Warren Bloom Sr.
He is a perennial candidate who’s previously run for city commissioner, state legislature, and traffic court. According to his campaign website, he’s worked as a music and media professional, minister, and public claims adjuster, as well as spending time as a community organizer, block captain, and volunteer.
Bloom has tried to run for office in Philly at least six times before. Media scrutiny of his candidacy a decade ago revealed a criminal record, including a conviction of corrupting a minor in the 1990s.
Bloom, a lifelong resident of the city, said he ran for mayor after consulting with his pastor, family, friends, and neighbors.
On his GoFundMe page, Bloom mentions a “6 Point Plan for Philadelphia” that prioritizes public safety and reducing crime, education, the opioid crisis, trash disposal, economic development, and legalizing cannabis.
Jeff Brown
The only declared candidate who has never worked in government or run for office, Jeff Brown is a fourth-generation grocer who has owned more than a dozen ShopRite and Fresh Grocer stores in the city, including seven in underserved neighborhoods.
Brown, who owns several Shop Rite stores in the area, announced his campaign in November.
He was the first candidate out with TV ads, which were funded by a super PAC. He may be best known for opposing current Mayor Jim Kenney’s sweetened beverage tax, which helps fund park and library renovations, childcare programs, and the city budget. When Brown closed one of his stores in 2019, he blamed it on the tax.
He has no government experience but said he’s running to help improve the city and make it safer.
He has received an endorsement from Transport Workers Union Local 234. The union with 5,300 members is the largest representing SEPTA workers.
James DeLeon
Retired Judge James DeLeon, who was born and raised in West Philly, served on Philadelphia Municipal Court for 34 years and faced disciplinary issues twice. He graduated from Howard University and then later on Widener Law, spending some time working for the PHA and running his own practice.
One of DeLeon’s main objectives as mayor is to implement what he calls the Local Incident Management System (LIMS), which would create a set of processes and procedures which would be used by the city government to combat gun violence.
Former Philadelphia municipal court judge Jimmy DeLeon officially announced his campaign in late November. He spent 34 years as a judge before retiring in 2021.
DeLeon’s campaign website says he wants «to bring about positive change in the city.»
David Oh
David Oh is the only Republican in the race. He was in his third term as an at-large council member when he resigned in February to launch his campaign. He previously worked as an assistant district attorney in Philadelphia, served in the National Guard, and started a solo law practice that merged with a larger firm. He grew up in Cobbs Creek and continues to live there with his family.
Oh is known for bucking the local GOP and winning reelection without party endorsement, although it is now supporting his mayoral run. He tried to shut down the Republican-dominated Philadelphia Parking Authority and sought an audit of the agency. He tried to repeal the city’s soda tax, joined Asian-American business owners in fighting a bill targeting stop-and-go liquor stores, authored legislation to make it harder for illegal squatters to take over homes, and investigated DHS guidelines for reporting child abuse.
Oh, joined the race on Feb. 13 during a news conference at the National Constitution Center. He was one of just two Republicans on the council.
Cherelle Parker
Cherelle Parker is the longest serving legislative official in the race. She spent a decade in Harrisburg as a state representative from 2005-2015, and the following 7 years as a member of the City Council representing Northwest Philly’s District 9, where she grew up and still lives.
Much of her work has revolved around the “middle neighborhoods” that exist within her district, in hopes that they can be a model for the city more widely. She made history in 2021 as the first woman appointed chair of the Delaware River Port Authority, the bi-state organization that runs PATCO and oversees tolls on four cross-river bridges.
Parker, a former councilmember, and state representative said she will crack down on drug sales in Kensington.
In a Twitter thread after a forum on gun violence, Parker said she is opposed to a proposed safe injection site, wants to update the police department’s forensics capabilities, and increase the number of body-worn cameras in the department.
Maria Quiñones Sánchez
First elected in 2007 to represent District 7 and reelected three times since, former Councilmember Maria Quiñones Sánchez is known for her melding of progressive and pro-business stances. The Kensington resident has a record of bucking local Democratic party leaders, who declined to endorse her Council runs.
Quiñones Sánchez, the first Latina to hold elected office in Philly, worked to mandate construction of affordable housing and proposed a stimulus spending package to boost Black and brown neighborhoods. She fiercely criticized the soda tax, reaping election-year support from the beverage industry.
After working in former Councilmember Angel Ortiz’s office, she led the educational organization Aspira. During her tenure, Aspira opened the city’s first bilingual charter school, Eugenio Maria de Hostos in Olney.
According to her campaign website, Quiñones Sánchez has a public safety plan that includes better-lit city streets and crackdowns on illegal garbage dumping. She pledges to include a civilian chief financial officer and «increase fiscal accountability.»
Allan Domb
From a working-class background, former Councilmember Allan Domb, AKA Philadelphia’s “Condo King,” made his name (and fortune) by buying up buildings, particularly in the area around Rittenhouse Square. Three decades into running his real estate biz, he was elected to an at-large seat on City Council, where he spent much of his time focusing on fiscal issues.
Domb’s been crisscrossing the city regularly on public transit, meeting voters in various neighborhoods. He’s spending a bunch of his own money on this race; enough to trigger the city’s “millionaire’s amendment,” which doubles the limit on individual campaign contributions. He said he wanted to run for mayor after constituents told him they did not feel safe in the city.
Here is part of a statement Domb gave after resigning from Council: «Philadelphia is the poorest big city in the country. We are staring down the highest murder rate in our history… But while the challenges we face are great, so too is the opportunity we have to be the city our people deserve.»
Derek Green
Before getting elected to City Council, Derek Green was a small business owner, running a Northwest Philly retail shoe store with his wife. He spent time as an assistant district attorney and worked for the city’s Law Department.
In his years as at-large council member, Green forwarded a variety of initiatives aimed at new avenues for public funding, like the Philadelphia Public Financial Authority and a marijuana legalization plan. He also led the recent charge in negotiating cuts to Philly’s business and wages taxes. Green is the only candidate who has publicly said PPD Commissioner Danielle Outlaw should be replaced.
Green was an at-large councilmember since 2015. He was previously an assistant district attorney in the city and a federal prosecutor in Delaware. For more than a decade, he was special counsel for former councilmember Marian Tasco.
Helen Gym
Helen Gym was a second-term at-large councilmember when she resigned from office to run for mayor, but she was a known quantity in the Philly politics world well before that. Once dubbed the city’s “preeminent public agitator,” the former teacher spent years advocating for improved public schools, and was active in Philly’s Asian American community, protesting against proposed developments in Chinatown.
On Council, Gym focused her efforts on education, labor and housing. Her mayoral campaign seeks to deliver on progressive priorities, like debt-free college and a municipal Green New Deal.
Former City Councilmember Helen Gym joined the race for Philadelphia mayor in late November. Gym stepped down from Philadelphia City Council, where she served six years as an at-large council member.
In her announcement, Gym said on her first day, she would declare a state of emergency and focus all city departments on community safety.
Rebecca Rhynhart
Following a stint in financial services and banking, Rebecca Rhynhart got her start in government as city treasurer in 2008 under Mayor Michael Nutter, and later served as his budget director and chief administrative officer, a job she continued under Kenney.
Elected as city controller in 2017, Rhynhart reimagined the office to take a more active role in policy analysis, challenging the “political status quo” and producing interactive tools to help find solutions to issues like gun violence.
Rebecca Rhynhart launched her campaign for Philadelphia mayor in late October. On that same day, she also resigned from her position as Philadelphia City Controller.
Rhynhart emphasized the urgency of addressing the city’s gun violence crisis in her campaign launch.
She later got an endorsement from former Philadelphia mayor John Street.
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