Philly City Council results: Democrats sweep four open seats in special elections

Democrats won four open seats on Philadelphia City Council in special elections Tuesday, bringing the city’s legislative body back to its full 17-member complement after a series of resignations.

In the race for two open at-large seats representing the entire city, Jimmy Harrity, the political director of the state Democratic Party, and Sharon Vaughn, a ward leader and longtime fixture in City Hall, prevailed Tuesday over Republicans.

Quetcy Lozada, a Democrat and Council aide, won the 7th District seat representing parts of North Philadelphia and Kensington, replacing her former boss, María Quiñones-Sánchez, who had held the seat for 14 years.

And Anthony Phillips, a nonprofit leader, won the 9th District seat representing parts of Northeast and Northwest Philadelphia, which had for six years been held by Cherelle L. Parker.

All four Democrats were nominated by party ward leaders — not voters — who choose the nominees in special elections to fill Council vacancies. The slots were open after Quiñones-Sánchez, Parker, Derek Green, and Allan Domb resigned to run or consider running in next year’s mayoral election.

The new Council members will serve out the remaining 14 months of the current term. All 17 seats will be up for election next year. Harrity, Lozada, and Phillips have said they intend to run for a full term, but Vaughn has said she does not plan to run again.

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Democrats were all but guaranteed to win the seats, given the party’s 7-1 voter registration advantage across the city. The partisan balance of Council will not change — 14 Democrats and two Republicans will sit on Council, plus one member of the politically progressive Working Families Party.

All of the candidates who won Tuesday consider themselves political centrists, making them unlikely to align with Council’s more progressive wing, which has been ascendant in recent years. The leaders who control the Democratic city committee rarely nominate candidates from the party’s left wing.

The members will likely be sworn in this month, and their seating will bring Council back to its usual size of 10 district Council members and seven members who serve at-large. At least two more at-large members, Democrat Helen Gym and Republican David Oh, are considering resigning to join the mayoral field.

The vacancies have made for an unusually quiet fall Council session. Under city law, legislation still requires nine votes to pass, and 12 votes are required to override mayoral vetoes. City Council President Darrell L. Clarke called for the special elections to fill the two at-large seats as ballots were being finalized, only after the mayor vetoed a zoning bill.

While they’ll reliably vote alongside Council’s Democratic leadership, the four new members will no doubt inject fresh perspectives. Lozada, 52, will be the only Latina to sit on the body, and Phillips, 33, will become Council’s youngest member.

And three of them will have roots in the city’s 7th Council District, which includes some of the most economically challenged parts of the city. While Lozada will represent the district on Council, Vaughn is from Feltonville, and Harrity lives in Kensington.

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Harrity, 50, a longtime aide to State Sen. Sharif Street (D., Philadelphia), beat Republican Drew Murray, a Center City civic leader, and Libertarian Poetica Bey. The seat he fills was left open by Domb, a real estate magnate who is considering running for mayor.

Harrity spent election night at the headquarters of his Kensington-based ward. A longtime Democratic aide and political operative, Harrity said he’s still getting used to being the face of a campaign.

“I’m still Jimmy,” he said. “I had never thought I would ever run. I was comfortable being the guy behind the guy. But I talk to these young kids in the neighborhood. They don’t want anything extra. They just want a fair shot.”

Vaughn, 58, the former chief of staff to ex-Councilmember Green, prevailed in the other at-large race over Republican Jim Hasher, a real estate broker and restaurant owner, and Libertarian Marc Jurchak.

While hosting an election-night party in Olney, Vaughn said her victory “shows that hard work pays off.” She said her first priority once she takes office will be addressing rising rates of gun violence.

“I grew up in this city and lived here my entire life,” she said. “We have to start to address the violence that we have in our city. We have to stop killing each other.”

Vaughn has said that she does not intend to run next year for a full term.

Phillips, who lives in East Mount Airy, will represent his neighborhood as well as East and West Oak Lane, Olney, and several neighborhoods in the lower Northeast, including Lawndale and Oxford Circle. He’ll fill the seat that has long been held by elected officials affiliated with the storied Northwest Coalition, including legendary Black politicians like Marian Tasco and John White Jr.

“It’s hard to celebrate this particular race in Philadelphia, because there’s so much work to be done,” Phillips said Tuesday night. “It’s important that I really focus on what can I do to take the foundation that was created here so that we can forge better results.”

Lozada will represent a predominantly Latino community that includes parts of Kensington, Juniata, Feltonville, and Frankford. Residents often rely on Council members to overcome language barriers and other hurdles to civic participation, and the district includes the parts of the city that have been the epicenter of the opioid epidemic.

Murray and Hasher have said they intend to run again for a full term. Of the seven at-large seats on Council, two are effectively reserved for members of parties outside the majority.

“We knew this was a long shot,” Murray said Tuesday night. “This was almost like a warm-up for next year.”

Staff writers Wendy Ruderman and Sean Collins Walsh contributed to this article.