30 Facts About Cherelle Parker

Cherelle Lesley Parker was born on September 9,1972 and is an American politician who has served as the 100th mayor of Philadelphia since 2024.

Cherelle Parker is the first woman to hold the office.

Cherelle Parker was elected to represent the ninth district on the Philadelphia City Council in 2015 and re-elected in 2019, serving as majority leader from 2020 to 2022.

In September 2022, Cherelle Parker resigned from City Council and announced her candidacy in the 2023 Philadelphia mayoral election.

Cherelle Parker won the Democratic primary in May 2023, going on to defeat Republican David Oh in the general election in November.

Cherelle Parker was born in the Mount Airy neighborhood of Northwest Philadelphia to an unmarried teenage mother.

Cherelle Parker's mother died when Parker was 11, and she was raised by her grandparents, a disabled US Navy veteran and a domestic worker who both grew up in the South.

In 1990, as a senior at Parkway High School, Cherelle Parker won a citywide oratorical competition.

Cherelle Parker is a member of the Delta Sigma Theta sorority.

In 2005, Cherelle Parker ran in a special election to the Pennsylvania House of Representatives to fill an open seat vacated by LeAnna Washington after Washington was elected to the Pennsylvania State Senate.

Cherelle Parker won the election, and became the youngest Black woman ever elected to the Pennsylvania General Assembly.

Cherelle Parker remained in that office for ten years, and for five years was chair of the Philadelphia delegation.

Tasco retired from Philadelphia city council in 2015, and encouraged Cherelle Parker to succeed her.

Cherelle Parker was supported by the city's Democratic Party, and won.

In January 2020, Cherelle Parker defeated Bobby Henon to become majority leader for Democrats on the city council.

In February 2021, Cherelle Parker was elected the chair of the board for the Delaware River Port Authority.

On September 7,2022, Cherelle Parker resigned from the City Council and announced her candidacy for Mayor of Philadelphia in the 2023 election.

Cherelle Parker's campaign focused on crime and public safety, pledging to hire 300 new police officers and opposing the establishment of a supervised injection site for heroin and other injectable drugs in Philadelphia.

Cherelle Parker lagged in fundraising behind most of the major candidates.

Cherelle Parker faced Republican city council member David Oh in the general election.

Cherelle Parker agreed to participate in a joint interview with Oh at the Please Touch Museum, where they took questions from children related to their vision of Philadelphia.

Cherelle Parker said she wishes to see Philadelphia be the "safest, cleanest, and greenest big city in the nation, with economic opportunity for all".

Cherelle Parker ordered a return to full-time, in-person work for city employees by July 15,2024.

Cherelle Parker proposed a $1 million cut to funding for Prevention Point, a harm reduction and syringe exchange organization that operates in Kensington.

In September 2024, Cherelle Parker released a statement announcing her support for the proposed 76 Place at Market East development, despite objections from neighboring Chinatown and other community groups.

Cherelle Parker had launched a citywide tour to promote the agreement and vigorously pushed City Council to pass the necessary legislation.

In 2023, Cherelle Parker supported opening schools for a longer duration of the day and mandatory year-round schooling, arguing that "children are no longer working the farms in summertime".

In 2010, Cherelle Parker married Ben Mullins, a leader in the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers.

In 2011, Cherelle Parker was arrested for driving under the influence of alcohol after she was stopped for driving the wrong way on a one-way street.

Cherelle Parker was convicted, and after losing an appeal in 2015, was sentenced to three days in jail, a $1,000 fine, and a one-year driver's license suspension.