The Philadelphia mayoral primary election is today: Here’s what you need to know

After nine months of campaigning, dozens of events, and more than $30 million spent, the race to win the Democratic nomination for Philadelphia mayor is still wide open heading into today’s election.

As many as five Democrats are in contention to become the nominee, and he or she will be heavily favored to win in the November general election. Republican David Oh is running in the GOP primary unopposed.

And the stakes are remarkably high. The next mayor will take over a city that has experienced a turbulent few years, from a pandemic to a racial-justice movement to a gun-violence crisis.

Here’s what you need to know about where the mayor’s race stands today:

Jeff Brown is a longtime ShopRite proprietor and would be Philadelphia’s first outsider mayor in a century. He is the only top candidate to have never held elected office or worked in government. Much of his campaign messaging was focused on solving structural poverty, and he was an early front-runner who is backed by the police union. But he has faced a series of setbacks, including debate missteps and an ethics investigation that resulted in a high-profile lawsuit.

Read more about Jeff Brown here.

Allan Domb is a former City Council member and a real estate magnate who has poured more than $10 million of his own money into the campaign, in large part to blanket the airwaves with television commercials. He is a more conservative, business-oriented Democrat than some of his opponents, and his campaign has focused on “bringing leadership back to City Hall” and getting tough on crime.

Read more about Allan Domb here.

Helen Gym is a former City Council member and a longtime public education advocate who is a leader of the city’s progressive movement. She has been backed by the teachers union and more than a dozen progressive political organizations, as well as U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders (Ind., Vt.) and U.S. Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D., N.Y.). Her campaign has focused on leading with investments in public safety and schools.

Read more about Helen Gym here.

Cherelle Parker is a former City Council member and ex-state representative who is the pick of the city’s Democratic establishment. She has been endorsed by most of the city’s elected officials and is backed by a politically powerful coalition of building trades unions. Parker is also the only Black candidate among the top tier of contenders. She has centered her campaign messaging on her community policing plan and on restoring middle-income neighborhoods through homeownership and strong commercial corridors.

Read more about Cherelle Parker here.

Rebecca Rhynhart is the former city controller who previously worked as a top official in two mayoral administrations. She has been endorsed by three former mayors and is running on a pledge to make government work better. Rhynhart is the technocrat in the race, and she has said her campaign is about implementing needed reforms to law enforcement and the delivery of city services.

Read more about Rebecca Rhynhart here.

After three years of an unprecedented gun violence crisis in the city, crime and public safety were the hands-down top issues dominating the mayor’s race. A poll commissioned by the Lenfest Institute for Journalism and conducted by SSRS found that about 90% of respondents said crime was the No. 1 issue for the next mayor to tackle.

» READ MORE: ‘Dismal’: Philadelphians are down on their city as the mayor’s race looms, a new poll shows

The candidates spent hours at umpteen forums discussing how they’d stem the tide of shootings in the city, but many of the contenders offered similar-sounding solutions or vague promises.

Still, there was a bit of a continuum in terms of how the candidates talked about law enforcement. For example, Parker’s “community policing” plan hinges on hiring 300 more cops to walk and bike in neighborhoods. Parker, Domb, and Brown have also each in some way or another embraced stop-and-frisk as a necessary method for taking illegal guns off the street.

Rhynhart and Gym each said unequivocally they do not believe police should use stop-and-frisk. Rhynhart’s safety plan is in large part focused on reforming the police department and shifting more police from administrative roles to the street. Gym has also unveiled some police reform plans, but most of her public safety messaging has been focused on investing in new services, schools, and guaranteed jobs for young people in affected neighborhoods.

Philadelphia has had 99 mayors, and every single one was a man. For the first time in its history, three top contenders in the mayor’s race are women. And a late poll released last week showed those women leading the pack.

Philly is joined only by New York on the list of big U.S. cities never to have a female executive. That’s somewhat surprising, because women are an extremely important slice of the Democratic coalition.

The reality is that here in Philly, not that many women have tried for the Mayor’s Office. Read more about why this time around, four top women in city politics gave it a go.

Gym has over the last several weeks leaned harder into her progressive base, amassing endorsements from local and national progressives, including U.S. Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, of New York, and Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders — widely considered the leader of the national progressive movement.

If she prevails and goes on to win the general election, her win would follow other notable progressive victories in major cities, including Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass, who won late last year, and Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson, a progressive who won in a runoff and took office this week.

» READ MORE: Philly progressives have built a robust get-out-the-vote operation, and this year will test it

In some ways, this election is a big test of Philadelphia progressive power — but drawing sweeping conclusions on what it could mean for the larger movement or what it says about the mood of the city is in some ways fraught.

That’s because Philadelphia has a closed primary with no runoff or ranked choice voting, meaning the winner of the primary could emerge with the backing of just a small slice of the electorate. That person will be heavily favored to win the general election, given Democrats’ enormous voter-registration advantage.