First Public Poll Finds a Statistical Tie in Philadelphia's 2023 Mayoral Race

In the first nonpartisan public poll of the 2023 Philadelphia mayor's race, the nonprofit Committee of Seventy found a statistical tie in the race to be the city's 100th mayor. With a 3.8% credibility interval (similar to a margin of error), the survey of likely Democratic voters found that leading the pack were Rebecca Rhynhart (18%), Cherelle Parker (17%), Helen Gym (15%), Allan Domb (14%) and Jeff Brown (11%). With two and a half weeks to go, 20% of voters remain undecided.

In addition to the "horserace" poll results, Committee of Seventy also surveyed respondents on how they'd rank their choices for mayor if given that option popular method of voting used in approximately 60 cities, including New York City, Minneapolis, and Oakland.

Ranked-choice voting also known as "instant runoff voting" - eliminates candidates one at a time until one candidate wins with more than 50% of votes.

If a voter's first choice is eliminated, their ballot counts for their next highest-ranked candidate. In the Committee of Seventy's poll, Rhynhart came in first, and Parker came in second when voters were given the option of ranking.

"These results make clear what we knew all along that every vote matters," said Lauren Cristella, Committee of Seventy's interim president and chief operating officer. "We want every eligible voter to vote, to be informed when they vote, and to vote with confidence.

This poll is a snapshot in time that hopefully gives voters an additional piece of information to use when they walk into a voting booth or complete a mail-in ballot. There are a lot of great tools available to help voters make the right decisions for themselves and their families, and we undertook this poll to add one more tool to the toolbox."

After pushing undecided voters to make a choice, 15% remained undecided. Among those who selected a candidate:

• Rhynhart finishes with 19% of the vote. Among white voters, Rhynhart leads with 29%, 5 points ahead of the next-strongest candidate in this group of voters, Helen Gym; among men, she leads with 21%, 5 points better than she does among women and 4 points ahead of the next candidates. Rhynhart also holds leads among higher-income voters, where she finishes 5 points ahead of Gym, in Center City, where she dominates, and among the youngest voters.