PA-03: The 2026 primary season kicks off early with candidates' forum
Five Democratic candidates running to replace retiring Congressman Dwight Evans in Pennsylvania’s Third Congressional District gathered in Philadelphia’s Chestnut Hill neighborhood on Thursday evening for an unusually early high-profile kickoff to campaign season.
State Rep. Morgan Cephas, Dr. David Oxman, state Rep. Chris Rabb, Dr. Ala Stanford and state Sen. Sharif Street participated in the forum hosted by the 9th Ward Democratic Committee, which former public media journalist Stephanie Marudas moderated for a standing-room-only crowd of over 300 people who braved unseasonably cold temperatures and scant parking options to hear the candidates try to differentiate themselves from each other.
The event, which featured opening remarks from each candidate, followed by a series of questions posed by Marudas and the audience, was notable both for spotlighting the priorities candidates were most passionate about and for the little discord among them on key issues.
One of the questions – likely to be one of the key issues in 2026 – focused on how each candidate would address their constituents’ struggles to bridge the affordability gap. Rabb used his time to hammer home the need to tax the rich, which he returned to throughout the evening. “When we talk about affordability, we have to talk about rolling back tariffs, but we also have to talk about taxing the rich,” he said, before bringing up the benefits of a living wage – something that Stanford and Street also focused on in their answers. In contrast, Cephas talked about educational programs and Oxman discussed the role of PACs and special interest groups in keeping politicians from addressing the root causes of the crisis.
https://www.cityandstatepa.com/politics/2025/12/2026-primary-season-kicks-early-pa-3-candidates-forum/409960/?oref=ng-homepage-top-story