A Pennsylvania House candidate endorsed by Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D., N.Y.), Rep. Ro Khanna (D., Calif.), Sen. Chris Van Hollen (D., Md.), and other leading far-left figures has hailed notorious cop-killer Mumia Abu-Jamal as one of several "Black freedom fighters" and "elderly political prisoners" and called for his release from prison.
Chris Rabb (D.), a five-term Pennsylvania state representative running to represent the state's Third Congressional District, cosigned a letter from the Philadelphia Democratic Socialists of America last month urging Gov. Josh Shapiro (D.) to free the 71-year-old Abu-Jamal from prison, where the former Black Panther is serving a life sentence for the 1981 murder of Philadelphia police officer Daniel Faulkner.
"There are dozens of elderly political prisoners in the United States, predominantly Black freedom fighters who have been held for decades under similarly punitive conditions," the letter states. "We hope that as Governor, you and the members of the Board of Pardons will listen to the community organizations representing Pennsylvanians in their call to Free Mumia Abu-Jamal."
"Without decisive action, DSA will treat the continued incarceration of our elders and comrades as incompatible with the pursuit of future political ambitions," the letter goes on.
Abu-Jamal's case has proved a political lightning rod for decades. In the years since his conviction, the former Black Panther has restyled himself as a philosopher, intellectual, and author, and "Free Mumia" became a rallying cry across the left, in Europe as well as the United States. Abu-Jamal has even been nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize. The frenzy over his case subsided somewhat when his death sentence was commuted to life in prison in 2011, but Abu-Jamal continues to have support on the far left.
All throughout, Pennsylvania prosecutors and Faulkner's family have held firm to their position that Abu-Jamal killed a police officer in cold blood and should not be released from prison. They have been supported by moderate Democrats in Pennsylvania and in Washington, D.C.
In 2014, seven Democratic senators blocked the nomination of Obama nominee Debo Adegbile to serve as the head of the Department of Justice's civil rights division because he represented Abu-Jamal in the cop-killer's successful effort to have his death sentence commuted.
Rabb is running to replace retiring Rep. Dwight Evans (D.), representing the overwhelmingly Democratic third district, which includes crime-ridden West Philadelphia as well as the corner where Abu-Jamal murdered Faulkner. Rabb has landed a number of high-profile endorsements ahead of the May 19 Democratic primary, which is all but certain to tap the general election winner.
"Chris Rabb is a real one. Let's work together to send this fighter for Medicare for All to Congress," said Ocasio-Cortez, who will campaign with Rabb in Philadelphia this Friday. Khanna and Van Hollen are also backing Rabb. And in a surprise move last month, the Philadelphia Inquirer, the city's establishment newspaper, endorsed Rabb over Sharif Street—a state senator and the son of former Philadelphia mayor John Street (D.)—who was believed to be the establishment favorite. The Inquirer said Rabb, elected to the State Legislature in 2016, "has consistently offered the boldest and most ambitious leadership" of any candidates in the race.
Weeks after the endorsement, the Inquirer reported that Rabb's campaign shared an Instagram post that blamed "Zionists" for the December 14 attack on Australia's Bondi Beach, in which Islamic terrorists murdered 15 Jews at a Hanukkah celebration.
Rabb, who blamed the post on a campaign staffer, has made opposition to Israel a focal point of his campaign. Rabb boasts that he is the only candidate in his race to accuse Israel of "genocide" in Gaza and has criticized his primary opponents for declining to make the same claim.
"If you can't name the demon, you can't kill it," Rabb said last month.
And while Rabb has accused his opponents of receiving support from groups aligned with the pro-Israel AIPAC, Rabb's campaign is heavily funded by American Priorities, a political action committee funded by a small cadre of anti-Israel tech executives. American Priorities, which received $1 million from Showcase Commerce CEO Mohammad Waqas and $1 million from Silicon Valley executive Omer Hasan, spent $200,000 on television ads in support of Rabb last week, according to campaign finance disclosures.
Rabb's campaign website calls for a "Palestinian right of return," a policy that would let Palestinians take Israeli land and effectively end the existence of the Jewish state. And he campaigned last month with Hasan Piker, the left-wing social media influencer who said that "America deserved 9/11" and that "Hamas is a thousand times better" than Israel.
Rabb touts other radical views. He opposes not only the death penalty but also "death by incarceration"—a policy that would end lifetime prison sentences for people convicted of second-degree murder. He has called for abolishing ICE, "free public colleges," and a "transition to 100% renewable energy."
If elected in November, Rabb will join a small but vocal cohort of lawmakers who support convicted cop-killers. Last year, longtime Rabb ally Rep. Summer Lee (D., Pa.), Rep. Yvette Clarke (D., N.Y.), and Rep. Ayanna Pressley (D. Mass.) paid homage to Assata Shakur after her death in Cuba, where she was living in exile after escaping prison in 1979. Shakur was serving a life sentence for the 1973 murder of New Jersey state trooper Werner Foerster.
Rabb's campaign did not respond to a request for comment.
