| Chris Rabb | |
| State House: | Pennsylvania |
| District: | 200th |
| Term Start: | January 3, 2017 |
| Predecessor: | Tonyelle Cook-Artis |
| Birth Date: | 21 February 1970 |
| Birth Place: | Chicago, Illinois, U.S. |
| Party: | Democratic |
| Children: | 2 |
| Relatives: | Maurice Rabb Jr. (father) Billy Murphy Jr. (uncle) Madeline Wheeler Murphy (grandmother) John H. Murphy Sr. (great-great-grandfather) |
| Education: | Yale University (BA) University of Pennsylvania (MS) |
Christopher M. Rabb (born February 21, 1970) is an American politician, professor, and author. A Democrat, he is a member of the Pennsylvania House of Representatives, representing the 200th District since 2017.[1] In a heavily Democratic district where winning the primary is tantamount to winning the election, he defeated the incumbent, who had the support of the Democratic establishment, in 2016.[2]
Rabb was born in Chicago, to an ophthalmologist and professor father, Maurice Rabb Jr., and a politically active mother, Madeline Murphy Rabb.[3] His maternal grandmother Madeline Wheeler Murphy, was a Baltimore-based community activist, and his maternal grandfather, William H. Murphy Sr, was a judge in Baltimore[4] Rabb's great-great-grandfather, John H. Murphy Sr., was born a slave and founded the Baltimore Afro-American in 1892.
Shortly after beginning his undergraduate education at Yale in 1988, Rabb was instrumental in the removal of an image of a shackled slave from the common room of Calhoun College (named after alumnus John C. Calhoun). In the process Rabb also learned he was a descendant of Philip Livingston.[5] Rabb received his bachelor's degree from Yale in 1992. Rabb got a master's degree in Organizational Dynamics from the University of Pennsylvania in 2006.[6]
In the early 90s Rabb worked as an aide to former U.S. Senator Carol Moseley Braun.[7] He then worked for the Clinton administration in the 1995 White House Conference on Small Business.[7] Since moving to Philadelphia to obtain his master's at Penn, he has taught a business course at Temple University.[7] He published the non-fiction book Invisible Capital: How Unseen Forces Shape Entrepreneurial Opportunity in 2010.[7]
In 2016, Rabb defeated the incumbent Tonyelle Cook-Artis in a three-way Democratic primary 47% to 40%, and then defeated Republican challenger Latryse McDowell 94% to 5% in the November general election.[8] He won the 2018 primary over challenger Melissa Scott 52%-48%, and has run unopposed since.[9]
Rabb serves on a number of House Committees, including Agriculture & Rural Affairs,[10] Commerce,[11] and the Judiciary.[12] [13] Rabb has put forward bills that would enable courts in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania to use restorative justice approaches to sentencing offenders,[12] [14] and introduced and passed bills in the Pennsylvania House to repeal the use of the death penalty (House Bill 999).[13]
In 2017, Rabb helped to found the Pennsylvania Climate Caucus.[15] In 2024, Rabb introduced legislation to counter greenwashing, which is deceptive marketing that incorrectly suggests that a product is beneficial to the environment. According to the Center for Climate Integrity, the bill is the first of its type in the nation.[16] [17] [18]
On October 2, 2021, Rabb authored a memo to all members of the Pennsylvania House of Representatives indicating that he will be introducing legislation to enforce reproductive responsibility among men. According to the memo, the proposal would "require all inseminators to undergo vasectomies within 6 weeks from having their third child or 40th birthday, whichever comes first." Rabb's satirical[19] memo draws attention to the double-standard of regulating women's bodies via legislation while the equivalent bill affecting men would seem absurd.[20] [21] Rabb called the memo "parody legislation".[21]
Rabb has two sons and lives in East Mount Airy.[7]