Sen. Street and Rep. Rabb spar over experience and policy in WHYY 3rd Congressional District debate after Dr. Stanford drops out of event

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Philadelphia voters got a closer look Tuesday at two leading candidates competing to replace retiring Congressman Dwight Evans as WHYY hosted a Democratic primary debate for Pennsylvania’s 3rd Congressional District.

The live event, held at WHYY and moderated by Avi Wolfman-Arent and Cherri Gregg, hosts of WHYY’s “Studio 2,” featured state Rep. Chris Rabb and state Sen. Sharif Street. Two other candidates did not participate. Dr. Ala Stanford dropped out at the last moment and local attorney Shaun Griffith was not invited after he did not raise enough money to meet a campaign finance threshold.

With the 3rd District covering much of western Philadelphia and strongly favoring Democrats, the primary is widely viewed as the race that will likely determine who succeeds Evans in Congress next year.

The two candidates sparred over their leadership styles, who is more ready to represent the district in Washington, D.C., and nuanced differences in their policy positions.

On leadership and representing the district

Street argued that his legislative record and ability to make bipartisan deals in a Republican-controlled state Senate make him the most effective choice to represent the district.

“Rep. Rabb and I share a lot of value propositions, but the difference is I deliver on ideas,” Street said. “I’m the only candidate in this race that has consistently moved legislation onto the governor’s desk and made sure that people actually see the results.”

He pointed to successes such as the legislation he filed that led to the creation of Pennie, Pennsylvania’s statewide health care exchange made possible by the Affordable Care Act, and bills that he said tackled food insecurity and gun violence and created jobs.

Rabb pushed back, pointing to some of his own legislative and political successes, and said he had a record of working with other people to get things done.

“Any number of things, I can say I did it in concert with others, with people closest to the pain,” he said. “That’s the type of leadership we need. We’re not waiting for saviors. Only we can save us.”

Rabb added that the district wants progressive leadership.

“I also do not believe in establishment politics,” he said. “Sen. Sharif is the epitome of establishment politics, which got us to this point.”

On healthcare

Street and Rabb shared broad agreement on expanding access to healthcare, but differed in their approaches to achieving that goal. Rabb strongly advocated for a “Medicare for All” system of universal health care, while Street supported restoring subsidies under the Affordable Care Act, which President Donald Trump recently eliminated, as well as an expansion of Medicaid.

Rabb framed health care as an economic justice issue.

“We absolutely need ‘Medicare for All’,” Rabb said. “Universal health care should be a human right. The only reason we don’t have it is we do not possess the political will to make it so. People thought that Obamacare was a flight of fancy. We made that happen.”

Street said he supports the idea of “Medicare for All,” but said that, in the meantime, they should focus on restoration of the tax credits that supported the Affordable Care Act and Pennie.

“I love the idea of getting the most bold version of universal health care, but I also do think that fixing Obamacare should be a priority for Democrats,” he said. “I think we can get it done and we should because it is providing health care at a level that is better than what’s happening right now.”

On the wars in the Middle East

The war in Gaza emerged as one of the clearest areas of contrast among the candidates, reflecting an issue that has energized many Philadelphia primary voters. While Street and Rabb supported ending the violence, the debate highlighted different approaches.

Rabb took the strongest position, calling for an immediate ceasefire and for the U.S. to stop funding Israel.

“We have to acknowledge our complicity in an ongoing genocide in Gaza; it’s our taxpayer dollars that are sending bombs,” he said. “Genocide is genocide. If you can’t name the beast, you can’t kill it, and that’s injustice.”

Gregg asked if he had a response to people who criticized his language as “incendiary” and “anti-Israel.”

“I don’t care what they think about a foreign nation,” Rabb answered. “I care about making sure that we are acting humanely in a democratic fashion and that we acknowledge our complicity in the things that are happening with our taxpayer dollars.”

Street similarly backed a ceasefire, but framed his answer around balancing Palestinian civilian protections with Israel’s security concerns and called for a “two-state solution.”

“I think that [Israeli Prime Minister] Benjamin Netanyahu committed war crimes, but I do believe that it will not be peace and prosperity for Palestinians without peace and prosperity for Israelis,” he said.  “And I don’t believe there’ll be peace and prosperity for Israelis without peace and prosperity for Palestinians.”

Affordability

Asked what they would do in Washington, D.C., to make it more affordable for residents of the district, Rabb argued that stagnant wages are at the heart of the problem and called for sweeping labor reforms.

“We need a living wage for all,” Rabb said, pointing to legislation he introduced in the statehouse that would raise the minimum wage to $15 an hour, eliminate the tipped wage and eventually tie wages to inflation.

Street said he supports Rabb’s wage proposal, before adding that workers need help now and “don’t want the perfect to be the enemy of the good.”

“I understand we have to work collaboratively which means understanding that other people will have ideas,” he said.

Both candidates also tied affordability to health care and job creation, saying that working families need relief on multiple fronts at once.

Rabb, who has called for national grocery stores, was asked how that proposal would work.

“We empower our state to sell alcohol to folks, and we do it really well, and these are good unionized jobs,” he said. “Imagine that on the national level, but what we’re providing is good local food and an affordable price that is available to folks. We get rid of food swamps. That’s powerful. It’s bold and it’s doable.”

Other issues

In a flash yes-or-no round of questions, both candidates appeared to mostly agree on key issues such as abolishing U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, vote to impeach Trump and place a moratorium on data centers “until some framework is reached that protects local communities and ratepayers.”

On the question of whether they would support Rep. Hakeem Jeffries, the Democratic minority leader in the U.S House of Representatives for House speaker, Street said he would while Rabb said “no,” though he clarified that it would depend on who else is running.

“I’m not anybody’s rubber stamp,” he said. “Whoever seeks this, my support has to earn it.”

Street said that he believes Jeffries has been “effective,” but also characterized the decision in terms of equal opportunity.

“To be blunt, as a Black man, it seems like every time we get a Black person in a position to make history, there’s somebody wanting to move the ball, move the rail, lower the bar, change the metrics,” he said.

The other 2 candidates

Dr. Ala Stanford, another leading candidate in the race, declined to attend at the last moment. In a statement sent just two hours before the start of the debate, Stanford’s campaign said she “will not be participating” in the debate.

“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,” she said. “I am not willing to lend my name to a conversation that falls short of that standard, and so we will not be participating today.”

She also accused the other candidates of “misogynistic attacks and lies.”

WHYY News reached out to Stanford’s campaign for specific details but the campaign did not respond by publication. Kevin McCorry, executive producer of “Studio 2,” disputed Stanford’s characterization of the incident.

“After weeks of communication with our team, to our surprise she opted to back out of our debate today about two hours before it was set to begin,” McCorry said in a statement. “The reasons given in the press statement were formatting conflicts with WHYY. We feel confident that we operated in good faith.”

Street released a statement to WHYY News that criticized Stanford’s decision.

“Philadelphians deserve a member of Congress who can take the fight to Donald Trump — not one who won’t take questions from constituents and respected journalists have basic questions,” Street said. “A candidate who’s afraid of a midday radio debate clearly isn’t ready for prime time.”

Attorney Shaun Griffith, who will be on the ballot, had emailed WHYY and “Studio 2” requesting to be included, but the request was rejected. According to WHYY, he did not meet the fundraising criteria to participate in the debate.

Griffith told WHYY News that, when the criterion was unfair because the decision was based on fundraising from last year, a criterion he “couldn’t possibly have met.”

“Back in December, I was still a civil servant working for the Pennsylvania government, meaning back in December, it was unlawful for me to be involved in a political campaign,” he said. “So I feel like WHYY has created a standard by which I could not have possibly met.”

McCorry said that wasn’t true and that he used more recent campaign finance records in the decision-making.

“I was eagerly awaiting the campaign finance data released a few weeks ago, which reflects the first quarter of 2026,” he said. “If his numbers were dramatically up, it would have been a different conversation.”

Editor’s note: This article was updated to include a response from WHYY about the selection criteria for candidates.