The voters who propelled Cherelle Parker to victory

Cherelle Parker’s victory in Philadelphia’s Democratic mayoral primary was powered by Black voters and residents of the poor and low-income neighborhoods hardest hit by the city’s gun violence crisis.

The bulk of the results have been counted, with the final totals continuing to stream in over the coming days. We analyzed those results for each of Philadelphia’s 1,703 voting precincts, also known as “divisions,” which are the most granular way the city reports the vote count.

And that analysis showed that as in past elections, the vote split along many of the city’s most persistent social and economic divides.

Parker’s win, while convincing, was not monolithic. As a baseline, it’s worth noting that she won just about a third of the city’s votes.

Parker’s victory was anchored by Northwest Philly

Parker is a longtime political leader in Northwest Philly, which decades ago organized a Black political powerhouse known as the Northwest Coalition. The modern-day iteration of that movement continues to be known for high voter turnout and unified political preferences. After years of working for longtime Councilmember Marian Tasco, Parker herself represented the area in City Council.

And while she received her largest margins in this region, Parker’s base of support also extended across a wide swath of the city’s North and West.

How turnout looked across Philly

Winning this election didn’t just come down to whom voters preferred. It also depended on who turned out to vote.

We’re visualizing that in two ways. The precinct map shows what percentage of registered Democrats there have voted – a measure of overall voter engagement.

The ward map is a little different: It shows the percentage change in turnout compared with 2015. Since so much political organization happens at the ward level, we’re comparing how effectively these groups are bringing voters to the polls compared with the last competitive mayoral election.

Philly’s starkest divides were along race and ethnicity

Philadelphia is literally and physically divided by race so dramatically that nearly half of registered Democrats live either in a precinct that’s more than 75% Black or more than 75% white.

And those divisions translate into political polarization: Majority-Black precincts gave nearly 56% of their vote to Parker, while majority-white ones gave her just 12% of their vote.

There was a powerful relationship between the Black share of a precinct’s population and its support for Parker – so much so that of all the demographic factors The Inquirer looked at, none proved to be stronger.

The votes diverged across Philly’s six big voting clusters

In the run-up to the election, The Inquirer grouped the city’s precincts into six clusters based on how they’ve voted in past primaries. And though our clusters aren’t actually based on demographic traits, we found that they correlate with race as well as with class, education, and political engagement.

The cluster of young progressive white voters gave left-leaning candidate Helen Gym her largest vote share; Rebecca Rhynhart got her best numbers among wealthy white liberals; Domb did best among the city’s moderate Democrats.

Both Black clusters, which don’t always unite behind the same candidates, voted very similarly in this election – supporting Parker by wide margins.

Parker won the support of the lowest-income neighborhoods

Philadelphia has for years been the nation’s poorest big city — and at the same time, some parts of the city are incredibly well-off.

That yawning divide affects the city’s politics. For one thing, the rich and poor prioritize different issues. For example, poorer residents rate issues like housing as much more urgent.

In this election, the lowest-income residents didn’t comprise a big chunk of the electorate, but delivered Parker a majority of their votes. And about half of voters making between $50,000 and $75,000 voted for Parker. By contrast, the wealthiest and highest-income voters were most likely to support Rebecca Rhynhart.

Areas that have seen the most gun violence supported Parker the most

A strong majority of residents rated crime as the top issue in pre-election polls, and the city remains in a years-long crisis of gun violence. But gun violence doesn’t affect residents equally: Some neighborhoods have far more shootings than others.

The choice of those areas closest to gun violence is clear: They picked Parker.

Precincts that had seen more than 175 shooting victims within 2,000 feet of their boundaries since 2015 gave Parker half of their vote. By contrast, neighborhoods with the fewest shooting victims gave a disproportionately high share of their vote to other candidates.

Notably, Parker has espoused some tough-on-crime policies, including a willingness to revisit the policy of stop-and-frisk, citing a “crisis” of public safety.

How Philly’s votes are breaking down by educational attainment

Fewer residents have bachelor’s degrees in Philadelphia than in many of America’s other big cities. Still, some neighborhoods have high college graduation rates, underscoring the deep educational divide among Philadelphia’s residents.

We divided Philadelphia’s precincts into four roughly evenly divided categories based on their educational attainment. More highly educated voters are consistently more likely to vote, a pattern that repeated in this election. Parker won the support of less-educated voters in particular, while neighborhoods where at least one in five residents has an advanced degree were more likely to back other candidates.