Kellan White has spent more than a decade working behind the scenes on Philadelphia political campaigns. This week, he’s launching a campaign of his own.
The longtime Democratic political strategist is running for City Council to represent Philadelphia’s 5th District, which includes swaths of North Philadelphia and Center City, White told The Inquirer.
He is seeking to unseat incumbent Councilmember Jeffery Young Jr., who has had a tumultuous first term and has already drawn several potential challengers heading into the May primary election. The only other candidate to formally announce a campaign is cybersecurity attorney Jalon Alexander, but as many as four challengers have expressed interest in running.
The May primary election is likely to be determinative given the heavily Democratic makeup of the district.
White, 40, of Brewerytown, comes from a family with a long history in public service and started his political career as a City Council intern. He has worked on numerous Democratic campaigns, including for former President Joe Biden, and most recently was an adviser to Ala Stanford, who unsuccessfully ran for Congress.
In 2017, White ran Rebecca Rhynhart’s successful campaign for city controller, a race in which she toppled a party-backed incumbent. White then became first deputy city controller before managing Rhynhart’s 2023 mayoral campaign. She finished second in the Democratic primary behind now-Mayor Cherelle L. Parker.
» READ MORE: The race to unseat Philly Councilmember Jeffery Young Jr. is taking shape
White said that he has developed relationships across the city’s political landscape, and that in an era of factionalism in the party, he is not trying to run as one type of Democrat or another.
For example, he is seeking the endorsement of politically powerful unions, including the Philadelphia Building and Construction Trades Council, which is often seen as aligned with centrist Democrats.
And he said that Young — who has championed legislation that at times has sought to slow or halt housing construction in parts of the district — has been too hostile to development and used zoning as a “sledgehammer.”
But White also has allies in progressive circles and positions that would align with Council’s left wing. He said he would have voted in favor of a recent tenants’ rights legislative package that was backed by the Working Families Party and that Young voted against. The bills passed with a majority of Council’s support and became law.
“I believe that housing is a human right, and everyone deserves a quality public education, one job should be enough, and every worker has the right to unionize. So that makes me a progressive,” White said. “But I don’t think I’ve ever cleanly fit into any bucket, because I’ve never felt like I had this need to plant my flag in any one camp.”
White’s campaign, his first time running for office, is the latest chapter in a long family legacy in the city dating to the civil rights era.
His father, John F. White Jr., served in the state legislature and on City Council, led the Philadelphia Housing Authority, and was the Pennsylvania secretary of welfare under former Gov. Robert Casey Sr. He unsuccessfully ran for mayor in 1999.
And his grandfather, John F. White Sr., was a leading figure in the movement to build Black political power in the city.
In the late 1960s, he cofounded the Black Political Forum with future State Sen. Hardy Williams. The organization aimed to develop Black politicians to run for office without the blessing of the Democratic Party establishment.
The group played a major role in the movement that helped elect W. Wilson Goode as mayor, and Bill Gray to Congress, where he became one of the city’s most powerful lawmakers. The organizing efforts helped shape the Northwest Coalition, a political network that remains active today and counts Parker among its members.
Shortly before his death in 1999, John White Sr. advocated for Black politicians to build power by aligning with the liberal middle class of all races, according to an obituary in the New York Times.
Kellan White said he sees his campaign as a reflection of his family’s history and an homage to the legendary Black politicians who have represented the 5th District over history, including Cecil B. Moore, the civil rights activist.
“There’s pressure in that, but I feel prepared to meet the moment,” he said. “I was born into a family that instilled public service into me from birth.”
But, he added, “I wanted to and always have forged my own path.”