Ahmed Moor is the first Democrat to announce a challenge to Senator John Fetterman for the 2028 nomination. He sat down with Philly Rhino on Tuesday for a 30 minute video interview, talking about who he is, why he joined the DSA, what he would do about the cost of living crisis, and why he thinks Fetterman’s time is up. Watch the full interview above, and read the transcript below.
Transcript:
Jordan: Ahmed Moor is the first person to announce their candidacy to challenge incumbent John Fetterman, who has been polling extremely low among Pennsylvania voters. Ahmed Moor is an author and University of Pennsylvania graduate, born in Gaza, and stresses the need to divest from Israel as well as address the cost of living crisis in America. He sat down with me for an exclusive Philly Rhino interview. My name is Jordan Williams-Crenshaw. Let’s get into it. So, Mr. Ahmed Moor, thank you so much for joining me today. I really appreciate it.
Moor: Huge pleasure to be here with you. Thanks, Jordan.
Jordan: Yeah, 100%. My first question is, you know, in your own words, for people who are unfamiliar with you, who is Ahmed Moor?
Moor: Yeah, I’m a Philly guy. I was born in Palestine, moved here when I was a kid. Might have been Ed Rendell was mayor at the time, ’91. I’ll have to look that up. But, you know, moved to Mount Airy, and then moved to Roxborough when I was a little bit older. I went to Henry School, graduated from Roxborough High School, went to Penn here in West Philly. I live in West Philly.
And then moved away for a lot of years. I was a foreign policy guy, a foreign policy professional. And now I’m back. Five years ago, my wife and I moved back with our little girls. It was during the pandemic. My parents are in Roxborough, we wanted to be close to family. So I’m glad to be home, and I’m glad to be running for the seat. We need more Philly representation in Congress. That’s what I think.
Jordan: I agree.
Moor: In the US Senate, yes.
Jordan: Now, in this last election cycle especially, but even before that, we’ve been seeing a lot of DSA-backed candidates, or even just democratic socialist candidates that are not necessarily backed by DSA, not only running in elections, but winning elections in all forms, in all statuses of the government. What is the DSA, for people who are not familiar with it? And are you a part of the DSA?
Moor: Yeah. I joined the DSA, the Democratic Socialists of America, because of the genocide in Palestine. That’s what put them on the radar for me. For me, the DSA is the values portion of the Democratic Party. Strong values, commitment to economic justice, commitment to political justice, to LGBTQ rights, justice for the working class. So that’s working class white people, working class Black people, working class brown people.
I experienced a lot of heartbreak through the Democratic Party. The cynicism, the corruption, frankly. And Philly people probably see a lot of that, you know, we’ve seen that in our city. And the DSA, for me, has helped me believe again in a politics which is positive, which is oriented around change and ethics. So, you know, I regard the Democratic Party, it’s kind of sick, it is ailing. And the DSA is a blood transfusion. So we’ve got to embrace the best ideas coming out of this organization. And we’ve got to embrace the change that comes through these electoral contests, these discussions, right?
So, for example, I don’t believe that Hakeem Jeffries and Chuck Schumer are going to do what we need to do in order to set America right again. The American people have handed the Democratic Party a big, big mandate to fight corruption. Well, the Democratic Party takes a ton of PAC money. The Democratic Party is in bed with large corporate interests, is in bed with billionaires and special interests. And that’s the problem with America today. I talked about the genocide in Palestine earlier.
That’s a function of a special interest capturing public policy. It’s true about the fact that nobody has health care. Majorities of Americans want health care. [Unclear in recording] asking for a trillion and a half dollars to go wage war on Iran and support Israel. But you and I are going to be stressed out if we get a toothache, because we can’t afford the $3,000 out of pocket. You know, that’s crazy to me as an American. It’s crazy. We have the resources. We’ve got to just put the resources where they’ve got to go.
Jordan: Now, incumbent Senator John Fetterman, he’s not said that he’s going to run just yet. But very obviously, he is extremely, extremely pro-Israel. Was him being so pro-Israel a big motivating factor for you deciding to run?
Moor: Yeah, look, the problem of Israel-Palestine is bigger than John Fetterman. John Fetterman is just an AIPAC guy. He’s just following the money. I think I may have frozen there, but John Fetterman is just following the AIPAC money, like so many of our politicians. The Palestine-Israel problem is one of equal rights.
We litigated that question in America 160 years ago in a civil war. We came down firmly on one side of that. I’m an equal rights guy. Black, brown, white, green, blue, we’re all equal. And that statement is firmly embedded in our Declaration of Independence, Constitution, Bill of Rights. They had the idea that all people are created equal. Now, the bigger issue around Israel is special interests. I want to get the special interests… I want to drive them out of business. But we also need moral leadership.
Like, I want an America my girls can grow up in and believe in. Like, we are a moral actor on the world stage. We are a values-first country on the world stage. So yes, Israel was a part of this. John Fetterman’s story is over, but we have a lot more work to do to get past this in resolving Palestine-Israel. But again, that’s just so that we can refocus our resources domestically and we can lead morally.
Jordan: Would you say that divesting from Israel is your most important policy platform, or is there something else that is the policy platform?
Moor: If I had to choose one that I want people to understand that I’m about: your cost of living crisis is directly caused by our corruption crisis. The cost of living crisis, which is caused by a war in Iran, which has driven up the price of diesel, which touches everything we buy in a consumer economy. Everything you buy in America has been on a truck to get to where you’re at, and that’s how inflation works. That’s a cost input, drives up the price of everything on that truck. So corruption, anti-corruption, that’s my line. How do we get to anti-corruption?
We’ve got to legislate Citizens United out of existence. I’m calling for a constitutional amendment that will legislate Citizens United out of existence. What did Citizens United do in 2010? That’s the Supreme Court decision that said corporations are people and money is speech. No, that’s not accurate. Money is not speech. Speech is speech, and corporations are not people. People are people. And we’re going to change the Constitution to fix that bad decision. We’re going to get the Israel lobby out of business. We are going to get the crypto lobby out of business, the oil lobby, all of these lobbies that have captured our public policy.
They’ve got to go back to their lane. This is government for the people, by the people. This is an anti-corruption campaign.
Jordan: Now the Democrats are kind of gearing up to find who is going to be their nominee for the presidential election in two years. What type of candidate would you want to see as the Democratic nominee?
Moor: I want somebody who’s strong on national defense, but also forward-looking and thinking about… so again, I said I’m a foreign policy guy, the world is a competitive place. I want somebody who’s able to understand the complexities, the contours of competition in the 21st century, but also somebody who can work with other countries to define global rules around AI, for example. This is a challenge for humanity as a whole, right? And there are only really two countries in the AI race. It’s us and China, and China. And we’ve got to come to some common rules and understandings about what AI looks like. But then domestically, I want to see a president who’s going to commit to the dignity agenda. The dignity agenda, as I’m describing it, is affordable housing, universal healthcare, universal childcare.
So Thomas Jefferson wrote the words, life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness, 250 years ago, just a few miles away from where I’m sitting, and from where you’re sitting. And what does liberty mean in a country where people are poor? You’re not really free if you’re living in poverty. And so we need a president who understands that, who’s going to commit to providing, whether people are white, Black, poor, rich, the basics for a dignified life. We’re talking about life infrastructure: healthcare, free healthcare, free childcare, and affordable housing.
That’s what you need to lead a dignified life. And then after that, you go out and pursue happiness on your own terms. So, who do I want in 2028? Somebody who has an understanding of what a dignified life in America means, and how to provide for that, and equally somebody who has an understanding of what it means to live in an increasingly complex and competitive world, where we’ve got to continue to compete.
Jordan: If there was a situation where, you know, you’re successful in your campaign, you get elected, but the presidential nominee is someone who is maybe not as interested in divesting from Israel as you are, or maybe even openly pro-Israel, do you see yourself being able to work under those conditions?
Moor: I’m going to push for American values. There is no such thing as separate and unequal. Anybody who tells me that separate and unequal is a good idea, that some people are deserving of rights on the basis of their race, that’s not my guy. We’re going to have to have a conversation about values.
Jordan: For the last question here, you know, I just wanted to make it a little bit more lighthearted. You know, you’re a Philly guy. Where’s the best place to get a Philly cheesesteak?
Moor: Man, I’m a vegetarian. So… there’s a spot here in West Philly. So there are really good vegetarian cheesesteaks. There’s a spot here in West Philly called Lee’s, and they make a great vegan cheesesteak. So I recommend it to everybody. It’s at 47th and Baltimore. It’s a great, great small business.
Go to moorforsenate.com, please. Learn more, get involved. We want to hear from everybody. You know, I’m running for a year and a half to the primary, two years to the general. I want to be in every community, in every church, in every living room, talking to people, learning about them, telling them about myself, and learning about what their priorities are. I think we can, you know, the most wonderful thing about America is we have this capacity for renewal. We’ve gone through some big, big crises in the past. We’re not a perfect place. We’ve never been perfect. But we’ve got these ideas: first principles, speech, due process, equality. And those are the guideposts. And that’s what we’ve got to go look at and think about, in trying to renew our democracy.
Jordan: Mr. Moor, thank you so much for joining us. I really appreciate you, man.
Moor: I appreciate you too. Thank you, Jordan.
