Cherelle Parker, a Democrat, elected mayor of Philadelphia
Cherelle Parker, a longtime state and local elected official who promised Philadelphians she would aggressively tackle the city’s crime problems, was elected mayor on Tuesday, according to The Associated Press, making her the first woman to run for the city’s highest office the city voted.
Ms. Parker, 51, seen as more moderate than the other candidates in the Democratic primary in May, vowed to hire hundreds of additional police officers and bring back what she called “constitutional” stop-and-frisk tactics. Because registered Democrats easily outnumber Republicans in the city — the nation’s sixth-most populous, with 1.6 million residents — Ms. Parker’s initial victory gave her a significant advantage over the Republican candidate, David Oh, a former colleague of hers on the city council.
No Republican has been elected mayor in Philadelphia since 1947, and recent nominees have typically received less than 20 percent of the vote.
Ms. Parker, a lifelong resident of Philadelphia, will become the city’s 100th mayor. She is a former English teacher, state legislator and city council member. When speaking about how to tackle the city’s high levels of illegal drug use and violent crime, she was open to the idea of national guard to help tackle the open-air drug market in the Kensington area. More than 500 people have been killed in Philadelphia in the past two years, the highest number ever recorded, although homicides, shootings and violent crime have increased. fallen this year.
Still, two-thirds of the inhabitants say the city is going in the wrong direction. Much of the violent crime is concentrated in black neighborhoods, and Ms. Parker said that as a black woman and mother of a black son, she could identify with the struggles many Philadelphians face.
Ms. Parker will succeed Mayor Jim Kenney, who served only two terms. He has become increasingly unpopular, and remains so criticized because he was less involved and less visible than when he first took office.