Philadelphia DA election: What you need to know about the Democratic primary candidates

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Philadelphia voters will decide the future of the city’s criminal justice system in a high-stakes Democratic primary for district attorney. Incumbent Larry Krasner, a progressive reformer, faces his latest challenge from Patrick Dugan, a former municipal judge who presents himself as a pragmatist prioritizing law and order.

The outcome of the May 20 election will determine the city’s top prosecutor. No Republican candidate has entered the race. The contest pits two competing philosophies against each other: Krasner’s commitment to continuing to overhaul a historically punitive system and Dugan’s pledge to restore a sense of safety.

What does the DA do?

The Philadelphia District Attorney’s Office was established in 1850 to represent Philadelphia and the state in the prosecution of local criminal cases. Since then, it has become one of the largest prosecutor’s offices in the country, with 600 lawyers and other staff.

The primary function of the district attorney is to work with law enforcement agencies and build cases against defendants and present evidence in court. For decades, the office has initiated diversion and rehabilitation programs, providing alternatives to incarceration, such as drug treatment programs, mental health services and community service. One notable initiative, the Accelerated Misdemeanor Program, was introduced in 2010 to redirect individuals charged with nonviolent misdemeanors into programs emphasizing community service and rehabilitation.

The office also provides assistance to victims and their families, offering resources such as counseling and guidance throughout the legal process, and engages in community outreach programs aimed at preventing crime and improving public safety.

The district attorney has been an elected position since the beginning and also a launching pad for other political positions.  Arlen Specter, who served between 1966 and 1974 as DA, went on to represent Pennsylvania in the U.S. Senate. Ed Rendell, who served between 1978 and 1986, became Pennsylvania’s governor in 2003.

Who is Larry Krasner?

Krasner was elected as part of a wave of reformist prosecutors amid a national trend toward prosecutorial approaches that reflected a shift in public sentiment on issues of crime and punishment. Krasner has regularly made national headlines for policies aimed at reducing mass incarceration and holding law enforcement accountable, such as the curtailed use of cash bail for nonviolent offenses and aggressively prosecuting police misconduct.

Born in St. Louis, Missouri, Krasner attended the University of Chicago and graduated from Stanford University Law School. He relocated to Philadelphia to become a public defender and later opened his own law firm. Throughout his 30-year career as a defense attorney, he represented protest groups including Black Lives Matter, Occupy Philadelphia and Act Up for free. He’s also filed over 75 civil rights lawsuits against the police department.

Krasner said his run for DA was fueled partly by a broader national wave of reaction to police shootings of unarmed individuals and the pro-law enforcement policies of President Donald Trump. Many voters viewed Krasner’s progressive platform as a direct counter to the earlier Trump administration’s tough-on-crime stance and its efforts to roll back criminal justice reforms.

He received backing from billionaire philanthropist George Soros, whose political action committee contributed $1.7 million in support.

The year he assumed office, Krasner announced that prosecutors would no longer pursue charges for simple marijuana possession cases. He also instructed his office to stop seeking cash bail for a range of misdemeanors and nonviolent felonies, arguing that individuals should not be detained simply because they could not afford to pay for their release.

Krasner introduced sentencing reforms, requiring prosecutors to recommend shorter prison sentences in plea deals and to consider the financial burden of incarceration on taxpayers. His administration emphasized diversion programs and alternative sentencing for nonviolent offenses, aimed at shifting the focus of prosecution from punishment to rehabilitation. In 2019, Krasner filed a motion in the Pennsylvania Supreme Court arguing that the state’s capital punishment system was unconstitutional, citing racial disparities and concerns over wrongful convictions.

A key element of his tenure was police accountability — his office created a “do not call” list of officers with histories of dishonesty, excessive force or civil rights violations, restricting their ability to testify in criminal cases. He has also aggressively prosecuted police officers for wrongful killings in the line of duty.

While his policies garnered national attention and were celebrated by criminal justice reform advocates, critics linked Krasner’s policies to an increase in gun violence in Philadelphia, especially during the pandemic, arguing that his lenient approaches emboldened offenders. ​In 2022, the Pennsylvania House of Representatives initiated impeachment proceedings against Krasner, accusing him of “dereliction of duty” in handling the city’s gun violence crisis. Krasner sued and the state supreme court ended the impeachment process.

Republican legislators introduced legislation that limited Krasner’s prosecutorial powers, giving the state Attorney General authority over cases in and around SEPTA stations. Krasner sued over the law, but lost.

Many police representatives have widely criticized Krasner and the local Fraternal Order of Police sued over his misconduct list and encouraged Republican members to support his opponent in the 2021 Democratic primary.

Krasner easily won reelection in 2021, despite dramatic pandemic-fueled increases in murders and other crime.

Who is Patrick Dugan?

A Philadelphia native, Dugan was born in Fairmount to a single mother and attended St. Joseph’s Preparatory High School on scholarship, according to his campaign website. After his first return from military service, he obtained his Juris Doctor from Rutgers-Camden Law School and practiced law for over a decade, focusing on cases involving children and the underprivileged.

He enlisted in the Army Reserves in 1981 as a Nuclear Biological Warfare Specialist and served active duty from 1983 to 1989 as an airborne infantryman. At 42, Dugan reenlisted following 9/11, serving in Iraq where he conducted democracy training programs and served as a judge advocate general. Over the course of his military service, he earned the bronze star, combat action badge, parachutist badge, expert infantryman’s badge and the global war on terrorism service medal.

Dugan was appointed to the Philadelphia Municipal Court in 2007 by then-Gov. Ed Rendell and was later elected to a full term. As a judge, he specialized in veterans’ affairs, helping establish Philadelphia’s Veterans Court, which provides alternative sentencing and rehabilitation programs for military veterans facing criminal charges, which Dugan touts as becoming a “national model.”

“I’ve led the nation in restorative rehabilitative programs and the vast majority of the people that come in front of me are people of color,” he said at a recent forum. “So I’ve been in the front lines and I want to continue to do that.”

Dugan resigned from the bench in December 2024 to run for District Attorney, arguing that the city’s criminal justice system had tilted too far toward leniency and that it needed recalibration. His platform promises to prioritize public safety, hold repeat offenders accountable and restore public trust in the DA’s office.

Dugan wants to restructure the DA’s office into six geographical divisions, each with a dedicated prosecutor who will liaise with the community and work with victims. He also seeks changes to prosecutorial discretion to “hold ALL criminals accountable,” even if that means with diversion programs rather than detention, adding that he wants to restore and enhance such programs. Dugan also has said he wants to apply higher accountability for prosecutors to “ensure consistency and fairness.”

Krasner has attempted to paint Dugan as a “right wing judge” who more closely aligns with Trump, but Dugan has forcefully rejected that characterization and condemned the president calling him “a nut.” Dugan, a Democrat, appears to align closer to Krasner on most issues relevant to the office.

Points of Division: Justice and Public Safety

For Krasner, this election will be a referendum on the changes he has enacted over the last eight years. For Dugan, it is an opportunity to pivot the city’s approach toward a more traditional prosecutorial model. It’s a juxtaposition that reflects a broader national debate about the role of prosecutors in addressing crime and justice reform that has cost progressive district attorneys in San Francisco and Chicago their positions.

The candidates agree on many issues including mass incarceration, cash bail, sentencing reform and alternatives to incarceration. But, they offer some nuanced differences in certain areas. For example, while Krasner has called for an end to the death penalty in Pennsylvania, Dugan has said it could be appropriate in extreme and rare circumstances.

Dugan’s primary argument has been that overall crime has dramatically increased in Philadelphia and he blames Krasner for the rise.

Dugan has pointed to the spike in murders, 562 in 2021, as evidence. Krasner has argued the increase can be explained by the pandemic and his approach is beginning to yield results and pointed to a decline in homicides to 269 in 2024, which is also below the 315 cases the year before he took office but remains consistent with earlier years.

Dugan additionally cites the rate of retail theft, which also increased dramatically during the pandemic. That rate has also decreased since then, though it has remained considerably high. Dugan blamed that on Krasner’s 2018 policy that treated stealing goods valued at less than $500 as a summary offense, more equivalent to a traffic offense than one punishable by jail time.