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Amanda McIllmurray
Amanda McIllmurray (Democratic Party) ran for election for an at-large seat of the Philadelphia City Council in Pennsylvania. McIllmurray lost in the Democratic primary on May 16, 2023.
McIllmurray completed Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection survey in 2023. Click here to read the survey answers.
Elections
2023
See also: City elections in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania (2023)
General election
General election for Philadelphia City Council At-large (7 seats)
The following candidates ran in the general election for Philadelphia City Council At-large on November 7, 2023.
Candidate | % | Votes | ||
| ✔ |  | Isaiah Thomas (D) | 16.8 | 197,642 |
| ✔ |  | Katherine Richardson (D) | 16.1 | 189,917 |
| ✔ |  | Nina Ahmad (D) | 15.7 | 184,332 |
| ✔ | Rue Landau (D) | 14.9 | 175,976 | |
| ✔ | Jim Harrity (D) | 13.1 | 153,839 | |
| ✔ |  | Kendra Brooks (Working Families Party) | 7.1 | 83,616 |
| ✔ |  | Nicolas O'Rourke (Working Families Party) | 5.9 | 70,062 |
 | Drew Murray (R) | 5.1 | 60,277 | |
| Jim Hasher (R) | 5.1 | 60,274 | ||
| Other/Write-in votes | 0.1 | 1,622 | ||
| Total votes: 1,177,557 | |||
 = candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey. | ||||
| If you are a candidate and would like to tell readers and voters more about why they should vote for you, complete the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection Survey. | ||||
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Withdrawn or disqualified candidates
- Gary Grisafi (R)
- Frank Cristinzio (R)
- Mary Kelly (R)
Democratic primary election
Democratic primary for Philadelphia City Council At-large (7 seats)
The following candidates ran in the Democratic primary for Philadelphia City Council At-large on May 16, 2023.
Candidate | % | Votes | ||
| ✔ | | Isaiah Thomas | 12.7 | 107,315 |
| ✔ | | Katherine Richardson | 11.1 | 93,418 |
| ✔ | Rue Landau | 9.0 | 75,798 | |
| ✔ | | Nina Ahmad | 7.9 | 66,689 |
| ✔ | Jim Harrity | 6.2 | 52,323 | |
| Eryn Santamoor | 5.6 | 47,410 | ||
 | Amanda McIllmurray | 5.5 | 46,379 | |
| Erika Almiron | 5.1 | 43,029 | ||
 | Sherrie Cohen | 3.9 | 32,430 | |
| Job Itzkowitz | 3.3 | 27,648 | ||
| Melissa Robbins | 2.9 | 24,523 | ||
| Deshawnda Williams | 2.7 | 22,506 | ||
 | Luz Colon | 2.6 | 21,917 | |
| Donavan West | 2.6 | 21,830 | ||
| John Kelly | 2.5 | 21,153 | ||
| Jalon Alexander | 2.0 | 16,628 | ||
| Qiana Shedrick | 2.0 | 16,422 | ||
| Abu Edwards | 1.8 | 15,105 | ||
 | Michelle Prettyman | 1.7 | 14,720 | |
| Naderah Griffin | 1.5 | 12,354 | ||
| Derwood Selby | 1.4 | 11,952 | ||
| Charles Reyes | 1.3 | 11,301 | ||
| Wayne Dorsey | 1.2 | 10,378 | ||
 | Ogbonna Hagins | 0.9 | 7,403 | |
| Christopher Booth | 0.9 | 7,195 | ||
| George Stevenson | 0.8 | 7,023 | ||
| Curtis Segers III | 0.7 | 6,064 | ||
| Other/Write-in votes | 0.1 | 957 | ||
| Total votes: 841,870 | |||
| = candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey. | ||||
| If you are a candidate and would like to tell readers and voters more about why they should vote for you, complete the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection Survey. | ||||
Do you want a spreadsheet of this type of data? Contact our sales team. | ||||
Withdrawn or disqualified candidates
- Daniel Orsino (D)
- Clayton Prince (D)
- Max Tuttleman (D)
Republican primary election
Republican primary for Philadelphia City Council At-large (7 seats)
The following candidates ran in the Republican primary for Philadelphia City Council At-large on May 16, 2023.
Candidate | % | Votes | ||
| ✔ | | Drew Murray | 18.7 | 10,584 |
| ✔ | Frank Cristinzio | 18.6 | 10,518 | |
| ✔ |  | Gary Grisafi | 16.6 | 9,369 |
| ✔ | Jim Hasher | 16.5 | 9,333 | |
| ✔ | Mary Kelly | 15.5 | 8,751 | |
 | Sam Oropeza | 13.3 | 7,527 | |
| Other/Write-in votes | 0.7 | 408 | ||
| Total votes: 56,490 | |||
| = candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey. | ||||
| If you are a candidate and would like to tell readers and voters more about why they should vote for you, complete the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection Survey. | ||||
Do you want a spreadsheet of this type of data? Contact our sales team. | ||||
Endorsements
Ballotpedia did not identify endorsements for McIllmurray in this election.
Campaign themes
2023
Ballotpedia survey responses
See also: Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection
Amanda McIllmurray completed Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection survey in 2023. The survey questions appear in bold and are followed by McIllmurray's responses. Candidates are asked three required questions for this survey, but they may answer additional optional questions as well.
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When elected, I'd be the first openly queer Council Member ever and the youngest member of council.
As an organizer, I fought to give working people a say in what happens in our communities. I co-founded Reclaim Philadelphia to put political power into the hands of our neighbors. I ran the campaigns of Senator Nikil Saval and Representative Elizabeth Fiedler because with organizers in office we see different priorities and better outcomes for all of us. I'm ready to continue my work and bring my winning record to Philadelphia’s City Council.- As City Councilmember, I will fight for safe and affordable housing for every Philadelphian regardless of race, income, or neighborhood. My family was evicted from our home in Fishtown during early gentrification because our landlord doubled our rent. My family’s story isn’t unique: philly has become a renter city and ½ of renters pay more than 1/3 their income in rent.
- If elected, I would be the first openly queer Councilmember and the youngest Councilmember ever elected.
- The safest neighborhoods are the ones with the most resources — well paying jobs and funded public services. One of the best things we can do to reduce violence is to make sure people can afford to take care of their families.
We must also invest in community approaches to safety that work, by addressing the root causes of violence: poverty. This means investing in our public schools, parks, rec centers, and libraries to make our neighborhoods safer, to give our youth places to spend time after school, and to make our blocks more beautiful.
Health and safety hazards in public schools: mold, lead, and damaged asbestos; lack of air conditioning and ineffective heating; poor ventilation; and more than I can list here. This results mainly from underfunding/disinvestment, but also from a lack of accountability from executives at the District and the Board of Education. I support a Green New Deal for our schools.
Health and safety hazards in people’s homes, resulting from poverty, redlining, and neglect by landlords like mold, lead, asbestos, leaking roofs, excessive heat and cold, toxic emissions from gas appliances and gas lines are huge issues impacting communities across Philly. I support increasing funding and staffing levels for the Department of L&I to enable proactive, regular inspections of rental units + enforcement of existing protections. We also need to increase funding for programs like the Philadelphia Energy Authority’s Build to Last Program. As noted above, I’m proud to have played a role in supporting the retrofitting and rehabilitation of homes across PA with the Whole Homes Repair Fund.
We need large-scale investment in public transit, protected bike lanes, sidewalk repair, and electric vehicle infrastructure to reduce fossil-fuel air pollution and make it easier and safer for residents to traverse our city.
Reinvesting in public services and public places will not only make our neighborhoods safer and more beautiful, but will also fuel economic advancement for Philadelphians that have been left out of the city’s primary economy of universities and medical centers. I support significantly shifting the operations budget for key city departments to ensure that both new hires and existing employees have access to family-sustaining wages and safe working conditions that are protected by our City’s public service unions. There are too many jobs that need to be done for our city to leave Philadelphia’s most precious resource (Philadelphians themselves) sitting on the sidelines. There are too many of the workers that are already doing those jobs do so without the pay, support, and safety that they deserve.
Growing up, I experienced all the joys of the city’s robust network of parks, recreation centers and libraries— playing youth sports, diving the depths of books shelves, and mentoring youth as an umpire. These experiences were foundational in creating the person I am today and I want every young person to have those same opportunities.
I will fight to ensure that every Philadelphian has the right to affordable and safe housing. We must fully staff the office of Licensing and Inspection to ensure that new development is built with union labor and make sure that every home is safe to live in. The right to affordable and stable housing also means preventing unjust evictions and stabilizing our rent–that’s why I’ll work to build on the past work of City Councilmembers and expand the Right to Counsel in eviction court and make it so that landlords can’t double or triple rent at whim. I’ll also make sure that homeowners can stay in their homes.
We must invest in community approaches to safety that work, by addressing the root causes of violence: poverty. This means investing in our public schools, parks, rec centers, and libraries to make our neighborhoods safer, to give our youth places to spend time after school, and to make our blocks more beautiful.
We also must make sure there are good, sustaining jobs for every Philadelphian. We must work across city agencies to fill the thousands of open jobs and create new, good unionized government jobs at every level. We need to make it easier for Philadelphians to work to make our city better.
My family was only able to afford to buy a home because my dad got a union job -- and that home has been so important to our family. Now, two of my siblings and my new niece live there with my dad.
ELECTED OFFICIALS: Senator Nikil Saval, Representatives Tarik Khan, Malcolm Kenyatta, Elizabeth Fiedler and Rick Krajewski, DA Larry Krasner, Councilmembers Kendra Brooks and Jamie Gauthier
ORGANIZATIONS: Working Families Party, Sierra Club, Reclaim Philadelphia, Philly DSA, Neighborhood Networks, OnePA, Asian American Pacific Islander Political Alliance (APIPA), Free the Ballot, Riverward Area Democrats, Straight Ahead, Springfield Huddle, and Amistad Movement Power
Note: Ballotpedia reserves the right to edit Candidate Connection survey responses. Any edits made by Ballotpedia will be clearly marked with [brackets] for the public. If the candidate disagrees with an edit, he or she may request the full removal of the survey response from Ballotpedia.org. Ballotpedia does not edit or correct typographical errors unless the candidate's campaign requests it.
Note: Community Questions were submitted by the public and chosen for inclusion by a volunteer advisory board. The chosen questions were modified by staff to adhere to Ballotpedia’s neutrality standards. To learn more about Ballotpedia’s Candidate Connection Expansion Project, click here.
See also
2023 Elections
External links
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Candidate Philadelphia City Council At-large |
Personal |
Footnotes
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