Congressman Dwight Evans joins growing list of Philly politicians to endorse Cherelle Parker

U.S. Rep. Dwight Evans walked Cherelle Parker down the aisle on her wedding day. Now he’s trying to help her walk into the mayor’s office.

Evans, a Philadelphia Democrat, said Monday that he is endorsing Parker in the crowded, tightly contested mayoral primary. Evans had previously stayed out of the race despite his close political relationship with Parker, a former City Council member.

“I believe she will be an excellent mayor for this city, and she will do it what I call block by block,” Evans told The Inquirer. “She was at the state level and the local level, and she knows how to use relationships. … That’s important to understand. You can’t do this by yourself. You need people to work with, and I believe she knows that and understands that.”

Evans is one in a growing list of city leaders, including several Black elected officials, who have rallied behind Parker in recent weeks. State Sens. Sharif Street, Tina Tartaglione, Jimmy Dillon, and Vincent Hughes, as well as State Reps. Donna Bullock, Stephen Kinsey, Jose Giral, and Darisha Parker all endorsed Parker in the last month.

Parker now has the endorsements of many of the city’s Northwest political leaders as well as the Building Trades Council — which both proved to be influential in Mayor Jim Kenney’s 2015 victory. But it remains to be seen whether that support will mean as much for Parker as it did for Kenney eight years ago.

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Evans, whose silence in the race had raised some eyebrows, said he took his time interviewing all of the candidates.

Parker and Evans both got their political start in the Northwest coalition, a political organization of aligned local and state leaders rooted in the city’s high-turnout Northwest neighborhoods. They also worked together as state legislators in Harrisburg.

Evans, who represents Northwest and West Philadelphia and parts of North and South Philadelphia and Center City, ran unsuccessfully for mayor in 1999 and 2007.

U.S. Rep. Brendan Boyle, a Democrat from Northeast Philadelphia, said he hasn’t made a decision on whether he’ll endorse a mayoral candidate.

“There are many fine people running, and several of them are my friends,” Boyle said.

Parker came up in the Northwest coalition’s political network, working for former Councilmember Marian Tasco and then serving in Harrisburg and on City Council. She worked with Evans in the Pennsylvania House, where Evans chaired the appropriations committee, which she served on. When Parker got married in 2010, Evans and Tasco walked her down the aisle in place of her parents, who had died.

Evans commended Parker’s work in Harrisburg and as Democratic majority leader on Council, saying her resume more than qualified her for the job.

“She earned it,” Evans said. “She did it the old-fashioned way.”

» READ MORE: Philly’s Northwest Coalition has elected mayors. Will it determine the next one?

In Philadelphia’s 2015 Democratic primary, Evans and Tasco endorsed Kenney alongside other leaders from the Northwest coalition. The endorsement helped him win by a large margin. Whether today’s coalition, which looks a lot different, has the same type of sway remains to be seen. With several Northwest leaders backing Parker, her race could be a test of the group’s modern day strength.

“I think it’s obviously a part of how she wins the race,” Evans said of support among leaders in the Northwest. “But more than anything … you win this not so much based on endorsements but endorsements from people. And what this conversation coming together shows — is that’s what Cherelle is demonstrating that she is on the people’s side.”