Chris Rabb wins Philly's open seat in Congress. Here are the Council districts he'll share
The AP called the 3rd District for Rabb at 8:28 p.m. Boyle and Scanlon won new terms. By our count, Rabb's district takes in all or part of seven Council districts.
State Rep. Chris Rabb will be Philadelphia's newest member of Congress. The Associated Press called the 3rd Congressional District race for Rabb, a Democrat, at 8:28 p.m. Tuesday, WHYY reported. He defeated independent Dennis Mahoney and will succeed U.S. Rep. Dwight Evans, who is retiring, in January.
Philadelphia's two other House members, Democrats Brendan Boyle and Mary Gay Scanlon, won new terms, according to the Philadelphia Citizen and the City Commissioners' unofficial returns. Nationally, Democrats won control of the House, WHYY reported.
Why it matters at City Hall: decisions in Washington shape the money the city gets for health, housing and other programs. Before the election, the state oversight board for the city's finances, PICA, warned that "The City does not have the fiscal capacity to make up widespread reductions in federal support," the Philadelphia Tribune reported.
The Philadelphia vote
These are Philadelphia votes only, from unofficial results posted by the Philadelphia City Commissioners, last updated at 10:25 a.m. Wednesday, Nov. 4, with 1,694 of 1,703 divisions reporting (congressional results). The 5th District also covers much of Delaware County, which counts its own ballots.
| District | Winner | Votes | Share | Runner-up | Votes | |---|---|---|---|---|---| | 2nd | Brendan Boyle (D) | 142,925 | 80.3% | Jessica Arriaga (R) | 34,584 | | 3rd | Chris Rabb (D) | 245,537 | 93.3% | Dennis Mahoney (I) | 16,746 | | 5th (Phila. part) | Mary Gay Scanlon (D) | 15,377 | 80.8% | Nick Manganaro (R) | 3,613 |
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Shares are our math from the commissioners' counts and include write-ins in the total.
What our records add: which Council districts each member will share
Members of Congress and Councilmembers often work the same federal grants, transit projects and constituent problems. We matched the voting divisions in each congressional race to the 2024 Council district boundaries (divisions, districts). By that count:
- Rabb's 3rd District includes all of the 4th Council District, represented by Curtis Jones Jr., nearly all of the 3rd (Jamie Gauthier, 164 of 173 divisions) and most of the 8th (Cindy Bass, 169 of 187). It also takes in parts of the 2nd (Kenyatta Johnson), 5th (Jeffery Young Jr.), 1st (Mark Squilla) and 9th (Anthony Phillips).
- Boyle's 2nd District includes all of the 6th, 7th and 10th Council districts, represented by Mike Driscoll, Quetcy Lozada and Brian J. O'Neill, plus parts of the 9th, 1st, 5th and 8th.
- Scanlon's Philadelphia slice is mostly in the 2nd Council District, in South and Southwest Philadelphia, with a few divisions in the 1st and 3rd.
The seven at-large members represent the whole city.
Rabb's state House seat
Rabb gave up his Northwest Philadelphia seat in the state House, the 200th District, to run for Congress. Democrat Chris Johnson won it without a Republican opponent, with 29,644 votes in the commissioners' unofficial count. By our mapping, the 200th sits in the 8th and 9th Council districts.
What's next
- January: Rabb is sworn in with the new Congress, WHYY reported.
- Certification: The commissioners begin the official count Friday, Nov. 6 (notice). The Philadelphia results are final only after certification.
- At City Hall: Council's next stated meeting is Nov. 12. The city's state delegation results are in our companion story.