Philly Democratic officials are backing third-party progressives, despite threats from Bob Brady

An increasing number of Philadelphia Democratic officials are breaking with party leadership and supporting a pair of third-party progressives who are running for City Council.

And in doing so, they’re risking their status with the party entirely.

On Thursday, South Philly’s Second Ward announced it is endorsing Working Families Party members Kendra Brooks and Nicolas O’Rourke, becoming the first Democratic ward in recent memory to back candidates outside their own party in a general election.

Bob Brady, chair of the Democratic City Committee, said that the endorsement is against the party bylaws and that he will seek to have the ward leader and committee members who supported it replaced ahead of the Nov. 7 general election.

“We got to have some kind of discipline,” he said.

The episode shows how the progressive Working Families Party has upended the status quo in Philadelphia politics, as some Democrats are willing to challenge their own party establishment to align with them as they try to secure two seats on Council that are effectively reserved for non-Democrats.

The race between the Working Families Party and the GOP to secure those two seats is one of the most heated this election season and the most competitive local race this fall. Ten elected Democrats have endorsed the Working Families Party candidates, including Sen. John Fetterman. Gov. Josh Shapiro endorsed Brooks, an incumbent Council member.

Riverwards Area Democrats, a group of activists and committee members, also endorsed Brooks and O’Rourke this week, and a group of a dozen Black committee people said they sent a letter to Brady saying his posture toward the Working Families Party candidates is “unacceptable.” Brady said that, by Thursday evening, he hadn’t seen the letter.

The Second Ward, made up of elected committee people and led by progressives, remains the most notable group of Democrats to buck Brady, who has before threatened to expel members of the city committee who support anyone but Democrats.

Will Gross, the newly elected ward leader, said that the ward also endorsed all five Democratic nominees and that Democrats “will not lose by supporting the Working Families Party.”

“It’s time for our Democratic Party to recognize that if we are to be the party of poor and working-class people across this city,” he said, “we must support Kendra and Nicolas in their fight against the GOP.”

The Second Ward’s move means that voters in a large swath of South Philadelphia will receive sample ballots on Election Day that have seven people: Brooks and O’Rourke, plus all five Democratic nominees. While the top seven finishers win seats, voters can pick only five candidates.

Brady said it “makes absolutely no sense” to endorse seven candidates when voters can pick only up to five. Gross said the ward sees it as “endorsing seven candidates for seven slots.”

» READ MORE: Critics are questioning the Working Families Party’s independence as it gains traction in Philly

With two Republicans and two Working Families Party members in the race, all five Democratic nominees are highly likely to win.

A Democrat who lost would have to be beaten by three candidates who are either Republicans or third-party members. There are nearly seven times more registered Democrats in Philadelphia than Republicans, and in 2019, the Democrat who finished in fifth place still won more than three times as many votes as Brooks, who finished sixth.

When Brooks and O’Rourke ran for Council four years ago, Brady reminded committee members that it’s against the party’s bylaws to support candidates who aren’t Democrats and that members can be kicked off the committee for doing so.

Some individual members and elected officials endorsed the Working Families Party slate anyway, but no entire ward endorsed the candidates. Expulsions didn’t happen.

The Working Families Party has insisted that in pushing for its two candidates, it isn’t telling voters which Democrats they should or shouldn’t vote for.

But two Democrats who were not supported by the Working Families Party in the spring primary, Nina Ahmad and freshman Councilmember Jim Harrity, have been critical of Democrats who support the third party.

Other political power brokers have come to their defense. Ryan N. Boyer, business manager of the deep-pocketed Philadelphia Building & Construction Trades Council, said Wednesday that there is an “insidious plot” afoot to deprive Ahmad and Harrity of seats on Council.

“To any ward leader that’s listening,” Boyer said, “if we see any ballot without Jim Harrity and Nina Ahmad on it, you’re not the Philadelphia Building Trades’ friend.”

But the Second Ward has plenty of its own allies. The Riverwards Area Democrats, based in Fishtown, also said Thursday that they are backing the Working Families Party slate.

And a group of 13 Democratic committee people from across the city said they sent a letter to Brady saying his “attacks against two Black progressive candidates who share our goal of defeating the Republican Party in Philadelphia are unacceptable.”

The committee people said the Working Families Party poses no threat to endorsed Democrats and cited a recent interview on NBC10 in which Brady said: “I doubt very much, like last time, it won’t affect the Democrats.”

Rikeyah Lindsay, a committee member in West Philadelphia’s 24th Ward who signed the letter, said Brady’s posture toward Democrats who support the Working Families Party amounts to “voter suppression.”

“People talk about voter apathy, but things like this are what creates voter apathy,” she said. “People know who they support and then are threatened because it doesn’t go along with the status quo.”