The progressive Working Families Party is backing Helen Gym for Philly mayor

An alliance of organizations led by the left-leaning Working Families Party is coalescing behind former Councilmember Helen Gym in the race for Philadelphia mayor, bolstering her status as the preferred candidate of the city’s progressives.

The Working Families Party, a liberal third party that has also backed Democrats, announced Monday that it has endorsed Gym, one of the leaders of the city’s progressive movement that has notched a handful of electoral wins over the last five years.

A similar coalition helped lift progressive District Attorney Larry Krasner to office in 2017, and it has boosted City Council members and state lawmakers. Representatives from a handful of organizations gathered for the endorsement Monday, including from Reclaim Philadelphia, a left-wing group that’s elevated some of its own members to office.

Gym said the alliance “has been working for years and years to rise up for people who have often been left to the margins by career politicians, austerity bureaucrats, and too much of the wealthy and privileged in Philadelphia.”

Councilmember Kendra Brooks, who in 2019 became the first Working Families Party candidate to be elected to Philadelphia City Council, said she expects “significant resources” will be invested in the mayor’s race.

“All of these fights show that the movement is ready to legislate, it’s ready to bring change in the city, and collectively, our work has shown that,” Brooks said. “So it’s time for us to take the next step to be a part of leading the city.”

Political committees that are coordinating with campaigns can contribute only $25,200 to a candidate per year under the city’s campaign-finance laws, but the Working Families Party of Pennsylvania and its affiliates intend to back Gym in other ways, including by training volunteers to circulate petitions, knock on doors, and the like.

The endorsement of Gym comes a week after the Philadelphia Federation of Teachers announced it is backing Gym.

A handful of other organizations and labor unions have made endorsements, including District Council 33 of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees, which represents blue-collar municipal workers, and United Food and Commercial Workers Local 1776. Both are backing grocer Jeff Brown, a ShopRite proprietor and first-time candidate.

Two other labor unions that have before aligned with the city’s progressive movement — local affiliates of the Service Employees International Union and Unite Here, which represents hospitality workers — have not yet made endorsements in the mayor’s race.

The coalition of building trades unions also has yet to make an endorsement, and the unions that represent police and firefighters have not made public their timeline for when they’ll pick a candidate to back.