The Third Congressional District candidates forum at ENON
Photo: Amy V. Simmons
By Amy V. Simmons
The northwest section of Philadelphia has contained one of the strongest Democratic party voting blocs in the nation for decades.
Whoever has been politically successful in this area is well aware of its diversity and the nuances that define it. Its neighborhoods contain every socio-economic class, including amongst its African American residents. Constituents are consistent when it comes down to its governmental representation – if you follow up talk with action, show up and listen to their concerns when it matters most (hint: that’s in ALL SEASONS, not just campaign season) and do not take them for granted, they tend to stick with you.
So, when positions become available — such as is the case in the Third Congressional District with the upcoming retirement of U.S. Representative Dwight Evans — candidates must study the record of their predecessor and know how to read the room.
State Rep. Morgan Cephas (D-192nd Dist.)
Photo: Screen grab-ENON
A candidates’ forum to help voters decide who can best do that took place on March 18 at ENON Tabernacle Church’s Cheltenham Avenue campus. Black media outlets, organizations, and other stakeholders that participated or lent their support included Black Media Matters, Fun Times Magazine, Philadelphia Branch NAACP, NABJ Philadelphia, The Links, Inc., The Philadelphia Sunday SUN, The Philadelphia Tribune, and WURD Radio.
Moderated by WGAL news anchor Michael Fuller, the candidates participating in the forum were Dr. Ala Stanford; State Reps. Morgan Cephas (D-192nd Dist.) and Chris Rabb (D-200th Dist.); and State Sen. Sharif Street (D-3rd Dist.).
Dr. Ala Stanford
(Photo/Amy V. Simmons)
Throughout the two-hour forum, the candidates shared their views on a number of topics ranging from education equity, diversity, equity and inclusion, gun violence, the war in Iran and how it’s impacted the federal funding cities like Philadelphia need to survive, what they’d do to help Congress put the overreach of the Executive Branch in check, and what they’d do to try and work in a bipartisan fashion should they get to Congress.
Affordability and what is needed
Many of the questions posed by the panel also boiled down to the economy, as affordability is top in mind for voters this year.
State Sen. Sharif Street (D-3rd Dist.)
(Photo/Amy V. Simmons)
The current healthcare system and its rising costs are a major concern to Stanford, who runs a health clinic in North Philadelphia as a result of her work as founder of the Black Doctors COVID-19 Consortium. It’s something she intends to address at the federal level should she be elected, she said.
“Right now, with everyone falling off of Pennie, we’re seeing a lot of folks come in [to the clinic] trying to get their medications filled, and we are working with them to make sure no one leaves without,” she said. “But specifically what I can do in Congress is enforce the antitrust laws against food monopoly and price fixing to ban the corporate price gouging.”
Representatives who understand these problems are needed not only to revise the Affordable Care Act, but to support universal health care and work on getting community health care centers like the one she built into every community, Stanford said.
State Rep. Chris Rabb (D-200th Dist.)
(Photo/Amy V. Simmons)
We need to pass legislation to get private equity out of the residential housing market, Street said.
“After law school, I was able to buy a house at 25,” he said. “People can’t do that now, because the price of housing is skyrocketing, and because private equity now sees it as a way of buying it up and then just bilking people as renters forever.”
As someone who introduced the legislation that created Pennie, Street is also concerned about the current funding crisis it is facing, he said.
“We have to fight to restore those tax credits,” he said. “Fifty thousand people get their health care through Pennie, and it brought down the cost of health care for us all, because uncompensated care ends up being paid by other folks.”
Although the minimum wage must be increased, so must well-paying job opportunities so that people can afford to stay in the city, Cephas said.
“In our partnership with Google and Community College of Philadelphia where someone can come out of a six-month program, and they [can earn] $75,000 a year. … in order to get people out of poverty, we’ve got to get them into jobs that will absolutely pay,” she said.
There is another set of issues affecting the Black people who have populated Philadelphia’s traditionally middle-class neighborhoods for generations — including the neighborhoods of the 3rd Congressional District — and yet find themselves struggling to just maintain a presence. A common misconception is that these people do not need help or support. The candidates were asked how they would address that.
Support should also be provided for those who are often not eligible for a variety of low-income programs that address things like housing security, Cephas said.
“When we talk about creating affordable housing, and when we’re talking about investing in dollars and communities to expand the footprint, we also have to think about communities like Germantown, like Oak Lane, like Wynnefield, and over in West Philadelphia that don’t need the new affordable housing, but they need the investment In the current homes that they actually live in to bring down the cost of staying in their homes,” she said.
Although pragmatic solutions in the interim are necessary, the issue of reparations should always be at the forefront when considering all of these matters, Rabb said.
“None of the programs we’re talking about that are necessary and should be fully funded will ever address the racial wealth gap,” Rabb said. “It won’t happen because everyone has benefited off [of] the labor of Black folks for generations. That’s a fact. It’s not pretty, but it doesn’t make it untrue. And if you can’t name the demon, you can’t kill it. So, if you’re not prepared to talk about reparations, and talk about systemic racism and the legacy of chattel slavery, if you can’t say the words, how are you going to show up in Congress when it matters most? That’s what real leadership looks like. It’s always the right time to do the right thing.”
As a sponsor of a reparations bill in the state Senate, Street agreed that this issue is important, but in the short term, programs that address every day, quality of life issues facing many of Philadelphia’s long time homeowners need to be enacted now – and have been addressed at the state level.
“I was a co-sponsor of the Whole Home Repair Program, so Grandma doesn’t have to wait for us to get reparations to actually get a roof for her house,” he said.
Street also mentioned that he was a sponsor of a pilot program that replaces boilers in people’s homes – another emergency home repair issue that can crop up at a time when the funds are simply not available.
Street also wants to introduce legislation at the federal level to increase funds to help people remain in their homes, he said.
“You know, it is good to talk about lofty solutions and all that, but I have delivered actual programs that have helped people in this community, and there are people who have roofs on their house because we did it, and I will [also] do that as a member of Congress,” Street said.
Measuring up to the Evans legacy
L-R: Johann Calhoun, managing editor, Philadelphia Tribune; Lavonne Nichols, host, FunTimes Magazine Live; Denise Clay-Murray, senior political reporter, Philadelphia Sunday SUN; Nkwa Asonye Jr., president, NABJ Philadelphia; the Rev. Dr. Alyn E. Waller, senior pastor, Enon Tabernacle Baptist Church; Solomon Jones, host, “Wake Up With WURD;” Eric Nzeribe, publisher, FunTimes Magazine.
SUN senior political reporter Denise Clay Murray used her second allotted question to emphasize to the candidates the decades long service that Rep. Evans has provided to his constituents – decades that include years of trust and community investment.
Since Evans’ leadership style has a solid legacy, candidates were asked how they would build trust among his long-time constituents, and how their own vision and energy would compare to it.
Stanford is grateful for the leadership Evans has provided over the years and is especially grateful for the assistance he provided when she reached out to him in March 2020 when the COVID-19 pandemic hit the community, she said.
“He (Evans) led me on a path to help me get the support I needed — State Senator Art Haywood as well,” Stanford said. “He helped to get the support so we could take care of the city. I’m also fortunate that he knows all of us on this stage, and he chose to endorse me for the type of leadership that we need right now. I’m also fortunate that I’ve had the opportunity to learn from him, and so every part of this district that he knows intimately well, he can share with me what matters to them most.”
Taking into consideration Evans’ influence, Stanford has also been door knocking to learn what constituents want from their new representative for herself and has been forging relationships with others in Congress, she said.
Cephas has had the pleasure of working with Evans on different issues over the past 10 years on issues like aging infrastructure, home repair, affordable housing, funding safe playgrounds, and the rebuilding of Cassidy Elementary School, she said.
“I look forward to representing a district that not only has his leadership, but his foresight and also his investment,” Cephas said.
Building (and rebuilding) trust in the political process
There is an entire generation of new voters and emerging leaders who — particularly in the past two years — have witnessed nothing but chaos, cynicism and system failure, which has resulted in skepticism and distrust.
Some of the current upheavals are due to the environment in DC, and the modern phenomenon of technology-driven disinformation and misinformation.
There is also a plurality of people who once participated at least nominally in the voting process that have just checked out entirely.
The candidates were asked how to address all of this.
Street cited his journey to becoming Pennsylvania’s first Black man and Muslim Democratic Party Chair in 2022, and the wins — and losses — he faced before leaving the position last fall.
“We were able to flip the state house — and yes, a lot of folks worked hard on that, but it happened under my leadership,” Street said. “We were able to add seats in the State Senate. We were able to add seats and were able to flip Congressional seats as well.
Street also acknowledged Pennsylvania’s heavy Democratic Party losses of 2024, and his commitment to continue meeting people where they are.
“You have to get from behind the desk and drive around and meet them. … I have done that. I’ve done that consistently, not just when the cameras are on,” he said.
Although the event was a forum and not a debate, candidates at times critiqued each other’s records and funding sources in detail and did not hold back.
And as is common these days, calls for a generational shift in leadership and an end to status quo politics often emerged as a theme.
Cephas elaborated on what transpired during the 2024 election under Street’s leadership without ever mentioning him by name, and the type of leadership she feels is needed at this critical moment.
“We lost everything in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania,” she said.
“We lost the United States senator. We lost two Congressional members. We lost every single row office, and for the first time in 20 years, we lost the state senator. The only thing that survived was Joanna McClinton with the gavel up in Harrisburg. And that took a new generation of leaders in the House of Representatives to not only hold that seat but flip it when we were able to take the majority.”
This new generation of leaders is what is needed to represent the multigenerational Third District’s constituents with the bigger picture in mind, Cephas said.
“We have the ability to determine not just the politics of Philly, but of Pennsylvania and this entire country, and we need to send new leadership down to Washington, DC from Philadelphia that understands that,” she said.
“I’m not taking corporate PAC money,” Rabb said. “It’s one of the first few things that young people look at when they’re on Instagram — ‘Oh, they’re all bought and sold by the same corporations,’ and so they do a gotcha. They’re like, ‘Well, how much, you know, how much money you take from corporate PACs?’ I’m, like, ‘Zero, baby.’ It matters. Unbought…Unbossed. It’s more than a slogan. It’s how I’ve served for a decade.”
Primary election day is May 19.
Leave a Comment