State Rep. Chris Rabb attends a forum hosted by the 9th Ward Democratic Committee on Dec. 4, 2025 in Philadelphia. (Tom Gralish/The Philadelphia Inquirer via AP)
On Tuesday’s Democratic Primary, State Rep. Chris Rabb became the nominee to succeed Congressman Dwight Evans as the representative for the Third Congressional District. Later that week, we had a chat.
By Denise Clay-Murray
One of the things that stood out during Tuesday’s Pennsylvania Primary — other than the 22% turnout and the fact that you might not want to invite District Attorney Larry Krasner, Ryan Boyer, leader of the Laborers District Council and Bob Brady, head of the Democratic City Committee to the same parties for a while — was State Rep. Chris Rabb’s Third Congressional District win.
Because there was no Republican on the Primary ballot, Rabb will, for all intents and purposes, replace U.S. Rep. Dwight Evans, who announced a few months back that he would be retiring at the end of his term in January 2027. He’ll be one of a growing number of Congress’s progressive legislators.
But what does that mean for Philadelphians? And how do you get things done as a freshman in a legislative body that often fights amongst itself? And that’s just the Democrats.
As part of a new Hanging In The Hall series that we’ll be doing throughout the summer since Philadelphia City Council will be on break starting in June, I interviewed Rabb about his successful campaign, what he hopes to accomplish before he leaves the State House, and why Philadelphians need to come out of the center when it comes to their politics.
HH: Thank you for giving us some of your time today, Representative Rabb, and congratulations on winning the nomination for the Third Congressional District seat. Now that you’ve had a few days to sit back and take it all in, how does it feel?
CR: It is overwhelming in a largely wonderful way, meaning the extraordinary outpouring of enthusiastic support and recognition of this historic victory has been nothing that I could have possibly imagined, and it signals what I believe is the beginning of transformational change for politics and the future of Philadelphia.
HH: While I wanted to focus more on domestic policy than anything else, I can’t help but ask about some of the parts of the campaign that seemed to focus on things that weren’t domestic. A lot of people felt that there was more of an emphasis on the West Bank than there was West Philly…
CR: Not by me! I’m the one who talked about collective liberation, and that our tax money is being sent overseas when it should be coming back to Philly. That was a consistent message. If we’re going to pay for universal health care, if we’re going to pay for free public colleges and universities, if we’re going to pay for mass transit, we’re going to pay for universal basic income…. that money, right now, is being hoarded by the ultra-wealthy and our military. So, I connected the dots every single time, every single time, because our fates are intertwined. What happens with regard to Palestine is highly related to what happens in Powelton Village. They’re interrelated.
So yes, I absolutely made that point. How are we going to be able to fund the things that people, working families, desperately need in this city if our money is being exported to wars that nobody wants? And how is it that we’re able to find the money for militarism and imperialism when we can find money to keep our schools open to pay to provide for housing for veterans, for elders, for folks with disabilities, for those closest to the pain, and yet we find money to provide tax breaks for the billionaire class. I mean, that was my consistent message. So, I don’t, I don’t see it as you see it. And it was journalists who kept bringing up Israel. That’s not the top of my platform, but it is related to who is funding our campaigns, and I’ve been consistent about that, because how you campaign is how you govern. Where you get your money dictates your agenda and your message. What do you say and what you don’t say.
HH: Now you’ve been a state rep. for five terms. For much of that time, you’ve been in the minority in one of the nation’s most dysfunctional legislative body. You are now going to be going into what is possibly one of the most dysfunctional legislative bodies in the world, meaning Congress. What will you be bringing from your experience in the Pennsylvania legislature to Washington?
CR: I’m one of the few people going to Congress who has a decade of legislative experience coming from the largest full-time state legislature in the country, which has been a divided legislature for the entire time I’ve been there. Which means that I am bringing very relevant and transferable skills and lived experiences as a legislator to a dysfunctional Congress. But I am hoping to come into a new Democratic majority where that dysfunction may dissolve, because I believe that Democrats will probably be more aligned than the Republicans were.
Part of that dysfunction in Congress is not that Democrats and Republicans aren’t playing well together, it’s because the Republican caucus is divided amongst conservatives and fascists, and they don’t agree on everything. They could have done any number of things if they had a level of unanimity that they do not possess, and that’s good for America, because if they did, things would be even worse than they are, But I believe that by the time January rolls around, if Democratic leadership listens to its base and to what Democratic voters want, and frankly, the majority of Americans, we will have a much clearer and concrete legislative agenda that can get things done, at least on the House side. Not sure what’s going to happen in the Senate. So, I believe that my experience, and not just being in the state legislature for 10 years, but being able to get things done with bipartisan support with Democrats who are ideologically differentiated from me, and still being able to get things done, not everyone can do that, and I have a track record that shows that I can.
HH: As we’ve talked about a lot here, Philadelphia’s Third District has a lot of needs. You’ve been working with your district to try and meet those needs on the State level, but as the Third District Congressman, you’re going to be going citywide. Have you thought about how you’re going to reach out to your new district before it officially becomes your new district?
CR: I’ve thought about that long and hard, but the most important thing is that you listen to people closest to the pain and get a sense of what their priorities and concerns are before I build an agenda for myself. It has to be rooted in community, so getting a sense of what those folks who I seek to represent want, is something that I take very seriously. Representing four neighborhoods and 70,000 people in a district is different from representing a congressional district of 760,000 people. So, I have the opportunity over the next seven months to listen to the concerns of people across this district and actually find common cause and opportunity to see what matters to different communities and finding ways that I can bridge communities. Because what may be a need in one neighborhood may be very similar to what one needs in another, and I’ll be working with local, state, and federal officials to make that happen.
HH: Crusading journalist Lincoln Steffens once said, “All our municipal governments are more or less bad. Philadelphia is simply the most corrupt and the most contented.” There have been a few things that have happened here politically that have indicated that this assessment might be changing. Do you see your election victory as part of that change?
CR: I won a plurality of Black voters. I got the highest number of Black voters of any other candidate in the race. I got the highest percentage of disaffected voters, people who are tired of establishment politics. I believe that’s why my victory is so historic, because it is essentially an iteration of the Rainbow Coalition. This is a very diverse district, and to be able to have to secure support from across the district when there was a clear establishment candidate, where the entire political class supported my opponent…my colleague, who was very gracious in his concession speech, acknowledged that change is afoot, and we need to be adherents to that change. That this is an inflection point. Will we have the humility as public servants and elected officials and party officials to do right by the people whose votes we want to earn? I already know that I’m committed, because that’s how I ran my campaign, and that’s how I’ve served for 10 years as an anti-establishment, grassroots individual who’s committed to service over political self-interest. That’s why I didn’t run for reelection. That’s why I didn’t take corporate PAC money, that’s why I didn’t solicit endorsements from political insiders, so yes.
HH: I had just one last question. Is there any legislation that you’re hoping to get passed as a state rep before you move on to Congress?
CR: My bill on deed fraud passed unanimously in the House of Representatives last year. It would significantly improve protections against professional scammers who seek to steal vulnerable homeowners’ most prize possession, which is their home. I would love to see that pass this year.
HH: Again, congratulations on your victory, Rep. Rabb, and thank you for your time.
CR: Thank you.
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