Two members of the Working Families Party have won seats on the Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, City Council following Tuesday night’s city elections. They are Kendra Brooks, who initially won in 2019 and was up for reelection, and Nicolas O’Rourke.
Due to how the Philadelphia City Council operates and its overwhelming partisan bend, two seats of the seven are reserved for minority parties. According to the Home Rule Charter, each party may only nominate up to five candidates. Republicans have utilized this system to secure at least two seats each election cycle for most of the past century.
This cycle, Republicans focused on two candidates instead of five in a deliberate effort to fend off challenges by Brooks and O’Rourke. As a result, members of the Democratic Party won the first five seats by large margins. However, both Republican challengers were defeated by the two Working Families Party candidates.
As of this article, city results for yesterday’s election show Kendra Brooks in 6th with 74,695 votes and Nicolas O’Rourke in 7th with 62,718 votes. Republican challengers Jim Hasher and Drew Murray have 58,060 and 57,592 votes, respectively.
In late October, news broke that members of the Democratic City Committee were being targeted by party leadership over their willingness to support Brooks and O’Rourke in an attempt to deny the Republican challengers a chance to win the minority seats. Things eventually culminated in the removal of Kate Rivera, a member of the Committee involved with a local Democratic organization that backed the two Working Families Party candidates.
“By the rules of the Democratic party, you are no longer a committee person in the 31st ward because of support for Working Families,” ward leader Peg Rzepski said to Rivera in a voicemail message shared with local media. “Thank you, and have a great life.”
Rivera’s expulsion stemmed from an earlier threat made by Philadelphia Democratic Party Chair and former Congressman Bob Brady four years prior, who similarly threatened to expel members who supported Brooks and O’Rourke in the 2019 election cycle.
As a result of the expulsion, a letter endorsing both candidates was signed by over 100 members of the Philadelphia City Committee. It’s yet to be determined if similar removals will continue in light of Brooks and O’Rourke’s Tuesday victories.
Readers of Independent Political Report can learn more information about the expulsions by following our previous coverage here.
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