Helen Gym denounced the Union League. A week later, she attended a cocktail party at the club.

Helen Gym, a Democratic candidate for mayor in Philadelphia, was one of many politicians last week who denounced the Union League for giving Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis its highest award.

So showing up at the tony private club for a cocktail party Monday evening was an unforced error that swiftly exploded on social media, forcing Gym to quickly apologize.

Video of Gym at the club, where she was attending the annual meeting of the General Building Contractors Association, was posted on Twitter on Monday. Philadelphia Magazine writer Ernest Owens also tweeted a photo of Gym there, noting her criticism last week.

Gym last week tweeted: “Philly will always stand against the racism, homophobia, xenophobia, and the bigotry that The Union League decided to honor today. Hate has no home here. #ByeDeSantis.”

With her Union League stop spreading on social media, Gym tweeted that her visit “was a mistake.“

“I apologize for attending,” she said, following up in another tweet that she has “been very clear” that she opposed last week’s DeSantis event and found the club “problematic long before” that.

Two sources familiar with the Union League event, who requested anonymity to discuss a private meeting, said other declared candidates for mayor were invited but only Gym showed up.

Gym resigned from City Council in November to run for mayor.

Just hours before her Union League visit, Gym was endorsed by the Working Families Party, a liberal third-party group that lines up with her progressive politics. Accepting the endorsement, Gym decried “career politicians” who she said marginalize city residents in favor of “the wealthy and privileged in Philadelphia.”

Gym was confronted Tuesday morning at a candidate forum by Ryan Boyer, who leads the city’s Building and Construction Trades Council and called her Union League visit “disappointing.”

“She obviously made a calculated decision,” Boyer said, “that the money in that room was more important than the equity she preaches.”

Jerry Jordan, president of the Philadelphia Federation of Teachers, which recently endorsed Gym, called the appearance a “bad decision” but commended Gym for quickly apologizing.

”The swift apology is an indication of the kind of character that she has,” he said.

Gym declined to comment Tuesday after the forum.

Council on Thursday introduced a resolution, condemning the Union League for giving DeSantis its gold medal, an honor first bestowed on President Abraham Lincoln in 1863.

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