{"id":96,"date":"2026-05-20T15:07:17","date_gmt":"2026-05-20T15:07:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/newhomeamerica.com\/?p=96"},"modified":"2026-05-20T15:07:17","modified_gmt":"2026-05-20T15:07:17","slug":"pennsylvania-results-chris-rabb-to-join-the-squad-in-congress-as-bob-brooks-tries-to-flip-key-seat","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/newhomeamerica.com\/?p=96","title":{"rendered":"Pennsylvania Results: Chris Rabb to Join the Squad in Congress as Bob Brooks Tries to Flip Key Seat"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

Chris Rabb won<\/span> by nearly 15 points in a hotly contested four-way primary on Tuesday night, marking a triumph for progressives who sought to add the Pennsylvania state representative to their ranks in Congress.<\/p>\n

Read more The End of the Voting Rights Act Isn\u2019t Just a \u201cBlack Problem\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n

The 3rd Congressional District race unfolded along key fault lines animating the Democratic Party, from the influence of special interest groups to Israel and its genocide in Gaza. It staked out a clear contest between the party\u2019s progressive and moderate wings. <\/p>\n

The split marked a contrast to the 7th Congressional District primary in the Lehigh Valley, where the left and the establishment united behind Bob Brooks, a firefighters\u2019 union chief who sailed to victory Tuesday night.<\/p>\n

Brooks will run in what\u2019s expected to be a tight general election in November against freshman Republican Rep. Ryan Mackenzie. Rabb is all but guaranteed to win the deep blue seat being vacated by retiring Rep. Dwight Evans.<\/p>\n

Rabb, who has been a vocal critic of U.S. military support for Israel, attracted endorsements from progressive members of Congress like Rashida Tlaib, D-Mich., and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y. One of his top opponents, state Sen. Sharif Street, earned the support of Sen. Cory Booker, D-N.J., while Dr. Ala Stanford, a pediatric surgeon, was backed by a pro-Israel super PAC. Also on the ballot was Shaun Griffith, an attorney who never broke through in the polls.\u00a0<\/p>\n

In a statement released Tuesday night, the Democratic Socialists of America celebrated Rabb, who recently joined the group\u2019s Philadelphia chapter, and pointed to key political causes for the left in Congress.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere is a new Democratic Socialist in Congress,\u201d the group wrote on X. \u201cWe will be with Congressman Rabb every step of the way in the fight to abolish ICE, free Palestine and win Medicare for All.\u201d<\/p>\n

Rabb has collected endorsements from 10 members of Congress, the Philadelphia Inquirer, and progressive groups including the Pennsylvania Working Families Party, the Philadelphia chapter of DSA, Justice Democrats, and Jewish Voice for Peace Action.<\/p>\n

\u201cChris Rabb is exactly what Democratic voters nationwide are demanding \u2014 progressive trailblazers who fight for their communities, not just when it\u2019s politically convenient but when it\u2019s morally necessary,\u201d said Alexandra Rojas, executive director of Justice Democrats, in a statement. \u201cWhile the party machine has spent decades failing to meet the needs of its voters, Rabb has taken the fight to corporate interests, billionaire CEOs, and Republican extremists his whole career.\u201d<\/p>\n

Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro, considered one of the Democratic Party\u2019s moderate rising stars, waded into the race in its final weeks to try to stop a powerful Philadelphia union backing Street from inadvertently boosting Rabb\u2019s campaign with attack ads against Stanford, Axios reported. Nevertheless, Stanford and Street appeared to split establishment-friendly support, trailing late Tuesday night with about 30 and 25 percent of the vote, respectively, to Rabb\u2019s 44.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Union Boss to Compete for Key Swing Seat<\/h2>\n

In the Lehigh Valley, Brooks handily defeated his primary opponents in the 7th Congressional District, marking a win likely to be claimed by the left and center alike.<\/p>\n

Brooks campaigned on affordability and fighting corruption, highlighting his union bona fides rather than aligning with a specific wing of the Democratic Party. By late Tuesday night he had secured more than double the support of any of his competitors: former federal prosecutor Ryan Crosswell; former Northampton County Executive Lamont McClure; and Carol Obando-Derstine, an engineer who previously worked for former Sen. Bob Casey, D-Pa., and former Gov. Tom Wolf. <\/p>\n

Read more Ebola Outbreak Rages After Trump Gutted Global Health Safeguards<\/a><\/p>\n

On the campaign trail, the retired firefighter argued that the real divide in his district was between the working class and the billionaire class and their allies. \u201cThe whole system is rigged against us, and the only way we\u2019re going to fix it is by sending people like us to Washington, D.C., to represent us,\u201d Brooks said at a recent event.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

Unlike in the 3rd District, progressives and more mainstream Democrats united behind Brooks. Shapiro, the governor, has been an outspoken surrogate for Brooks, who was also endorsed by Sen. Bernie Sanders and the Working Families Party.<\/p>\n

In a statement celebrating Brooks\u2019s win on Tuesday night, Sanders pointed to two other candidates with union backgrounds who prevailed in primaries this year.<\/p>\n

Brooks\u2019s win \u201cfollows the recent progressive victories of iron worker and union leader Brian Poindexter in OH, and union organizer Analilia Mej\u00eda in NJ,\u201d Sanders wrote on X. \u201cWe\u2019re making progress!\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWe deserve representatives who come from the working class and will stand up for the working class, and that\u2019s what Bob has done for his entire life and career,\u201d said Nick Gavio, mid-Atlantic communications director for the Working Families Party, in a statement announcing the party\u2019s endorsement.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

The Cook Political Report rates the general election for the 7th District a toss-up, and Brooks is expected to face a tight contest against Mackenzie, who narrowly flipped his Lehigh Valley seat from blue to red in 2024 and is widely considered to be one of the most vulnerable members of the House this cycle.\u00a0<\/p>\n

As of late Tuesday night, Brooks had nearly 42 percent of the vote, while Crosswell and McClure came just shy of 21 percent each, and Obando-Derstine received just over 17 percent.<\/p>\n

Brooks benefited from critiques of his opponent, Crosswell, a former Republican who launched his campaign after quitting the Department of Justice in the early days of the Trump administration, when federal prosecutors were under pressure to drop corruption charges against then-New York City Mayor Eric Adams in return for Adams\u2019s cooperation on immigration enforcement. Crosswell faced criticism for his previous role in prosecuting \u201cmany, many\u201d immigration cases as an assistant U.S. attorney while running for district with one the largest, but politically diverse, Latino communities in the state.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cTrump has built his agenda on targeting our immigrant community. I\u2019ve seen exactly what that means for families like mine,\u201d Obando-Derstine, who was born in Colombia, wrote in a statement to The Intercept. \u201cAnyone who chose to carry out those attacks against our community has no business being in office. We deserve leaders who stand with us when it matters, not just when it\u2019s easy.\u201d<\/p>\n

Advertisements from a mysterious super PAC called \u201cLead Left\u201d also became a backdrop to the race. The ads attacked both Brooks and Crosswell on their progressive credentials, and sought to curry left-leaning support for McClure. \u201cLamont McClure kicked ICE out of Northampton. He takes on Trump and wins,\u201d says the narrator in one of the advertisements.<\/p>\n

Although the donors are anonymous, the super PAC reportedly has connections to a prominent Republican donation-processing firm.<\/p>\n

Read more Thomas Massie Loses His Seat in a Win for Trump \u2014\u00a0and AIPAC<\/a><\/p>\n

This developing story has been updated<\/em>.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The left won a marquee primary in Philadelphia, while the establishment and progressives united around a union chief in the Lehigh Valley.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":95,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-96","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"yoast_head":"\nPennsylvania Results: Chris Rabb to Join the Squad in Congress as Bob Brooks Tries to Flip Key Seat - New Home America<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/newhomeamerica.com\/?p=96\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Pennsylvania Results: Chris Rabb to Join the Squad in Congress as Bob Brooks Tries to Flip Key Seat - 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