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The Republican City Committee, still casting about for a mayoral candidate, recently asked Philadelphia Housing Authority President Kelvin Jeremiah to be its champion.

Jeremiah declined - for now.

But the 42-year-old public housing executive, who has led the PHA since mid-2012, says he is building a political movement that may culminate in a campaign for mayor someday.

"I have said I have no interest in running for office in this election cycle," Jeremiah said Tuesday. "I may very well have an interest in the future."

State Rep. John Taylor, chairman of the city's Republican Party, confirmed that he tried to recruit Jeremiah and predicted, "He will be a player in this city in the near future."

State and local Republican leaders also tried to recruit former state Supreme Court Chief Justice Ronald D. Castille, a former Philadelphia district attorney. Castille, who retired from the court Dec. 31, also declined to run.

Seeking brand-name candidates is a departure for the City Committee, which was consumed for years by fractious debate about the party's inability to compete in citywide elections.

In 2011, the GOP recruited Karen Brown, a Democratic committeewoman from South Philadelphia, as its mayoral candidate. Mayor Nutter, seeking a second term, trounced Brown with 75 percent of the vote.

Jeremiah, born in Grenada to an impoverished teenage mother, moved to America as a teenager and grew up in Brooklyn, N.Y. He describes his story as the classic American dream of immigrants seeking a better life.

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Phila. Republicans tried to draft PHA chief Kelvin Jeremiah to run for mayor