Let’s suppose you’re the kind of Democrat who — like me — derides Republicans for declaring war on expertise. From vaccines and climate change to tariffs and foreign aid, we say, the GOP has discarded professional knowledge in its quest for power.
Why, then, do we support candidates who lack expertise — and experience — themselves?
That’s the question we should be asking about Graham Platner, whose campaign for the Senate is on the ropes following a former girlfriend’s claim that he had sexually assaulted her. Platner has never held elected office; his only political experience was a stint on his town planning board.
How can we be OK with that? If we value expertise in government, we should want leaders who have demonstrated it. But Democratic voters seem to be moving in the opposite direction.
In the recent New York primary, they chose Darializa Avila Chevalier to replace five-term, 71-year-old Rep. Adriano Espaillat. The first Dominican American — and the first formerly undocumented immigrant — to be elected to Congress, Espaillat helped win measures protecting delivery drivers and home-based childcare providers. But he lost to a 32-year-old graduate student who has zero political experience.
Darializa Avila Chevalier (center), alongside New York Mayor Zohran Mamdani (left), greets supporters after winning the Democratic nomination for New York’s 13th Congressional District.
Neither does Melat Kiros, 29, who unseated 15-term Rep. Diana DeGette, 68, in the Democratic primary in Colorado. She has worked as a lawyer and — more recently — as a barista. But when it comes to politics, she is a complete novice.
Then there’s Platner. A combat veteran and oyster farmer, he ran as an aw-shucks common man. That meant eschewing what he called “the establishment,” including experienced political consultants and pollsters.
But guess what? It turns out experience matters. The young Democratic operative who recruited Platner to run for Senate bypassed the standard background check, which usually takes a few weeks. He opted instead for a three-day “investigation” by a firm that didn’t even bother to interview Platner or solicit a questionnaire from him.
To its credit, the firm flagged some of Platner’s controversial Reddit posts. But a more thorough — and, yes, professional — background check would surely have uncovered his “unsettling” behavior around women, which former girlfriend Jenny Racicot described to reporters last month.
And earlier this week, Racicot said Platner had shown up drunk at her house — after she asked him to stay away — and forcibly had sex with her. Platner denied the charge, but he said he was “mindful of the political reality it would inflict” and that he was taking time to “reflect” on how to proceed.
Leading Democrats — including Sens. Elizabeth Warren and Bernie Sanders — called on Platner to quit the race, and I agree with them. But I also think the party should reflect on why we continue to elevate candidates who lack any real political experience.
To defenders of these outsiders, their inexperience is a selling point. If you want to challenge the establishment, the argument goes, you need people who aren’t tainted by it — which was a major sentiment behind then-29-year-old Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s upset in New York’s 14th Congressional District in 2018. Ever since, some have argued, that’s the only way to get progressives into power.
Nonsense. Here in Philadelphia, Chris Rabb scored a stunning victory in the May primary race to replace Rep. Dwight Evans. Like Chevalier and Kiros, Rabb calls himself a democratic socialist. But he also has significant experience in government.
Jonathan Zimmerman wonders how voters can be OK with supporting Graham Platner, a Senate candidate who has never held elected office.
Rabb served for five terms in the Pennsylvania House of Representatives, where he sponsored bills to repeal the death penalty and to promote restorative justice in criminal sentencing. He knows his way around Washington, too. Earlier in his career, he worked as an aide to Carol Moseley Braun, the first African American woman in the U.S. Senate.
Whatever you think of Rabb’s politics, he is qualified for the job. And we should care about that. Just like we shouldn’t make a housing official the director of national intelligence, we shouldn’t make an oysterman a member of Congress. To serve effectively in government — like any other professional role — you need knowledge and experience.
And if you think otherwise, just look at the guy in the White House. America elected 44 presidents before Donald Trump. Forty-one of them had held prior political office; the other three (Zachary Taylor, Ulysses S. Grant, and Dwight D. Eisenhower) were victorious U.S. war generals.
Experts don’t know everything, of course, and they can be wrong (see: COVID-19 lockdowns). But they do know more than the rest of us about what they do. In choosing candidates like Graham Platner, Democrats turned their backs on that principle. Let’s hope they rediscover it before it’s too late.
Jonathan Zimmerman teaches education and history at the University of Pennsylvania. He is the author of “Schooling Citizens: How Education Can Save Democracy,” which will be published next spring by American Philosophical Society Press.
On a sweltering and humid summer afternoon — as tourists and historical reenactors milled about Old City ahead of 250th anniversary celebrations — Cristian Marín guided his family through the President’s House.
Loyal soccer fans, Marín’s family had traveled from Colombia to visit their son in Philadelphia, attend the World Cup matches, and see the Revolutionary Erasites.
But it was up to Marín, 37, to play tour guide last Friday and explain to his family why large gaps of brick wall were covered by paper adorned with handwritten messages expressing their indignation with President Donald Trump after his administrationremovedexhibits about slavery at George Washington’s former home in Independence National Historical Park.
Marín’s family started laughing from pure disbelief about the “craziness of the situation,”he said.
Marín’s relatives are among an influx of tourists visiting Philadelphia in the lead up to the city’s Semiquincentennial festivities only to find themselves confronted with evidence of the largely partisan battle playing out over how to tell the complicated story of America’s founding.
“For me, it’s shocking to see a country trying to erase that history,” said Marín, a freelancejournalist. “I think it’s important to remember our past in order to just not repeat those kinds of things.”
Cristian Marín, 37, tours the President’s House in Independence National Historical Park last week.
Ahead of the 250th, both Philadelphians who have been engaged in the fight to protect historical exhibits and tourists who have wandered through the President’s House for the first time, have lamented the Trump administration’s changes to the exhibit, which was largely dismantled by the administration earlier this year.
They told The Inquirer that the missing panels, such as those that discuss the brutality of slavery, do a significant disservice to understanding the full picture — even the ugly parts — of U.S. history.
“History is going to be out there, and the more we share history, the better for everybody,” said Hector Vargas, 40, from New York. “For the new generation, and even ourselves, because this is something from the past and we need to understand better — what happened and how this great country basically became the great country it is.”
The Philadelphia Convention and Visitors Bureau estimates that from 250th-related events alone the city will welcome over 1.5 million overnight visitors in 2026.
But the turmoil facing the President’s House is hanging over the celebrations, as the site’s stakeholders and the Trump administration battle over which version of history residents and visitors will see as they celebrate on Independence Mall.
Judges presiding over lawsuits related to the President’s House or other threats by the Trump administration to change historical content at national parks have viewed the Fourth of July as a deadline to set the record straight as to whether the federal government has the authority to rewrite history.
Some advocates believe the Trump administration saw it that way, too.
Visitors read unofficial signage put up to protest the Trump administration’s changes to the President’s House site, which memorializes the nine people enslaved by George Washington in Philadelphia.
The Inquirer reported that the federal government also quietly removed mentions of slavery from Independence Hall and a panel under Thomas Jefferson’s portrait at the Second Bank — sending a new wave of outrage among historians and advocates ahead of this weekend.
“In the 250th anniversary of the founding of the Declaration of Independence, there’s probably increased impetus and motivation to get these changes installed before the dawn of the Fourth,” said Paul Steinke, executive director of the Preservation Alliance for Greater Philadelphia.
‘They want to make us believe that slavery did not happen’
Perched on folding chairs bordered by patriotic banners that flapped in the wind, dozens of Philadelphians spent their Friday night at the People’s Plaza, a concrete gathering space just steps away from the President’s House eight days before the 250th anniversary.
A truck displaying a digital screen with the name of the event, “Trump Fascism: Historical Erasure and the Battle Over the Truth,” parked across the street.
With Independence Hall towering behind them, state Rep. Chris Rabb, attorney and advocate Michael Coard, civil rights organizer Masaru Edmund Nakawatase, and visual artist Dread Scott railed against the federal government’s changes to history at an event hosted by Refuse Fascism, an anti-Trump organization.
The gathering is one of many events opponents to the Trump administration’s actions are holding in the days surrounding the 250th. Coard’s group, Avenging the Ancestors Coalition, is hosting its annual Black Independence Day on July Fourth at the President’s House.
“We have so much power and it scares these people. If it didn’t scare them, why would they be worried about this exhibit right here?” Rabb (D., Philadelphia) declared, pointing at the President’s House.
Rabb, who will represent parts of Philadelphia in Congress after winning the Democratic primary for the Third District in May, has often spoken of how he is a descendant of both a signer of the Declaration of Independence who enslaved people and of Black abolitionists.
The Trump administration had spent a year eyeing the President’s House and other exhibits before they abruptly dismantled the site in January, just weeks into the nation’s 250th year. Last year, the president had issued an executive order directing parks to conduct a content review of materials that could “inappropriately disparage Americans past or living.”
Subsequent legal battles have allowed some — but not all — of original panels to be reinstalled, though the administration can now install its own spin on history at the President’s House, the Third Circuit Court of Appeals in Philadelphia has ruled.
But the struggle to confront the full scope of U.S. history is baffling to some visitors, like Camila Ordenana, 24, from Ecuador. Ordenana, who ventured from Guayaquil to Philadelphia to attend a World Cup game, said she hasnever seen this kind of censorship in her other travels.
“It is weird, because we have been to several places, several historical cities, like, I can remember going to the U.K. or going to Germany, and you can learn about the experience in a very neutral and respectful way,” Ordenana said.
Katrie White, 53, from Illinois, traveled to Philadelphia specifically for sightseeing to learn more about African American history. She said she was disturbed by the removal of the signs.
“They want to make us believe that slavery did not happen,” White said. “And that’s how it affected African Americans, that it wasn’t a big deal, that it made us better. But of course, we all know that it didn’t, and it really did affect us. It was a trauma that is still carried on to this day.”
Many Philadelphians appear to agree.
A recent Suffolk University / Inquirer poll found that a quarter of city residents see preserving historic sites as Philadelphia’s top responsibility to the nation ahead of the 250th.
Richard Porter (left), 52, of Michigan, at the President’s House last week.
Gathered by the Market Street entrance of the President’s House last Friday, looking at the colorful illustration panels that remained, Richard Porter grappled with the impact of the removals, saying that without the educational information, “We’ll repeat it over and over again.”
The Michigan resident said that the country is at a point where it needs to move forward but that the changes to the President’s House are sowing further divisions.
“This is an everyday battle. It’s not just today or for the 250; this is all the time,” Porter said.
Gov. Josh Shapiro is by far the most popular political figure among Philadelphia residents, a boost as he looks toward November and beyond.
In a new Suffolk University/Philadelphia Inquirer CityView poll,62% of Philadelphians have a favorable opinion of Shapiro, double digits above any other political figure included in the survey.
Not only did the Democratic incumbent running for reelection win over three-quarters of his own party’s votersin the blue stronghold, he also got positive reviews from almost halfthe city’sindependents and more than one-third of Republicans.
“He has strong bona fides within his own party, 76% favorable and 11% unfavorable, but he’s also at least somewhat competitive among independents and even some Republicans, so that’s an amazing profile for a candidate who’s an incumbent these days,” said David Paleologos, the polling director at Suffolk.
Just 16% of residents have an unfavorable view of Shapiro, and only 8% have never heard of the one-term governor, who was on former Vice President Kamala Harris’ short list of potential running mates in 2024.
(function(){function e(){window.addEventListener(`message`,function(e){if(e.data[`datawrapper-height`]!==void 0){var t=document.querySelectorAll(`iframe`);for(var n in e.data[`datawrapper-height`])for(var r=0,i;i=t[r];r++)if(i.contentWindow===e.source){var a=e.data[`datawrapper-height`][n]+`px`;i.style.height=a}}})}e()})();
The poll of 500 residents in the city, which was conducted by phone from June 16 to 20, had a margin of error of 4.4 percentage points. Pollsters reached residents in all 66 wards in the city.
Shapiro clobbers his Republican opponent,Treasurer Stacy Garrity, whom just 9% of the poll’s respondentsview favorably.
That’s not unexpected in a city where Democrats outnumber Republicans 6-1. But it’s Garrity’s lack of name recognition that plays a larger role. A whopping 61% of those surveyed had never heard of Garrity, a glaring figure less than five months until the November election.
(function(){function e(){window.addEventListener(`message`,function(e){if(e.data[`datawrapper-height`]!==void 0){var t=document.querySelectorAll(`iframe`);for(var n in e.data[`datawrapper-height`])for(var r=0,i;i=t[r];r++)if(i.contentWindow===e.source){var a=e.data[`datawrapper-height`][n]+`px`;i.style.height=a}}})}e()})();
“She’s kind of a blank slate, and that works to the challenger’s advantage, but if you’re Stacy Garrity you want to start defining yourself quickly before someone else does,” Paleologos said.
Shapiro can drive up his statewide total if voters in Philadelphia, an overwhelming Democratic electorate, turn out in large numbers — though that has been less reliable in recent years.
His broad favorability could also help him stretch his bank account further. Shapiro, who hails from nearby Montgomery County, has spent the least amount of money so far in the Philadelphia television market and the most in Pittsburgh, which could show his campaign knows where he is already strong.
Fetterman is far less popular in Philly, particularly among young voters
Shapiro’s popularityin the city stands in stark contrast with the state’s other top Democrat: U.S. Sen. John Fetterman.
Less than one-quarter, 24%, of Philly residents have a favorable opinion of Fetterman, compared with 43% with an unfavorable view. The numbers are even worse within his own party, withjust 17% of Democrats holding a favorable view of the senator, who has often feuded with progressives and repeatedly crossed party lines to cast key votes in support of President Donald Trump’s nominees.
His numbers are particularly sour among voters ages 18 to 24 and 25 to 34.
(function(){function e(){window.addEventListener(`message`,function(e){if(e.data[`datawrapper-height`]!==void 0){var t=document.querySelectorAll(`iframe`);for(var n in e.data[`datawrapper-height`])for(var r=0,i;i=t[r];r++)if(i.contentWindow===e.source){var a=e.data[`datawrapper-height`][n]+`px`;i.style.height=a}}})}e()})();
A strong majority of Republican voters, 60%, view him favorably in the poll, but the Pennsylvania Democrat has repeatedly insisted he has no interest in switching parties heading into 2028, when he is likely to face a primary challenge if he runs for another term.
While slightly more Philadelphians have a favorable view of Fetterman than his GOP colleague, U.S. Sen. Dave McCormick, a greater share of Philly voters have an unfavorable view of the Democrat.
McCormick earned 17% favorable views compared with 25% unfavorable views, while the rest had not heard of the freshman senator or were undecided.
But the least popular politician in Philly was Trump, who had just 12% favorability in the city.
Ninety-two percent of Democrats view Trump unfavorably, and 31% of Philadelphia Republicans do, too. The poll also found that nearly 70% of Philly voters had grown less confident in American democracy under Trump’s presidency.
Trump made inroads in the deep-blue city in 2024, but Harris still won Philadelphia handily with 78% of the vote.
The president is a frequent target of Shapiro, who has blamed Trump’s tariffs and other policies for exacerbating the cost of living.
Taking on Trump may be boosting Shapiro’s popularity as he pursues reelection. His numbers show opportunity as he continues building a national profile, likely with ambitions for higher office. In a city where voters favor liberal and left-leaning candidates, Paleologos said, the polling results could be somewhat extrapolated to a national Democratic primary for president in 2028.
“In a Democratic primary, you really want to be strong among women, and he is,” Paleologos said. “If 60% of women are voting a Democratic primary, that really plays to his strength.”
He also ranks in the 70s for favorability among people ages 45 to 74.
“Those are people who are bill payers, they’re raising children, they’re taking care of sick parents, they’re very stretched in terms of economics. Just terrific numbers,” Paleologos said.
Shapiro’s favorability is far above that of other Democratic politicians in the city, including Mayor Cherelle L. Parker and State Rep. Chris Rabb, who won last month’s competitive primary to represent the 3rd Congressional District, which stretches from Northwest Philly to parts of South Philly.
A majority of respondents had not heard of Rabb despite his recent win. But 26% of respondents said they had a favorable view of the progressive lawmaker, compared with only 7% with an unfavorable view.
The mayor was viewed favorably by nearly 44% of respondents, compared with nearly 35% who viewed her unfavorably — a net positive rating but a much closer split than Shapiro.
“There are there are pockets of strength that make her electorally strong, but I wouldn’t call it broad-based,” Paleologos said of Parker.
Congressional hopeful Ala Stanford on Wednesday morning announced she was dropping out of a WHYY candidates debate two hours before it was scheduled to begin, saying her campaign could not agree with the public radio station on a format for the debate and criticizing her opponents in the race for “misogynistic attacks.”
“I have never been afraid of a hard room,” Stanford said in a statement. “After engaging in good faith with WHYY, we could not reach terms on a format that would deliver the serious accountability voters in PA-03 deserve.”
Stanford’s campaign manager emailed the announcement to reporters around 10 a.m., two hours before the debate on WHYY’s Studio 2 was supposed to take place.
In her statement, Stanford did not clarify what problems she had with the debate format. She also did not provide details on any attacks from her opponents in the Democratic primary for Pennsylvania’s 3rd Congressional District.
A Stanford spokesperson declined to comment beyond her written statement.
Stanford’s surprise announcement came less than three weeks before the May 19 primary, and followed a series of missteps for her campaign, including the revelation that a staffer used artificial intelligence to help answer a candidates’ questionnaire and her stumbling through a question about immigration enforcement in an interview with NBC10.
A recent Inquirer report on her stewardship of the Black Doctors Consortium also found that the organization omitted details about her income that were required to be included on nonprofit tax forms filed with the Internal Revenue Service.
Ala Stanford, pediatric surgeon and founder of the Black Doctors Consortium, participates in the debate for Pennsylvania’s 3rd Congressional District at Center in the Park in Germantown on Tuesday, April 14, 2026.
Stanford’s exit from the Wednesday event meant the other two top contenders in the race, State Rep. Chris Rabb and State Sen. Sharif Street, were the only candidates to participate in the debate featured on WHYY’s Studio 2, the highest-profile live and on-air debate thus far.
It was a relatively subdued affair compared to some of the other more gloves-off style campaign events in the open race. Street and Rabb took questions from moderators and largely agreed on policy, with both saying they support expanding universal healthcare, abolishing U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, and impeaching President Donald Trump.
The two state lawmakers sought to contrast their styles, with Street portraying himself as a more competent legislator.
“I get things done,” said Street, the former head of the state Democratic Party. “Rep. Rabb and I share a lot of value propositions. But the difference is I deliver on ideas.”
Rabb, a progressive who has been endorsed by the Working Families Party, said Street is too closely aligned with the Democratic establishment, and that his ideas are not bold enough.
“There’s so many people who think we can’t do things big and bold,” he said. “They play around the edges, because that’s what establishment politics does.”
State Sen. Sharif Street (left) and State Rep. Christopher Rabb (right) wait for the WHYY studio door to close Wednesday, April 29, 2026 before start of their debate in the Democratic primary for the 3rd Congressional District. The third leading candidate, Ala Stanford declined to attend at the last moment.
Both candidates were also asked about Stanford’s absence and her charge Wednesday that the race has been “marred by misogynistic attacks and lies from both of my opponents.”
Stanford, a first-time political candidate, is the only woman on the ballot.
Rabb said he wasn’t sure what she was referring to, but pointed out that when Stanford was recently heckled by some of his own supporters during a candidates forum, he repeatedly told them to let her speak.
And Street said he has not attacked her directly, but acknowledged that she’s faced criticisms.
“She has been attacked. I’ve been attacked. Everybody on this campaign, I’m sure, has been attacked at some point,” he said.
Rabb and Street said their campaigns did not negotiate with WHYY on the format of the event.
Kevin McCorry, an executive producer and host at the station, said WHYY engaged with Stanford’s campaign “in good faith” and acquiesced to her staff members’ requests, including allowing her to have notes on the table and bring extra staffers to sit in the audience.
He said WHYY learned that she was pulling out when Stanford’s campaign manager released a statement to reporters from multiple news outlets.
“We were flexible with her requests,” McCorry said. “At no time did they say, ‘If X doesn’t change, we’re backing out.’”
State Sen. Sharif Street (left) and State Rep. Christopher Rabb (right) appear in a debate at WHYY studios Wednesday, April 29, 2026 for the Democratic primary in the 3rd Congressional District. The third leading candidate, Ala Stanford declined to attend at the last moment.
Street spokesperson Anthony Campisi accused Stanford of dropping out to avoid tough questions,adding that “her campaign is in free fall.”
“Rather than answer these questions in a debate that’s aired on radio and television, she appears to be taking her ball and going home, which is not what Philadelphians expect from their member of Congress,” Campisi said Wednesday. “Philadelphians deserve a member of Congress who is ready to fight for them and against Donald Trump, not someone who runs from a fight.”
Rabb said that when it comes to campaign events, he and his team “don’t negotiate, we just show up.”
“Even if I didn’t like the format, which is not uncommon, I still show up,” he said, “because I’m a public servant and I’m a public candidate, and I got to reach people wherever they are.”
In her statement, Stanford, a physician, noted she has taken the Hippocratic Oath “to first do no harm.”
“I challenge everyone in this race to join me in promoting the kind of spirited, but serious and meaningful dialogue Philadelphians should expect from those asking to serve,” she said. “In the meantime, I will be where I have always been — on doorsteps, in church basements, and on the corners of the wards that built me.”
Shaun Griffith, a tax adviser and the fourth candidate in the race, did not participate in the debate because he did not meet WHYY’s criteria, which included a fundraising threshold.
He attended the event and sat in the audience, and said afterwards that it was “frustrating to be watching other people get to answer questions and not have the opportunity to do so myself.”
At times, Ala Stanford feels like she doesn’t quite fit in.
She’s a pediatric surgeon — albeit very well-known — who is running for political office for the first time, trying to win a seat in Congress that for decades has been held by a seasoned Philadelphia politician.
At campaign events, when the top Democrats in the congressional race are chit-chatting among themselves, Stanford has found herself on the margins. Often, she feels more comfortable talking medical procedures with Dave Oxman, the other physician in the race, than whatever the sitting state representatives have going on in Harrisburg.
The trail may get lonelier. Oxman is planning to drop out Wednesday and endorse Stanford, making her the hands-down most prominent outsider in a race that is stacked with political veterans.
To amass support ahead of the crowded May 19 primary election — the likely deciding contest in one of the nation’s bluest congressional districts — Stanford will have to chart a path that beats both the Democratic establishment and the progressive left, which have chosen other candidates in the wide-open race.
Stanford, 55, knows her lack of political experience makes her stand out, and she’s accentuating it on the campaign trail. She is highlighting her career as a physician, and she says she’ll fix a healthcare system her opponents failed to address in their years as public officials. Her candidacy comes as an increasing number of medical professionals are running for office across the country, and as thousands of Pennsylvanians have dropped their healthcare coverage due to rising costs.
She has kept pace with three sitting lawmakers who are also running for the seat, in part by lending her campaign $250,000 of her own money.
Candidates (from left) State Rep. Morgan Cephas; physician David Oxman; State Rep. Chris Rabb; physician Ala Stanford and State Sen. Sharif Street appear at a forum hosted by the 9th Ward Democratic Committee in Mt. Airy Thursday, Dec. 4, 2025.
Stanford alsohas a cadre of healthcare workers uplifting her. She has won endorsements from prominent doctors, as well as a national super PAC, 314 Action, which backs candidates with backgrounds in science and has poured $1.5 million into a pro-Stanford campaign.
The group so far funded five weeks of television commercials reminding voters that Stanford founded the Black Doctors COVID-19 Consortium. In the throes of the pandemic, she set up mobile testing sites in majority-Black communities and ran vaccination clinics to inoculate thousands of Philadelphians, a grassroots effort to fill gaps left by government-funded programs.
Ala Stanford texts her son while in her office at the Dr. Ala Stanford Center for Health Equity, 2001 W Lehigh Ave. in Philadelphia on Friday, March 13, 2026
It is a compelling story that has been told many times — across national media, on podcasts, and in Stanford’s own memoir.
What hasn’t been told is why it means she should represent the 3rd Congressional District, which covers much of Philadelphia, over her opponents who have spent years in politics.
“People get so comfortable doing things the same way, the same way, the same way,” she said in a recent interview at her health clinic. “And no one likes change. But the city needs this. The city needs some change.”
Other candidates say Stanford doesn’t have a monopoly on talking about healthcare. State Sen. Sharif Street, another front-runner in the race, has touted that he and other government officials helped secure funding for Stanford’s pandemic operation.
“During COVID, he was very proud of his work,” Street spokesperson Anthony Campisi said, “to ensure that Doctor Stanford’s vaccination efforts received the support they needed so that we could get vaccines into arms quickly.”
Stanford’s opponents also clearly know that her status as a physician may be an asset.
She submitted paperwork to appear on the ballot as “Dr. Ala Stanford.” But on Tuesday, a member of the Democratic City Committee — which endorsed Street — filed a petition in state court, saying Stanford’s name should appear without the “Dr.” in front of it.
In the coming days, a judge will decide.
Leaning on healthcare as a core issue
Stanford does not fit neatly onto the ideological spectrum.
Of course, she is not conservative. She doesn’t call President Donald Trump by his name — he’s “47″ — and she uses words like “tyranny” and “running amok” to describe the current White House.
But unlike some of her opponents, she is not of the Philadelphia Democratic establishment. She said she feels like the city’s long-entrenched party apparatus had always planned to endorse Street, the former head of the state party and the son of a Philadelphia mayor.
Stanford is also not of the populist left. She believes Palestinians “deserve to have safety and freedom,” but thinks it’s inflammatory when her progressive opponent, State Rep. Chris Rabb, calls Israel’s war in Gaza a “genocide.”
“I know when you use the G-word how hurtful it is to a group of people,” she said. “It’s like someone saying the N-word around me. I don’t want to hear that. And every time you shout that from the rooftops, how many people are you hurting?”
What she does believe is that government systems have failed underserved communities, and that most domestic issues can be traced back to inequities in healthcare — points she has consistently emphasized in her campaign.
Physician Ala Stanford (right) arrives at a forum hosted by the 9th Ward Democratic Committee Dec. 4, 2025. She is a Democratic candidate running to represent Philadelphia’s 3rd Congressional District.
She has hammered Republicans for not extending pandemic-era subsidies that ensured people on Affordable Care Act health plans did not pay more than 8.5% of their income for care. She has advocated for universal healthcare. And she has harshly criticized Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who has long been skeptical of vaccines.
“In this country, wealth is linked to homeownership, home ownership is linked to education, education is linked to health outcomes, and health outcomes are all exacerbated by racial injustice,” Stanford said during a recent candidates forum. “So when you talk about one, you talk about all.”
Stanford is careful to say that her focus on healthcare doesn’t mean she can’t discuss housing, immigration, or the war in Iran.
But it is clear that she feels most comfortable talking about what she knows best. Her supporters say that’s an asset in the 3rd Congressional District, which has a disproportionately high number of people who rely on public healthcare systems.
More than a third of the district’s residents, or more than 284,000 people, were on Medicaid as of December, according to the state Department of Human Services. Among Pennsylvania congressional districts, that’s the second-highest proportion of residents on Medicaid. (The first highest is the 2nd Congressional District, which also includes parts of Philadelphia.)
There were also more than 80,000 people in the district who last yearhad health coverage under the Affordable Care Act, either through expanded Medicaid eligibility or a plan they purchased through the marketplace.
That number is also likely lower now since ACA subsidies expired this year and premiums rose. Statewide, one in five people who bought plans last year from Pennsylvania’s marketplace, Pennie, opted out for 2026.
Ala Stanford speaks at the Black Doctors Consortium Dr. Ala Stanford Center for Health Equity in Philadelphia, Pa., on October 27, 2021. The center was opened with the goal of making healthcare accessible for those in communities who might struggle to get proper healthcare treatment.
Stanford’s supporters think Philadelphia voters will trust a doctor to ensure affordable healthcare access. They point to a survey released this month by the Annenberg Policy Center at the University of Pennsylvania that found 86% of respondents said their primary healthcare provider is trustworthy.
Erik Polyak, the executive director of 314 Action, said Stanford’s background differentiates her in a Democratic primary in which most candidates align on key issues.
“Voters want healthcare decisions made by people who understand patients and the science,” he said, “and not politicians chasing headlines.”
Oxman, Stanford’s now-former opponent, said physicians running for office can help rebuild a Democratic Party that has “lost the trust of so many people.”
“So many people see us as not centered on their needs, particularly their economic needs,” he said. “If the Democrats are going to build a party that has a chance of winning in Center City Philadelphia and in central Pennsylvania, it’s got to regain the trust of the voters.”
New to politics, but not government
It was the spring of 2020, and the bills were piling up.
Stanford, who was born in Germantown, had given up her well-paying day job as a surgeon to work full-time with the Black Doctors Consortium. She ran COVID-19 testing clinics in Philly parking lots and churches, and amassed some $200,000 in bills, saying she couldn’t “let one person lose their life for a test that costs $100.”
That was the beginning of her pandemic experience with government.
A lot of it was begging. As Stanford tells it, she peppered government officials with emails, telling them how many people she and her volunteers had tested that day, and asking for help securing funding.
In this April 2020 file photo, Ala Stanford puts on her mask before running a coronavirus (COVID-19) testing site at the Miller Memorial Baptist Church in Philadelphia.
U.S. Rep. Dwight Evans was immediately responsive. He connected Stanford with the White House, other members of Congress, and top insurance companies. And he publicly called on former Gov. Tom Wolf and then-Mayor Jim Kenney to allocate funding to Stanford’s organization, citing the group’s outreach to predominately Black communities and its work to address distrust of medical institutions.
The money came in several months later. It was finally enough for Stanford to pay for testing, compensate her staff, and prepare to vaccinate thousands of Philadelphians.
Fast-forward five years, and Evans has endorsed Stanford to replace him in Congress as he retires after decades of public service. His backing has been invaluable to Stanford, and it surprised some political observers who figured he might endorse one of the politicians whom he’d served alongside.
Stanford said Evans’ support has not convinced some Democratic voters. Some tell her they plan to vote for Street, citing his family name, or they say that “it’s his turn now.”
“What about if he is not what’s best for the people?” Stanford said. “Doesn’t that factor in?”
She tells voters that despite being new to the campaign trail, she isn’t new to government. She worked as a regional director for the Department of Health and Human Services under former President Joe Biden, who appointed her to the role. And she leads medical services at the Riverview Wellness Village, the city-owned drug recovery center opened last year by Mayor Cherelle L. Parker’s administration.
Physician Ala Stanford in an examination room at the primary medical care center run by her Black Doctors Consortium at Riverview Wellness Village, a city-owned drug recovery home in Northeast Philadelphia Tuesday, Nov. 25, 2025.
Still, Stanford very much sees herself as a doctor.
She often works out of a corner office in the North Philadelphia health center, and she still is alerted when the temperature of the vaccine refrigerator dips a degree too low. She has, on more than one occasion, tended to someone experiencing a medical emergency while she was campaigning.
She knows that overseeing day-to-day operations at the health clinic won’t be possible if she’s in Congress. There’s a succession plan in place.
“It’s just about, how can I have more significance at a larger scale? Congress is definitely a way to do it, but it might be somewhere else,” Stanford said. “That is, if I don’t win. But I want to win. I should win.”
Weeks earlier, Brown was accused of robbing campaign donations from another Democrat more than a thousand miles away in Florida.
Brown, a Florida-based finance manager and campaign consultant who works primarily with Democrats and social justice groups, has over the last decade faced criminal charges for embezzlement and other allegations of financial fraud in at least four states totaling in excess of half a million dollars, according to an Inquirer review of hundreds of pages of court documents, campaign finance filings, and business records.
The misdeeds Brown, 46, has been accused of range from shaving money from campaign accounts to setting up sham jobs and billing nonprofits for work that was never performed. Two years ago, Brown paid $330,000 after pleading no contest to felony embezzlement in California, where prosecutors said she stole from a nonprofit and set up a fake loan under the name of a consultancy where she previously worked.
Through it all, she avoided jail time and, using three different surnames, continued to work on political campaigns from Florida to Philly, persuading candidates to trust her with access to their bank accounts and thousands of dollars in donations to their causes.
Khambrel Davis, a Florida-based criminal defense attorney representing Brown, says this is all a misunderstanding. He said that Brown is the victim, and that a rogue employee of Brown’s firm stole from the PACs in Philadelphia and St. Petersburg and then disappeared “in the wind.”
Davis said Brown reached out to law enforcement but has not heard back.
“[Brown] just can’t locate her, and now it’s kind of all coming back on her,” Davis saidin a phone interview Saturday. “Her history is coming up, so everyone’s just assuming she must have done this. They’re kind of putting together this narrative that she’s just this habitual thief.”
Records show Brown as the only employee of her firm who ever filed campaign finance paperwork for the campaigns now accusing her of theft.
Today, Brown’s whereabouts are unknown to the campaigns she once worked for.Her firm’s address listed in campaign finance filings is a mailbox rental shop, and her website went dark in February. She is registered to vote in Coral Springs, Fla., a suburb of Fort Lauderdale.
Davis, who said he has been in contact with Brown, declined to say where she is. He insisted she has been “transparent and forthcoming with everyone.”
Several other campaign consultants based in Florida told The Inquirer that they have identified suspicious transactions made last year while Brown had access to their accounts. And multiple law enforcement agencies are investigating Brown’s accounting, including the FBI, according to two sources who requested anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the ongoing probe.
State Rep. Chris Rabb at a forum hosted by the 9th Ward Democratic Committee on Dec. 4, 2025. He is a Democratic candidate running to represent Philadelphia’s 3rd Congressional District.
Before Brown joined Rabb’s campaign in August, she worked with high-profile Democrats in New York, Illinois, and Florida — at times using her married name, Yolanda Rumph.
Her clients included former Tallahassee Mayor Andrew Gillum, who waged a closely watched campaign for Florida governor against Ron DeSantis in 2018. Gillum was indicted for making fraudulent transactions out of the same political action committee that Brown worked for — but prosecutors dropped the charges in 2023 after a jury deadlocked and the court declared a mistrial.
Rabb, a progressive who is considered among a handful of front-runners in the race to replace outgoing U.S. Rep. Dwight Evans, has said he is committed to continuing his campaign for the 3rd Congressional District seat, despite losing money that heis unlikely to see returned before the May 19 primary.
In January, before allegations of the missing money became public, Rabb was already significantly trailing the financial front-runner in the race. Records show he had about $100,000 in his campaign account at the start of the year, while State Sen. Sharif Street reported having more than five times that amount.
Rabb’s campaign declined to say how much money was taken, citing the ongoing law enforcement investigation.
Abe White, Rabb’s spokesperson, said in a statement that the campaign identified the unauthorized withdrawals after finding errors in its most recent campaign finance filing, which encompasses fundraising and spending activity from October to December.
He said the campaign had protocols in place to reconcile accounts and “immediately took action” after coming across the suspicious activity.
“The campaign’s former treasurer manipulated every campaign safeguard in place,” White said. “It’s what these people do.”
Davis, Brown’s attorney, said his client intends to pay back the funds he alleges were stolen by the employee.
“She’s just going to take responsibility,” he said, “and try to remedy the situation.”
No warning signs until it was too late
Very few people working on political campaigns have access to the bank accounts powering their efforts. The accounts see thousands — and sometimes millions — of dollars flowing in and out in a relatively short period of time.
That means candidates put significant trust in their treasurers, who are official designees responsible for ensuring campaigns comply with finance laws.
Matthew Haverstick, a managing partner with Kleinbard LLC, a Philadelphia-based law firm that often works with political campaigns and causes, said it is essential that campaigns thoroughly vet campaign treasurers and compliance consultants.
“This is why you work hard at the front end of this stuff in campaigns,” Haverstick, who is not working for any candidate in the race, said of Rabb’s situation. “When you’re deep into a campaign and a problem like this blows up, it has the potential to end the campaign. So the right time to spend a little more money and try a little harder is before you hire somebody.”
Rabb, a five-term Pennsylvania state representative, entrusted his account to Brown shortly after launching his run for Congress in July. Rabb had not worked with Brown before, and records show no other campaign in Pennsylvania has paid her or her firm for work.
The three other candidates who have so far raised the most money in the 3rd Congressional District race have treasurers based in Philadelphia. But it’s not unheard of for candidates to use consultants and staff from out of state, especially when they are seeking federal office.
White, Rabb’s spokesperson, said Brown “came highly recommended”and “there was no reason for concern” when she was hired.
Elsewhere, other Democrats who hired Brown said they similarly saw no warning signs until it was too late.
In January, the chairperson of a PAC backing St. Petersburg Mayor Ken Welch said she had reported Brown to law enforcement for misspending $207,000.
Brown had worked with the group, called the Pelican PAC, for about a year. Campaign finance records show that last fall, several transactions were made to transfer money from the PAC account into O’Reilly Business LLC, a separate entity that Brown controls.
Davis said Brown’s employee also had access to that LLC, and said it was the employee who moved the money.
Adrienne Bogen, who heads the Pelican PAC, said Brown was removed as the PAC’s treasurer in January.
She was hired following “standard onboarding practices,” Bogen said.
“Nothing was identified that raised concerns,” she added.
In this 2023 file photo, St. Petersburg Mayor Ken Welch greets the audience during a Suncoast Tiger Bay Club meeting at Tropicana Field in St. Petersburg, Fla.
In reality, Brown had been under indictment on 10 criminal charges in Alameda County, Calif., where she worked as a finance manager for Oakland-based consultancy BMWL & Partners. She was charged under the name “Yolanda Cheers.”
In 2019, prosecutors in court documents accused Brown — referring to her as “Cheers” — of routing money belonging to a nonprofit client of the consultancy to herself and then, years after being fired, taking out unauthorized loans in BMWL’s name. She faced charges of aggravated white-collar crime, grand theft by embezzlement, forgery, and identity theft, and could have faced years in prison.
The same year she was indicted in California, Brown faced legal trouble elsewhere. Authorities in Washington, D.C., accused her of fraud, allegations that came to light after she filed for bankruptcy in Minnesota.
Brown had previously worked as a grants manager for the local government in D.C. and owed the city $52,700 while filing for bankruptcy, the D.C. attorney general wrote in court papers. Authorities alleged that in 2014 and 2015, Brown asked two city contractors to hire her fiance,and she billed them for work that he supposedly completed — even though he was on an active-duty military assignment at the time.
The Minnesota bankruptcy case moved forward. Much of Brown’s debt was erased, but not the money that she owed in Washington.
On the other side of the country, the criminal case in California languished for nearly five years.
In February 2024, Alameda County District Attorney Pamela Price announced that her office had reached a plea deal. Brown pleaded no contest to one count of grand theft by embezzlement andwas required to pay $330,000 in restitution. She served no jail time.
Davis cast the no-contest plea as Brown’s attempt to put the charges behind her — not as an admission of guilt.
“Court could be kind of dragging on people,” he said. “It’s a very big burden.”
‘Some people will inevitably give in to temptation’
After the campaign allegations against Brown in St. Petersburg and Philadelphia trickled out this year, others who have worked with her said they reported activity they think is suspicious to law enforcement.
Jamie Jodoin, a Florida-based political and financial consultant, said she worked on a PAC last year that hired Brown as its treasurer. She said Brown wired $25,000 out of the PAC’s bank account and later closed the account without notifying the candidate.
“We have no idea where that went,” Jodoin said.
Political campaigns, which are small and short-lived entities, often don’t carry insurance against internal theft. But they do usually have review processes.
The Federal Election Commission recommends candidates put in place internal controls such as risk assessment and monitoring in order to prevent the misappropriation of funds. The guidance says that bank statements should be reviewed by someone who is not also writing the checks.
“Absent some basic checks and balances,” the commission says in its recommendations, “some people will inevitably give in to temptation.”
Campaign buttons for State Rep. Chris Rabb Dec. 4, 2025. A Democratic candidate running to represent Philadelphia’s 3rd Congressional District.
White said the Rabb campaign had safeguards in place. But he added that, after the unauthorized withdrawals were identified, the campaign newly established “airtight financial protocols” such as “strengthening oversight and internal controls.”
The campaign recently named a new treasurer and hired a new compliance firm.
Bogen, of Welch’s PAC in St. Petersburg, said Brown’s access to internal systems and bank accounts was “immediately revoked” once it was discovered that she had made suspicious transactions.
Brown, Bogen said, “has not been heard from since.”
