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State Rep. Chris Rabb, left, and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, right, share the stage during a Rabb for Congress rally May 15 in Philadelphia. (Matthew Hatcher\/Getty Images)<\/p>\nState Rep. Chris Rabb, left, and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, right, share the stage during a Rabb for Congress rally May 15 in Philadelphia. (Matthew Hatcher\/Getty Images)<\/p>\n
Joseph Strauss | JTA<\/p>\n
Chris Rabb \u2014 a progressive state lawmaker who is staunchly critical of Israel \u2014 is poised to become the newest member of Congress\u2019 \u201cSquad\u201d after winning a Democratic primary in Philadelphia.<\/p>\n
Rabb had made opposition to Israel and AIPAC, the pro-Israel lobbying group, a focal point of his campaign in Pennsylvania\u2019s 3rd Congressional District.<\/p>\n
He also recently made headlines when it was reported that his Instagram account had shared a post saying the Bondi Beach massacre was a false flag by \u201cZionists.\u201d He disavowed the post and said it was shared by a former staffer.<\/p>\n
NBC News called the election May 19.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey told me this wasn\u2019t possible. That\u2019s what they said,\u201d Rabb said during a victory speech. \u201cI don\u2019t know who they are, but I know who we are. I\u2019m looking at we the people. And I\u2019m not talking about we the people 250 years ago. That was a much smaller we. I\u2019m talking about the aggressive fabulosity of this we.\u201d<\/p>\n
Rabb\u2019s top two opponents were Sharif Street, a state senator who garnered support from J Street and figures in the political establishment, including Philadelphia\u2019s mayor and Sen. Cory Booker of New Jersey, and Ala Stanford, a pediatric surgeon who has faced scrutiny for being boosted by a group that\u2019s alleged to be a shell organization for AIPAC.<\/p>\n
With about 84% of expected votes in, Rabb held a strong lead with 44% of the vote; Street received 29.5% of counted votes, and Stanford was in third with 24.1%.<\/p>\n
Rabb will be the Democratic nominee for a November general election that he is almost assured to win in the country\u2019s \u201cbluest House district.\u201d<\/p>\n
At a time when Democratic voters are overwhelmingly sympathizing with Palestinians over Israelis, the turnout for Rabb, who has centered pro-Palestinian advocacy in his bid for Congress, may very well have signaled how those sentiments translate to electoral results.<\/p>\n
Before Rabb, efforts to elect a new \u201cSquad\u201d member had fallen short this cycle, though those candidates \u2014 like Nida Allam in North Carolina \u2014 were up against incumbents, or, as in the case of Kat Abughazaleh in Illinois, lacked Rabb\u2019s experience in elected office.<\/p>\n
Rabb\u2019s campaign picked up momentum in recent weeks. He was endorsed by a number of left-wing House representatives including Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Ilhan Omar, Rashida Tlaib, Ro Khanna and Summer Lee, who is also from Pennsylvania. He also rallied alongside the progressive streamer Hasan Piker, a staunch critic of Israel who has been accused of antisemitism, in Philadelphia.<\/p>\n
If elected in November, Rabb\u2019s platform would make him one of the harshest critics of Israel in Congress. He supports a complete embargo on arms sales to Israel. He posted on the social media platform X May 15 that \u201cthe Nakba never ended,\u201d and said he would co-sponsor a resolution with Omar and Tlaib to \u201crecognize the Nakba and reaffirm Palestinian refugees\u2019 right to return.\u201d<\/p>\n
Maryland Rep. Jamie Raskin, who is Jewish and has sponsored the Block the Bombs to Israel Act, endorsed Rabb. He was also endorsed by the anti-Zionist group Jewish Voice for Peace, and a slew of left-wing groups including Democratic Socialists of America and the Working Families Party, as well as groups that explicitly work to counter AIPAC such as Track AIPAC and PAL PAC.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe will be with Congressman Rabb every step of the way in the fight to abolish ICE, free Palestine and win Medicare for All,\u201d the DSA wrote on X Tuesday night.<\/p>\n
The super PAC American Priorities, which seeks to be a counterweight to AIPAC\u2019s super PAC, United Democracy Project, spent more than $400,000 boosting Rabb, according to FEC filings.<\/p>\n
Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro, who is Jewish and supports a continued U.S.-Israel relationship, was reportedly rumored to be working behind the scenes to quietly derail Rabb\u2019s campaign; Shapiro has not publicly weighed in on the race and did not respond to a request for comment.<\/p>\n
The latest polling data to come out of this race was collected in early April, and had Stanford leading with 28% with Rabb trailing by 5 percentage points and Street in third at 16%. But much has changed in the weeks since those polls, including a significant mobilization from the left to back Rabb.<\/p>\n
The poll was also conducted by 314 Action Fund, a political action committee that endorsed Stanford. A few weeks after the polling was released, Drop Site News, which has an anti-Israel bent, reported that the group is operating as a shell organization for AIPAC, the way other groups did in Illinois races earlier this year.<\/p>\n
AIPAC did not respond to a request for comment, but to deny allegations that it had funneled money into the Pennsylvania race, as well as the Senate race in Michigan.<\/p>\n
\u201cMillions of Americans want to help tough, principled Democrats defeat extremist candidates. Despite conspiracy theories, not every dollar spent in that effort comes via AIPAC,\u201d AIPAC posted on X. \u201cAIPAC isn\u2019t funding Center for Democratic Priorities, and it isn\u2019t funding any group\u2019s efforts in PA03.\u201d<\/p>\n
Stanford\u2019s reported support from AIPAC thrust her into the spotlight on Israel. During a tense moment at a candidates\u2019 forum last month, Stanford was pressed by an audience member on whether she believed Israel was committing a genocide.<\/p>\n
She refused to use the term to describe Israel\u2019s military actions, and said, \u201cFor Israelis who have been accused of committing it, it\u2019s hurtful for them.\u201d<\/p>\n
Stanford has been endorsed by the district\u2019s representative, Dwight Evans, who is retiring at the end of this term, and a handful of other U.S. House representatives including Madeleine Dean and Chrissy Houlahan from Pennsylvania. Hawaii\u2019s Jewish governor, Josh Green, also endorsed Stanford.<\/p>\n
Meanwhile, Street had the chance to become Pennsylvania\u2019s first Muslim member of Congress. He has been critical of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, saying he should be prosecuted for war crimes, but is far more moderate on Israel than Rabb and made the subject less central to his campaign messaging. Like Stanford, he has not referred to Israel\u2019s military actions as a \u201cgenocide\u201d and advocates for a two-state solution, as well as continued U.S. aid to Israel.<\/p>\n
Booker traveled to Philadelphia on Monday to stump for Street.<\/p>\n
Street is the son of former Philadelphia mayor John Street and has the support of a number of state legislators and City Council members, as well as the Philadelphia City Democratic Committee. Rue Landau, the only Jewish member of the City Council and its first openly LGBTQ member, endorsed Street.<\/p>\n
Street was listed as \u201cprimary approved\u201d on the website of liberal pro-Israel advocacy group J Street, which has recently drifted to a position that advocates for continued weapons sales, but a phasing out of military subsidies, to Israel.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"State Rep. Chris Rabb, left, and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, right, share the stage during a Rabb for Congress…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":205841,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[19955,836,182,69,71,70],"class_list":["post-205840","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-philadelphia","tag-chris-rabb","tag-election","tag-local-news","tag-philadelphia","tag-philadelphia-headlines","tag-philadelphia-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/205840","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=205840"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/205840\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/205841"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=205840"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=205840"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=205840"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}