As the 2023 Philadelphia Mayoral race nears the climactic Democratic Primary on May 16, some candidates continue to collect endorsements, including Helen Gym, one of few serious candidates left for the job. 

This time, it’s the nation’s first and largest immigrant youth-led organization, United We Dream Action, that announced its endorsement of Gym for Mayor on Wednesday, April 26. 

Past UWDA endorsements during the 2022 midterm cycle include New York Rep. Alexandria Ocasio Cortez, Texas Rep. Greg Casar, Texas candidate Michelle Vallejo, and Minnesota Rep. Ilhan Omar. 

“United We Dream Action is proud to endorse Helen Gym as Philly’s next mayor. Coming from grassroots organizing to city councilmember and now mayoral candidate, Helen has worked for and with the people to bring change to her community,” said Michelle Ming, political director for United We Dream Action. 

According to her official website, this is the former school teacher and City Councilmember’s 41st endorsement, including Philadelphia Federation of Teachers, AFSCME DC47 (municipal workers), Unite Here Philly (hospitality workers), Reclaim Philadelphia (progressives), Working Families Party (progressives), One Pennsylvania (progressives), Wards 1, 2, 18, 39A, and others. 

“Helen Gym is the first Asian-American woman city councilmember in Philadelphia. From starting as a grassroots organizer to advocating for working people and immigrants on the city level, she has shown her willingness to bring her lived experience and working knowledge to make Philadelphia a better city for all,” UWDA’s endorsement statement read. 

“She has consistently fought for working people and immigrants by pushing for workers’ protection laws, a citywide wealth tax, and against ICE presence around the city,” they added. 

Founded in 2010, UWDA is a nonprofit immigrant advocacy organization with operations in 28 U.S. states. An immigrant-youth-led organization, there are over 400,000 members in 100 local groups.

In addition to endorsing Gym, UWDA announced it would work with a few other organizations through the final 20 days until the primary to connect and contact more voters. 

“United We Dream Action is partnering with the Working Families Party (WFP), Asian Pacific Islander Political Alliance (API PA) and Make the Road Pennsylvania to contact voters in Philly ahead of election day. UWDA will mobilize its membership for a text bank with WFP on May 9th and a phone bank with API PA on May 16,” they said. 

Having been a school teacher at Lowell Elementary School in 1994 before entering politics, and six years on the Philadelphia City Council, the organization believes Gym is the only candidate in the race that personally understands the nuances of the specific issues affecting communities of color — whether education or public safety for instance. 

She was a grassroots community organizer who was involved in education reform in Philly for more than a decade. 

She co-founded the Parents United for Public Education and is a member of the editorial board of Rethinking Schools and one of the founders of The Philadelphia Public School Notebook, a nonprofit, independent, free news service.

Gym’s alignment with immigration advocacy groups started at the beginning of the race, with the most recent endorsement before Wednesday’s announcement from Make the Road Action PA, the political arm for the largest Latino organizing group in the city with over 13,000 members. 

“We recognize the power in having elected officials who have both the lived and learned experiences of the public to fight for the community,” UWDA’s statement concluded. 

“Having Helen Gym as mayor will improve the everyday lives of immigrants, working people, and people of color,  and create a greater future for all.”