Cherelle Parker’s stance on gun violence won over Philadelphians

Every time Sharee Booker watches the news and sees that another Philadelphia family has lost a child to gun violence, she feels as if she’s transported back to Nov. 5, 2018 — the day her son Na’Jay Williams-White, 18 and just about to apply for college, was fatally shot.

The trauma and grief of losing her eldest son has changed her life, she said. She constantly worries for her two younger children, especially her 10-year-old son.

“I hold them real tight,” said Booker, 37. “They don’t go too many places without me at all times.”

This is the reality, she said, of many women — especially Black mothers — in Philadelphia. And for too long, she said, Philadelphia’s leadership has not fully understood that experience.

It’s why on Tuesday, Booker cast a vote for Cherelle Parker for mayor.

“Cherelle Parker, as a woman, as a mother, being in the community, she can feel how these mothers feel,” said Booker, of Germantown.

» READ MORE: The voters who propelled Cherelle Parker to victory

Parker ultimately secured the Democratic nomination for mayor, making it likely in deep-blue Philadelphia that she will prevail in the November general election and becomes the city’s 100th mayor. She would be the first woman to hold the title and would take office in January.

Parker’s path to victory was never guaranteed, but it was powered by Black and Latino voters — particularly residents of the poor and low-income neighborhoods hardest hit by the city’s gun violence crisis. Areas with the highest concentrations of shootings, particularly parts of North and West Philadelphia, handed Parker roughly half their votes in a field with five top contenders, an Inquirer analysis showed.

For many voters affected by violence, it wasn’t necessarily Parker’s specific policies or plans to address crime that secured their votes, they said, it was her tone and identity — a feeling that as a Black woman and mother to a young boy, she understood the urgency to address a crisis overwhelmingly impacting Black families and claiming the lives of young Black men.

“It would be more of a concern for her because she has a child walking the streets,” said Charles Davis, a father of three who lives in Mantua.

Davis, 49, said crime was his top concern as a voter. He recalled how, about a month ago, a shoot-out erupted on his block as he and his brother sat on the porch.

“We had to duck bullets and hit the floor,” he said.

He was originally torn between Parker and grocer Jeff Brown, he said, but Parker’s persona won him over.

“It was her tone and approach,” said Davis, a cook. Even though most candidates “were saying similar things” in how they’d address violence, he said, Parker “seemed stronger” and “more convincing.”

“She didn’t say anything that blew me away … it was just the way she came across,” he said.

Low-income communities of color have long borne the brunt of gun violence in the city. And while the recent spike in shootings has affected nearly every section of the city, neighborhoods in parts of North, West, and Southwest Philadelphia have had a far higher concentration.

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

In wards 7 and 33, which include Kensington, and Harrowgate — areas with some of the highest rates of violence fueled largely by open-air drug markets — about 40% of voters chose Parker.

Parker’s campaign believes she pulled support in neighborhoods most affected by crime because she struck a more balanced tone on the issue.

The only Black candidate among the top contenders, Parker leaned on her personal experience growing up in a working-class neighborhood and now as a single mother of a young boy. A television advertisement that her campaign ran late in the race showed Parker with her 10-year-old, Langston, saying: “As a mom, I can’t imagine losing my child. As mayor, I’m determined to put a stop to gun violence.”

She vowed to “save a generation of Philly kids.”

Lorraine Nesmith, 51, from North Philadelphia, said Parker’s television advertisements drew her in.

“She got your attention compared to the others,” said Nesmith, a block captain near 23rd and Sedgley.

“She’s a single mother raising a child, so she knows how it is to be out here,” she said. “It’s dangerous out here. She wants to see change happen.”

Parker’s public safety plan did focus on policing more than some of her opponents. Over a year ago — before launching her campaign for mayor — she unveiled her signature community policing plan, which calls for hiring 300 new officers to patrol neighborhoods on foot and bike.

Booker said this was a big point for her. She’s eager to see more police walking around and interacting with the community, instead of sitting in their cars on the corner. The detectives assigned to investigate her son’s murder “dropped the ball,” she said, and the crime remains unsolved. She said she feels like they didn’t do enough street-level work on the case.

“These detectives, all police, need to be held accountable,” she said.

Last summer, Parker also appeared alongside Council President Darrell L. Clarke to call on city officials to take another look at the controversial police tactic known as stop-and-frisk. She has called it a necessary tool to get illegal guns off the street.

But on the campaign trail, Parker stressed that her positions are nuanced. She said she would have “no tolerance for misuse or abuse” by police, and said she supports “constitutional stop-and-frisk,” a legally authorized tactic that is currently used by Philadelphia police (but far less frequently than in years’ past).

» READ MORE: Progressive mayors have won elections in Boston, Los Angeles, and Chicago. Here’s why Philadelphia’s race was different.

Still, critics — especially from the Democratic party’s left wing — said Parker’s tough-on-crime proposals leaned too heavily into law enforcement. By contrast, progressive Helen Gym, who came in third, often said her plan led with investments outside policing, and she emphasized her guaranteed jobs program for young people.

Sinceré Harris, Parker’s campaign manager, said in an interview that some mayoral candidates — four of whom live in Center City — seemed out of touch. She said it was “infuriating that people who live nowhere near these neighborhoods feel that they can speak for a lot of the folks who do live here.”

“We don’t think we speak for everyone,” Harris said, “but I think we were much more in touch with the average person being able to walk and chew gum at the same time.”

In an interview Wednesday, Parker said implementing her safety plan is her top priority: “We are going to get our community-based officers walking on our streets and riding bikes.”

Booker’s mother, Theresa Williams, also voted for Parker, and persuaded her boyfriend to do the same, she said.

“I already lost a grandson,” said Williams, 57, of West Philadelphia. “I would like to see the violence stop ... and I think she can do it.”

Staff writers Aseem Shukla, Sean Collins Walsh and Lynette Hazelton contributed to this article.