means it\u2019s transparent, small-d democratic and effective,\u201d said Rivera, although all wards operate a bit differently. \u201cIt means that there is very little engagement happening at election time, or even leading up\u201d to it. They are supposed to meet monthly but many don\u2019t. Open wards will also post more financials on their website; Wards should be filing campaign finance reports and \u201ca lot of them don\u2019t even file those even though they are supposed to. So there is often a lack of transparency\u2026 on what funds the wards are receiving and how the funds are being used,\u201d said Rivera.<\/p>\n

The makeup of ward leadership greatly influences the city council and the Democratic Party city committee, chaired by former congressman Bob Brady since 1986. The Inquirer said he ran \u201cone of the few old-fashioned big-city political machines left. Running against him could equal career suicide\u201d in 2018<\/a>. He started his climb to power getting elected as a 34th ward committeeman at age 24<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The consequences from Philadelphia\u2019s local elections can go far: \u201cIf Hillary Clinton had gotten just 27 more votes in each polling place in Philadelphia, she would have won Pennsylvania\u2019s 20 electors,\u201d a 2017 piece in Philadelphia magazine noted wondering why Bob Brady was still in charge<\/a> of the city\u2019s Democratic Party city committee \u2014 and nine years later he still is.<\/p>\n

\u201cWithin each ward, the wards will decide who the endorsements will be. And in a closed ward, which is what many of the wards in Philadelphia are, essentially the ward leader is just the person who decides the people that will be listed on the sample ballot you get handed when you go to vote. That is usually in line with what the party chair and the kind of people at the top of the party\u201d prefer, said Rivera. \u201cWe are working for more open wards where the committee people themselves research and interview the candidates and then have a vote on who the ward should be supporting\u2026 This is a very small-d democracy process\u2026 we see this as an opportunity to elect more progressives into office.\u201d<\/p>\n

The sprawling northeast city has more than 1.56 million people. (As an electoral force in most of the city, the GOP is nearly a ghost, except the northeast end.) In 2024 more than 568,000 residents voted for Kamala Harris and 144,000 for Donald Trump; city turnout declined about 1.3% in that election<\/a>, a warning sign for the Democrats\u2019 city committee that its strategy was going awry. Trump went on to carry Pennsylvania by around 120,000 votes (50.37% to 48.66%). U.S. Senator Bob Casey (D) lost reelection to Dave McCormick (R) by just 15,115 votes.<\/p>\n

Back in 2008 Barack Obama operated independently from the city system<\/a>. Both candidates skipped handing out \u201cstreet money\u201d to the ward committee people,<\/a> another old feature of machine elections. He won Philadelphia but lost by 210,000 votes to Hillary Clinton in the statewide primary \u2014 then beat John McCain (R) by more than 620,000 votes.<\/p>\n

Mamdani Inspires More Involvement in Philly<\/p>\n

Wards that Work is not just about getting younger people involved, they say. \u201cWe\u2019d like to bring our neighbors with us, right? We don\u2019t want to be in opposition with our neighbors. We are all progressive people who want the best for ourselves and our community\u2026 Power is something that should be a rotating door\u2026 It\u2019s not healthy democracy when you have the same people in power for 50, 60 years, right? We just want to bring the neighborhood with us,\u201d Moss said.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf we are engaging with our neighbors year round around the issues that matter to them, that\u2019s a response system that we need\u201d for the issues the city is facing today, Glazer said.<\/p>\n

\u201cPeople have been very inspired\u201d and energized by Zohran Mamdani\u2019s win in New York, Rivera said, and people have been looking at what they can learn from Mamdani\u2019s success. \u201cI mostly hear people going, \u2018why can\u2019t we have that?\u2019 and you\u2019re like, getting mayor envy.\u201d<\/p>\n

Since the 2024 election a lot of people have been wanting to \u201cdo something, but they don\u2019t know what to do or how to get involved,\u201d and then Mamdani \u201cinvigorated people. It made people want to get involved, whether its in their workplace\u201d apartment buildings, neighborhood, or schools, Moss said. \u201cSo when we began promoting Words that Work, we had a lot of people come along from all over.\u201d<\/p>\n

In one of the trainings, said Rivera, \u201cSomeone said, how do we find our Zohran Mamdani? And somebody else said, how do we know they\u2019re not in the room with us right now?\u201d<\/p>\n

Rivera noted that Trump\u2019s election in 2016 led to a big push for open wards in 2018, really growing out of the presidential election, and a lot of organizing after the Bernie Sanders campaign transpired with groups like Reclaim Philadelphia. This led Reclaim Philadelphia to push to open up wards 1 and 2 and was how Riverwards Area Democrats was formed.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou are seeing a lot of people with that exact feeling, so depressed and hopeless, \u2026 and you have just given me a tangible achievable concrete thing\u201d to do in their own neighborhood and make a long term difference, \u201cand that has meant so much to so many of the people that I talk to,\u201d said Rivera. \u201cSomething that I have ownership over, that I have stake in,\u201d said Moss, who is \u201ctired of an unresponsive Democratic Party\u201d and wants to oppose \u201ccorporate landlords charging exorbitant rents,\u201d while getting progress on issues like removing asbestos from public school buildings. \u201cWe don\u2019t just have to sit here and take it. We don\u2019t have to ask the Democratic leadership for things. We are going to organize to get exactly what we need, right?\u201d asked Moss.<\/p>\n

Rivera said that every single person at a typical organizing meeting earlier in the process had a negative thing to say about the Democratic Party, even though they were all Democrats. \u201cNot doing enough, apathetic, you know, disappointing\u2026 You read the news and you\u2019re mad. You doom scroll social media and you\u2019re mad\u2026. Then they found out, there is something I can do. It is not going to fix the Democratic Party overnight to better reflect my values, but there\u2019s something I can do that can make a change in my neighborhood,\u201d said Rivera. <\/p>\n

\"\"In the 2026 primary, many divisions in West Philadelphia have no filed candidates for Democratic committeepeople (shaded black). Source: Map by Fifth Square PAC<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Openings around City, Write-In Candidates Sought<\/p>\n

Rivera noted that there are many vacant divisions where no one filed paperwork to run as committeeperson. Each division has two seats. <\/p>\n

In ward 25 (Port Richmond) most of the divisions have no candidates: \u201cThe ward leader actually did not file the petition forms for the incumbents and there were a lot of vacant seats in that ward,\u201d Rivera said, \u201cso we\u2019re recruiting a lot of write-in candidates for Ward 25.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"Many of the Ward 25 divisions have no candidates (black). Others have two (teal) or one (light orange) while division 5 is the only competitive one (darker orange). Source: Map by Fifth Square PAC<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Democratic Party Expelled Ward Committee Members over Support for Working Families Party in 2023<\/p>\n

\u201cIt really feels at some level in the local party, they\u2019ve made this calculation that progressives are more of an enemy than Republicans,\u201d said Rivera, who got kicked out of her ward committee in 2023. Chairman Brady ordered actions against city committee people that backed Working Families Party<\/a> (WFP) candidates that year. It\u2019s been growing into a formidable alternative force in the northeastern U.S. In New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani appointed WFP leader Ana Maria Archila as international affairs head; WFP endorsed Mamdani for mayor.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Working Families Party candidates were not running against Democrats, they were running against Republicans. And that tells us how far the Democratic Party in Philadelphia is willing to go to maintain power,\u201d Glazer said.<\/p>\n

The ward leader left Rivera \u201ca voicemail that said, \u2018you\u2019re no longer a committeeperson for supporting Working Families Party. Have a great life.\u2019 And that was the message\u2026 I had really not technically done anything wrong\u201d but the ward leader thought she had been door knocking for the party. \u201cThere was not a thoughtful systematic process where the heads of the party sat down and identified all of the people who may have broken the bylaws and had them removed. It was really a situation whereby Brady had sent out an email out to all the ward leaders saying, basically\u2026 if they do [support WFP] kick them out. And it really seemed like ward leaders were just here and there using that as a reason to get rid of people who they disagreed with or saw as a threat to their leadership, rather than it being an actual thoughtful process, especially since there have been documented cases of Democratic committeepeople and even ward leaders supporting Republican candidates at points in the past.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Philadelphia city committee expelled committeepeople who endorsed WFP<\/a> after Brady emailed the ward leaders. Philadelphia has a peculiar at-large city council system \u2014 only 5 of 7 seats can be held by Democrats. Usually Republicans get the other two but WFP challenged the GOP hold. Brady kicked out committeepeople for endorsing WFP council candidates Kendra Brooks and Nicolas O\u2019Rourke (the Riverwards Area Democrats also endorsed Brooks and O\u2019Rourke). Brooks was hardly opposed by major party figures: she was endorsed by Gov. Josh Shapiro, U.S. Senator John Fetterman, and state senator Nikil Saval.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey would rather have Republicans in office than Working Families Party. \u2026 The way that Philadelphia works is that we have two minority seats set aside and those are the seats that Kendra [Brooks] and Nick [O\u2019Rourke] were running for. And by Kendra and Nick winning those seats they were able to make it so there\u2019s one Republican on city council but there\u2019s no Republicans within those minor party seats. \u2026 This is the importance of open wards, right? The people who endorsed council members Brooks and O\u2019Rourke \u2014 the committeepeople who did so, did so because they understood that the Working Families Party candidates, rather than Republicans, were the ones who were going to represent the interests of the people who live in their divisions, who live in their wards, right? And because those wards were not open wards, that is what allows for them to be kicked out of their seats. In open wards there was not quite the same level of dismissal of people who endorsed Nick and Kendra because there is that ability, baked into being an open ward to have some type of say. Whereas in closed wards there is nothing baked into the closed wards that defends people who endorse Working Families Party.\u201d<\/p>\n

Emma Glazer, CPUSA<\/p>\n

The WFP whomped the Republicans and won both at-large seats in 2023, which has spurred more progressive legislation from the council. More than 100 committee people signed a letter<\/a> confirming their WFP endorsements as a way to push the GOP off the city council and protect liberal statewide Supreme Court candidates \u2014 both efforts that succeeded. Brooks was elected in 2019 and O\u2019Rourke in 2023. (WFP also called for volunteers to oust U.S. Sen. John Fetterman in 2028<\/a>.)<\/p>\n

\u201cBrooks and O\u2019Rourke won their elections because progressive groups across the city came together in coalition to support their candidacy. There had been a couple cases in years previous where someone had tried that same strategy, running for the minority party at-large seats as more to the left of the Democratic Party and not been successful. Even early on \u2026 multiple other people were also getting ready to run as well. Folks kind of got together and said, you know what? Let\u2019s get our ducks in a row as progressives, as leftists, and support these two really powerful experienced people and get them in office. And it worked. That shows how much power our progressive and left movements have when we do come together in coalition and for me was a big reason why I was so excited to be a part of Wards that Work. \u2026 When there have been elections in the past where groups are supporting different candidates, it\u2019s very easy for the powers that be to say, \u2018Oh, we just got some kids running around there, whatever, we don\u2019t have to worry about that.\u2019 And then really seeing these groups come together and achieve victory that they did, that was not expected. It\u2019s a really hard race to win. .. it\u2019s a hard thing to convey to people at the door but they were able to do it successfully. <\/p>\n

\u201cThat win really showed the power of local organizing and the party\u2019s reaction to kick people out shows how threatened they felt when they saw there really is a strong progressive leftist wing in Philadelphia that could be a threat to the status quo they\u2019re trying to maintain.\u201d<\/p>\n

Kate Rivera, Riverwards Area Democrats<\/p>\n

Thus it\u2019s not hard to see why progressive and leftist groups are trying to organize Philadelphia wards and the 1703 smaller divisions therein. On the other hand some believe \u201csub-parties\u201d weaken the Democratic Party<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cEven despite the areas of disagreement I may have with people with more centrist views in the party, I\u2019d still much rather be fighting together for a lot of the things that we agree on, than I would want to be collaborating with Republicans who are destroying our country right now,\u201d but \u201cI don\u2019t believe in holding a grudge. I\u2019ve told people, I don\u2019t have some sort of vendetta,\u201d said Rivera. She continues to do door knocking despite the 2023 expulsion.<\/p>\n

Contested U.S. House 3rd Congressional District Race Linked to Wards Campaign<\/p>\n

Another primary event to watch is the open seat contest to replace retiring U.S. Rep. Dwight Evans<\/a> (D-PA3) in the west, south and much of Center City. State Senator Sharif Street is leading the fundraising<\/a> right now with support from Brady and several wards. Physician Ala Stanford has major PAC support<\/a>. State Senator Chris Rabb is backed by many WFP and some of the \u201cWards that Work\u201d groups including Philly DSA, and Reclaim Philadelphia. (All candidates are listed here<\/a>). Shawn Griffith<\/a> has also been making the rounds. Notably, Rabb has claimed Stanford is being backed by independent expenditures from pro-Israel hawks in the election, because the 3.14 Action PAC which put millions into this race was used as a conduit for pro-Israel spending during the 2024 cycle<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Moss, whose organization is backing Rabb, said, \u201cWe collaborate when we launch canvasses, not only to promote ourselves, our candidates around our divisions, but also to let our neighbors know that there is a person running in this race who truly means to represent us. \u2026 As [U.S. Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez] said, \u2018They\u2019ve got money, we\u2019ve got people.\u2019 Our coalition is doing activities with the Rabb campaign and we have seen interest from that\u2026 There\u2019s something in the air that\u2019s changing, right? A lot less complacency.\u201d Riverwards Area Democrats didn\u2019t endorse Rabb because their area is outside of the district, Rivera said.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf you\u2019re not interested in electoral politics, that\u2019s okay. We are still going to do anti-ICE activities, work with improving our schools, work to push Medicare for all. If you\u2019re not interested in electoral politics there is a place for you still,\u201d Moss said, \u201cbecause all of it is organizing, all of it.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIf you have a desire and a willingness to affect change in your neighborhood and your city, there is a place for you,\u201d Moss said. \u201cit doesn\u2019t matter whether you\u2019re brand new to politics, whether you\u2019ve been in politics for decades, whether you\u2019re young, whether you\u2019re old, male, female, whatever. It doesn\u2019t matter. \u2026 We\u2019d love to have as many people as we can take.\u201d <\/p>\n

If you want to learn more about the ward system check out the Committee of Seventy ward and division maps<\/a> and their index of ward leaders<\/a>. The Committee also has an extensive guide about the entire system and how to run for a seat<\/a> (pdf). The Wards that Work Website has more info and the 5th Square Political Action Committee has recommendations for 2026<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The interviews have been edited for length and clarity. <\/p>\n


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