Philly grocer Jeff Brown launches mayoral run on a pledge to upend ‘the whole City Hall establishment’

Philadelphia grocer Jeff Brown announced on Wednesday he is running for mayor, pledging to zero in on everyday residents and upend the status quo in City Hall, which he says has for too long been dominated by “career politicians.”

He said Philadelphia needs an outsider’s perspective to navigate the coming years as the city grapples with a shootings crisis, economic uncertainty, and a persistently high poverty rate.

“The love and concern for the everyday Philadelphian? I don’t see it,” Brown said in an interview. “The whole Philadelphia City Hall establishment is nonresponsive to the troubles of our city.”

Brown is the sixth Democrat to join the crowded field vying to replace term-limited Mayor Jim Kenney, whose second term ends in January 2024. He’s the second to announce a campaign this week — on Tuesday, former City Councilmember Allan Domb launched his run.

Former Councilmembers Cherelle Parker, Maria Quiñones Sánchez, and Derek Green, and former City Controller Rebecca Rhynhart, all Democrats, resigned from their positions to run in the May 2023 primary. Councilmember Helen Gym and State Rep. Amen Brown (D., Phila.) are also said to be considering joining the field, and Councilmember David Oh has said he is considering running for the Republican nomination.

The winner of the Democratic primary will be well-positioned to prevail in the November general election, given the city’s heavily Democratic electorate.

» READ MORE: Who is running for Philadelphia mayor in 2023?

Brown, 58, a fourth-generation grocer who has owned a chain of ShopRite stores in the region, is the only major contender who has never held elected office or run a campaign. He is independently wealthy and plans to self-fund his campaign in part, but said he’s also aggressively fund-raising.

He said he has spent the last two years offloading most of the business to his son and now holds only a 5% stake, and has stepped down from nonprofit boards, including the Philadelphia Youth Network. He said he wants to put all his energy into the mayor’s race and avoid the appearance of a conflict of interest if elected.

Supporters say Brown, who has long been connected in Democratic political circles, may be able to appeal to the business community and the city’s donor class while also leveraging relationships he’s built in economically disadvantaged neighborhoods where he opened grocery stores.

He also drew headlines in the early years of Kenney’s tenure for being one of the city’s most outspoken opponents of the sweetened-beverage tax, which has generated more than $385 million in revenue and is one of Kenney’s signature policies.

But Brown said this week that pushing for a repeal of the tax or reforming the city’s tax code “isn’t a priority.” He’ll instead focus his campaign on improving how the city delivers basic services, strengthening how the Police Department responds to crime, and implementing a plan to fight “structural poverty.”

He hosted a campaign launch event in West Philadelphia on Wednesday and told a room of 500 supporters that his opponents, all of whom have been elected officials, have failed to move the city forward or improve quality of life.

“It’s a statement that we don’t matter,” he said. “And that’s why I’m running for mayor. Because you matter to me.”

Born in the Far Northeast, Brown spent much of his upbringing working the grocery stores his family operated in the Philadelphia region. He graduated from Abington High School.

Brown spent most of his adult life living in South Jersey and working in Philadelphia and its surrounding counties. He moved back to the city about seven years ago and now lives in Rittenhouse Square with his wife, Sandy. He has four adult sons.

He said he isn’t worried about being branded by opponents as an opportunist who moved to the city before running for office, allegations that recently dogged Mehmet Oz, a Republican who ran for U.S. Senate and was defined by his opponents as a carpetbagger.

Brown said he and his family have deep ties to the city.

“I have customers that remember me working as an 8-year-old,” he said.

Before he began positioning for a mayoral run, Brown owned about a dozen ShopRite stores in the Philadelphia region. He intentionally opened a handful of them in neighborhoods that had been historically underserved by larger grocery chains.

Brown said he hopes to adapt programs he implemented at his stores to hire hundreds of formerly incarcerated people, many of whom he described as ambitious but from neighborhoods that have experienced generations of disinvestment. And he said he is the only candidate in the race who has experience negotiating with a unionized workforce — the ShopRite workforce is composed of about 2,200 workers represented by four locals.

Wendell Young IV, president of one of the locals, United Food and Commercial Workers Local 1776, spoke at the launch event Wednesday and endorsed Brown, saying, “No one’s better suited.”

Brown said improving conditions for the city’s 26,000-plus municipal workers is key to solving some of the city’s woes. Philadelphia is severely understaffed in departments across the city government, including the Police Department, which is short some 1,300 officers and is facing an impending wave of retirements.

Brown said the reasons for the exodus are obvious: The city hasn’t showed “concern for its workers,” including police.

» READ MORE: Philadelphia’s mayoral candidates outline their plans to improve public safety in the city

He said that’s led to a weak response to the city’s gun violence crisis. Kenney, Police Commissioner Danielle Outlaw, and City Council, Brown said, have done a “horrible job” responding to crime and left both police and residents feeling as if “we don’t have their back.”

Brown, who is white, took criticism for his attempts to reach voters of color even before he launched his run. In September, Parker — who is Black — said during a fund-raiser that one of her opponents was trying to win support from voters of color “because they have millions and millions of dollars to pay them.” It was a thinly veiled shot at Brown.

But Brown said his record speaks for itself, saying the “people I’ve served all my life tend to be people of color.”

He talks openly about racial politics in the city, and said he thinks he can appeal to a broad swath of working-class Philadelphians, from Black families in the neighborhoods where he’s worked, to white voters in the Northeast where he was born.

Whether he can do so remains to be seen. Brown lives in a $4 million house in one of the city’s wealthiest sections, and has long been a part of the city’s business class.

“I think most people, if you ask them, they don’t see the race problem with me as they would with some people,” he said, “because I’ve been with them in their neighborhoods solving problems for a really long time.”

Staff writer Sean Collins Walsh contributed to this article.