The City of Brotherly Love is getting its first female Mayor.
Given that Philadelphia hasn’t elected a Republican Mayor since 1947, Cherelle Parker is now the heavy favorite to be Philly’s next (and 100th) Mayor. Parker, a former City Councilwoman and State Representative, managed to outrun the contest’s other top contenders, Controller Rebecca Rhynhart and Councilwoman Helen Gym.
With an estimated 85% of precincts in, Parker accumulated 67,122 votes (32.95%) compared to Rhynhart’s 46,190 votes (22.68%) and Gym’s 43,737 votes (21.47%).
In fourth and fifth were two men, once considered front-runners, who faded over the course of the race. Councilman Allan Domb got 23,443 votes (11.51%) while Businessman Jeff Brown currently sits at just 18,221 votes (8.95%).
Going into Tuesday, most political prognosticators (including myself) would’ve said that Rhynhart and Gym had a slightly better chance at victory than Parker. Rhynhart had a good degree of establishment backing – three former Mayors and the Editorial Board of the Philadelphia Inquirer were all supporting her – while Gym was the progressive choice, holding a Sunday rally with Bernie Sanders and AOC.
While it’s still early, the first quick analyses of results show that Parker won by putting together a coalition of Black and Hispanic voters. Furthermore, while most local political leaders and unions were split across the several candidates, Parker had some critical implicit backing from long-time Philadelphia Democratic Party Chair Bob Brady. For instance, according to Chris Brennan of the Inquirer, Parker’s name was on the Party’s sample ballots in 43 of the city’s 66 wards.
One last note before we move on from Pennsylvania: Over in neighboring Delaware County, there was a special election to fill the open 163rd District’s State House seat. It’s a blue district, but given that the Dems’ majority is just a single seat, party leaders went all out to spread the word and get out the vote.
Those efforts paid off as Democratic nominee Heater Boyd defeated Republican nominee Katie Ford by a 59.83% to 38.94% margin.
Kentucky GOP Gubernatorial Primary
Meanwhile, in the commonwealth of Kentucky, several Republican candidates competed for the right to take on incumbent Democratic Governor Andy Beshear in November. Coming into the night Attorney General Daniel Cameron was considered the front-runner, although there remained the distinct possibility that UN Ambassador Kelly Craft could pull off an upset.
After all, thanks to her considerable wealth, Craft was able to blanket the airwaves in TV ads. All of a sudden, an April Emerson poll had Craft just six points behind Cameron. Even after a May Emerson survey found Cameron now ahead by 15 points, Ron DeSantis still decided to make a late endorsement of Craft. Given how loudly Cameron touted his Trump support, this suddenly made the race a bit of a 2024 Presidential primary proxy battle.
Despite all of this, however, Cameron ultimately ran away with this contest. In fact, Craft didn’t even finish second place as Agriculture Commissioner Ryan Quarles – who polls consistently found in third – managed to outperform Craft.
With nearly all the precincts in, Cameron is far ahead with 144,492 votes (47.67%), followed by Quarles with 65,686 votes (21.67%). At the same time, Craft is a lonely third at 52,136 votes (17.20%). The few counties Craft won came in Rep. James Comer’s district. The House Oversight Chair and frequent foe of the Biden White House was the most prominent Kentucky official to support Craft.
Jacksonville Mayoral Race
Finally, there was the run-off to determine Jacksonville’s next Mayor. If you remember back in March, I covered the first round of this race, when two candidates advanced to last night’s contest: Democratic candidate and former TV anchor Donna Deegan, as well as Republican candidate and ex-City Councilman Daniel Davis.
With all the precincts in, Deegan prevailed with 113,157 votes (52.08%) over Davis’ 104,130 votes (47.92%).
As I noted in March, unlike most major cities throughout America, Republicans tend to do well in Jacksonville. In fact, the GOP held this Mayoralty for twenty-six of the past thirty years. Now, however, the title for largest city with a Republican Mayor will soon transfer from Jacksonville to Fort Worth, Texas.
You can find all these election results and more on Decision Desk HQ’s live results page.