Mayoral candidate Delscia Gray discusses background and platform

Delscia Gray describes her mayoral campaign as a “committee of one.”

Few voters have heard of – much less know anything about – Gray, who will appear fourth on the ballot in the May 16 Democratic primary for mayor, right beneath former City Controller Rebecca Rhynhart.

This is her first involvement in electoral politics. She said she worked hard to get the 1,000 signatures needed to appear on the ballot, and she mainly gets the word out by approaching people in Wawa and other places.

Gray has not raised much, if any, money to fund her run, and she creates handmade campaign signs out of scraps of cardboard and styrofoam.

“When I come out the next day, they’re all taken up,” she told Metro during an interview last month near her childhood home. “But at least at night, I get that traffic riding by and they see ‘Gray for Mayor.’”

Gray requested to meet in the schoolyard of Harrity Elementary, across the street from where she grew up, in the Cobbs Creek section of West Philadelphia. She remembered learning how to ride a bicycle in the schoolyard.

“This is where it all started,” she added.

Now, she lives in the Far Northeast and has three adult sons. She works full-time as a security officer at Einstein Medical Center Montgomery, registering visitors to the hospital.

Gray was inspired to run for mayor after a friend was fatally shot near her old home in Frankford. Then, a neighbor was killed in the same area.

“I want to bring stability and economic success back to Philadelphia,” she said. “That is my goal.”

She says she is a victim of gentrification. Gray had lived in Frankford for 16 years when her longtime landlord decided to sell the property. Her eviction notice came in October. “They gave me a one-month notice to leave,” she explained.

Gray’s campaign does not have an online presence; however, an inactive Twitter account shows posts from 2016 in which she appears to be lobbying then-President Donald Trump to be named his secretary of state.

One of the messages read: “Trump I want to be your Secretary of State. I have the experience.”

Gray said that, at the time, she had recently purchased a new phone and was playing around with it. She characterized the posts as “just joking around.”

“I don’t care what they say about him,” Gray added. “I think, for me, income-wise, I made a lot of money during the years that he was in office.”

What would she do as mayor?

Gray’s priority is keeping Philadelphia’s children safe, in part by keeping schools open later and boosting summer programming.

She wants the police department to increase foot patrols, and wants law enforcement to be visible on SEPTA. Gray plans to replace Police Commissioner Danielle Outlaw with a lieutenant currently assigned to the 18th District in West Philadelphia.

“He doesn’t even know I’m considering him,” Gray said.

She is against stop-and-frisk, as she believes the policy creates distance between officers and residents. A key part of her anti-violence plan is cleaning up blight.

Gray proposes focusing School District of Philadelphia resources on building a massive K-12 school in Center City that would enroll a significant chunk of public school students.

She would keep the soda tax intact and believes she could fully fund the city’s pension obligations within her first term.

Gray admitted she has been caught speeding multiple times by cameras on Roosevelt Boulevard, and she supports lowering the fine for such violations from $100 to $65.

Her view on the plan to build a Sixers arena on East Market Street hinges more on Joel Embiid’s knee and James Harden’s jump shot than on concerns about the impact the project could have on Chinatown.

“Let’s consider building it if they win this championship,” Gray said. “If not, it’s gonna be a waste of money, I think.”

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