Who are the Philadelphia district attorney candidates? Meet incumbent Larry Krasner and Pat Dugan

CBS News

19-05-2025

Democrats in Philadelphia will decide on Tuesday in the 2025 Pennsylvania primary election whether District Attorney Larry Krasner, seeking a third term, or former Municipal Court judge Patrick Dugan will be their party's nominee to serve as the city's top prosecutor.
No Republicans are running for Philadelphia district attorney, meaning whoever wins Tuesday's primary will likely also win November's general election. In Pennsylvania, the term for a district attorney is four years.
Philadelphia hasn't had a Republican DA since Ronald Castille, who served from 1986 through 1991 before stepping down for an unsuccessful run for mayor.
Who is Larry Krasner (incumbent)?
Krasner was first elected as district attorney in 2017 after spending years as a civil rights lawyer in Philadelphia, defending the likes of Black Lives Matter, DACA Dreamers, and Occupy Philadelphia protesters, among others, and suing the police department dozens of times. He won re-election in 2021, beating Republican Chuck Peruto in the general election with 71.8% of the vote and Carlos Vega in the Democratic primary.
According to Krasner's campaign website, Krasner has focused on victim support, exonerating innocent people, reducing incarceration, and holding the Philadelphia Police Department accountable during his first two terms as DA.
"We've done a lot. It's gone in the right direction. We are safer," Krasner told CBS News Philadelphia. "We are freer than we used to be, and the system is fairer, and we should want that to go on longer."
During his second term, Republicans who controlled Pennsylvania's House of Representatives impeached Krasner in 2022. He sued, and the state Supreme Court later ruled that the lawmakers improperly tried to stretch the impeachment process.
Krasner, known as a progressive prosecutor, has faced years of criticism from President Trump and other Republicans. Krasner's political opponents and critics claim he should be tougher on crime.
Crime rates in Philadelphia are dropping. PPD data shows homicides and violent crimes are down year over year. Since Philadelphia's homicide rate began spiking to record levels in 2020 and peaking in 2021, amid the pandemic, homicides have fallen each of the last three years. In 2024, the city saw its lowest homicide rate in a decade.
"We have the lowest number of homicides on the day that you're interviewing me that we have had on that day for 50 years. That is truly remarkable," Krasner told CBS News Philadelphia on May 15. "Philly remains the poorest of the 10 largest cities. We still have way too many guns, but we have succeeded. By we, I mean the mayor, the police commissioner, the DA's office and a whole lot of nonprofits, have succeeded in improving public safety in ways we haven't seen in decades."
Among some of the platforms Krasner's running on for a third term are protecting democracy and immigrants, expanding alternatives to prosecution, stopping wrongful convictions and increasing justice for juveniles, among other reforms.
Who is Patrick Dugan?
Dugan, a U.S. Army veteran who served in Iraq and Afghanistan, served as a judge in the Philadelphia Municipal Court for 17 years after former Pennsylvania Gov. Ed Rendell appointed him in 2007. He served as President Judge from 2019 through 2024, when he resigned to run against Krasner for DA. He unsuccessfully ran for judge of the Pennsylvania Superior Court in 2023.
In an interview with CBS News Philadelphia's Natasha Brown earlier this month, Dugan said he's running for district attorney because he wants to make the city safer, criticizing Krasner for taking what he claimed was a "non-prosecution role" as DA.
"Seventeen years on the bench, a job that I absolutely love, but what I've seen the last seven years as a citizen, again, living in Philadelphia his whole life," Dugan said. "But what I saw for the past seven years was enough to make me get off the steps to go try and make a difference in our city."
On his campaign website, Dugan says he would take a localized approach as DA and would divide the office into six geographical divisions. Under Dugan, violent criminals would face the maximum penalties allowed by the law while low-level offenders would enter diversionary programs, his campaign website claims.
Dugan also says he would restore community programs, hold prosecutors accountable for failures, and prioritize high-impact crimes. He also says he wants to hire more assistant district attorneys from local law schools.
"I'm also going to bring back hiring local attorneys instead of going all over the country to Stanford and Harvard. They're more than welcome to come and apply," Dugan said. "I want folks from Temple, Villanova, Penn, Widener, Drexel, Rutgers-Camden, our historically Black colleges and universities with the law schools, I want them to come and be invested in our city."
Tom Dougherty
Tom Dougherty is a digital content producer for CBS Philadelphia. Before joining CBS Philadelphia, Tom covered sports for NBC Sports Philadelphia. He currently covers breaking news and sports.
and contributed to this report.