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you for putting yourselves out there. Thank you for
standing with me.”
The candidate pledged that “the momentum that
we have built is not going away.”
“It’s not,” she reassured her audience as they
continued to cheer. “We will continue to work together
and to fight for Philly because we have a great city,
and there is a way forward that we’ve all charted.”
The Democrat did not elaborate. It will not be her
job to do so. That task belongs to Parker, who at 11:41
p.m., tweeted the following:
“I’m so incredibly honored to have earned the
Democratic nomination tonight. It’s been a long
road, and to see the tireless work of my campaign
team, supporters, and family pay off is humbling. I’m
looking forward to November and bringing our city
together as its 100th mayor.”
Back at Craft Hall, Rhynhart exited stage left and
enjoyed a long embrace with Nutter, who had arrived
earlier in the evening. Rhynhart served in the Nutter
administration as treasurer and budget director. The
former mayor endorsed her in March.

“My advice to Rebecca was always, ‘Give it every-
thing you have.’ And if you know that you did the
best you could, then you did the best you could,”
Nutter said. “And that’s all a candidate can ever do.

Ultimately, it’s up to the voters and what they want.

Candidates don’t control the outcome.”
“I do believe that Rebecca gave every possi-
ble thing she could to this campaign,” he added.

“Campaigns are a function of the sign of the times
and the many, many things on voters’ minds.”
Nutter lost his first race for city council in 1987
but won the seat, representing Philadelphia’s fourth
district, four years later and held it for 14 years. Then
he ran for mayor and won twice. As he put it, he
knows what it feels like to win and to lose.

“There’s a certain sense of disappointment,” he
said of defeat. “A feeling that maybe you let a lot of
people down. That’s not the feeling here in the room.

You heard people chanting, ‘Rebecca.’”
Black residents make up the biggest racial
demographic in Philadelphia, and Parker’s victory,
according to several analyses, was powered by
Black and Latino neighborhoods. She differentiated
herself from other candidates on the crime issue by
making specific proposals for putting more cops on
the streets, like 300 additional foot and bike officers,
and by advocating for a “constitutional version” of
stop-and-frisk policies.

Rhynhart won the white neighborhoods but had
to share the vote with Gym and Domb. An Inquirer
breakdown showed Rhynhart winning more than
38% and more than 33% in “strong-majority-white”
(75% plus) and “majority-white” (50-75%) precincts.

Gym reached 24.9% and 30.6%, respectively,
in those areas while Domb scored in the teens.

Parker won at least 40% in every “majority” or
Rebecca Rhynhart shares an embrace with former Philadelphia Mayor Michael Nutter at her
election night watch party in Northern Liberties.

The crowd at Rebecca Rhynhart’s election
night party
“strong-majority” Black or Latino precinct, including
58.4% in “strong-majority” Black precincts.

Rhynhart said in November, after announcing her
run, that her crime-fighting strategy did not begin
with putting more cops on the streets. Instead, it
started with “intervention strategies” like job training
and therapy. Rhynhart, who grew up in a Reform
Jewish household, had a bat mitzvah at Congregation
Rodeph Shalom, sent her daughter to preschool at
Temple Beth Zion-Beth Israel and still celebrates
Jewish holidays, said her approach was motivated by
her Jewish values of empathy and fairness.

But in a city where homicides and car jackings
impacted lives and dominated the news over the
past two years, crime felt like a crisis, not a long-term
issue to solve over time. Rhynhart’s argument
Rebecca Rhynhart talks to a supporter.

convinced three former mayors, the newspaper of
record and the more than 56,000 Philadelphians
who voted for her. But with almost 99% of the vote
counted, Parker’s victory margin is more than 24,000
votes and close to 10%.

The result forced even Rhynhart supporters to look
ahead. “I am going to be excited to work with whoever the
next mayor is to advance veterans’ issues,” said Jack
Inacker, a Philadelphia resident, Rhynhart supporter
and the head of the local Veterans Caucus.

“I feel like Cherelle will stabilize the city,” said Colleen
Puckett, a Jewish Rhynhart supporter and Philadelphia
resident. “But if Rebecca doesn’t win, I feel like it’s a
missed opportunity to bring the city forward.” ■
jsaffren@midatlanticmedia.com JEWISHEXPONENT.COM
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