Joe Khan launches race for district attorney in purple Bucks County after failed AG bid

Former Bucks County Solicitor Joe Khan announced Monday he is running to be the county’s district attorney, launching a race against the Republican incumbent, Jennifer Schorn, that could test the political shifts in the purple county.

Khan, who was first appointed as solicitor in 2020, left his county role last year to join a crowded field of Democrats running for Pennsylvania attorney general. Khan placed third in the five-way primary behind state Auditor General Eugene DePasquale and Delaware County District Attorney Jack Stollsteimer.

Throughout the race Khan expanded his statewide and local profile while highlighting his work to defend Bucks County against President Donald Trump’s efforts to throw out ballots in 2020 and promising to take on large corporations. After losing in the Democratic primary he returned to private practice in a Yardley-based firm where he was involved in several voting rights lawsuits ahead of the 2024 election.

Khan, who also unsuccessfully ran for Philadelphia DA in 2017, announced his candidacy for a four-year term as district attorney alongside an endorsement from the Bucks County Democratic Committee.

“Bucks County needs a DA who has a proven track record of fighting crime, corruption and attacks on our rights,” Khan said in a statement. “That’s what I’ve done for 25 years and that’s what I’ll do as our next District Attorney.”

Schorn, a lifelong Bucks County resident and longtime prosecutor who has worked in the county district attorney’s office since 1999, was appointed in 2024 to finish the term won by her predecessor Matt Weintraub three years earlier. Weintraub successfully ran for county judge in 2023.

In responding to Khan’s announcement Monday, Schorn said the county “will not find a fiercer advocate of victims of crime or of justice” than her.

During her time as a prosecutor, Schorn said she has presided over some of the county’s most complicated cases, and secured eight convictions in decades-old unsolved murders, including, most recently, the first-degree murder conviction of Robert Atkins for a 1991 slaying in Croydon.

Additionally she has led prosecutions that have dismantled sex-trafficking rings and other corrupt organizations.

She questioned if her opponent’s resumé could compare, and wondered what his true purpose was in running for office in the county.

“The reality is I love this job, I love this office, and I love knowing we have worked so hard to keep this community safe,” Schorn said. “It’s upsetting to know that someone may use it for their own political agenda, especially after the last seven years of running for office.”

Both candidates will likely run unopposed in their party’s primaries before facing of in the November general election.

Of the five row offices on the ballot this year, the district attorney race is likely to be the most high-profile race in Bucks County as Republicans look to build on gains they made last November.

Bucks County remains the only purple county in the Philadelphia suburbs and it was the only county in the area that voted to put Trump back in the White House, even as the county supported former Democratic Sen. Bob Casey for reelection.

November’s municipal election will be a key test of Republicans’ continued momentum in Bucks County ahead of the midterm elections.

Though the county’s board of commissioners is controlled by Democrats, Republicans currently hold each row office on the ballot. The Bucks County Democratic Committee announced Monday that they’d endorsed a candidate for every seat.

“At a time when the very foundations of our democracy are being challenged, it’s more important now than ever that we elect people who are dedicated to upholding the rule of law and the rights of all Bucks Countians,” county chair Steve Santarsiero said in a statement.