Pa. election 2025: Philly DA Larry Krasner fends off challenger in Democratic primary; GOP candidates set in judicial races

Former Municipal Court Judge Patrick Dugan conceded the Democratic primary for district attorney to incumbent Larry Krasner in a statement emailed by his campaign late Tuesday night.

“Although we came up short on Election Day, I’m proud of what we accomplished, and while I may not be the next district attorney, I will never stop fighting for the values we carried through this campaign,” Dugan said. “And to Larry Krasner, I offer my congratulations. For the sake of our neighborhoods, our families, and the soul of this city — I truly hope he succeeds.”

The Associated Press called the race earlier Tuesday night, but Dugan ended his election night watch party without addressing supporters after the race was decided. In his victory speech, Krasner said that Dugan had not yet called him to concede the race.

A slate led by Lower Merion’s school board president and another incumbent was leading in the Democratic primary just before 11 p.m. Tuesday, after a contentious race that featured debate over antisemitism in the district and federal threats to public schools.

With 26% of Lower Merion’s precincts reporting, the four members of the Elect LMSD slate — school board president Kerry Sautner, member Anna Shurak and newcomers Juanita Kerber and Jennifer Rivera — were in the lead among a nine-member field.

Among their challengers was Rich Lester, a Democrat who hadn’t won the local party’s endorsement and spent more than $70,000 of his own money to run an independent campaign, and three members of a rival slate with GOP backing who also appeared on the Democratic ballot and pledged to do more to combat antisemitism in Lower Merion schools.

Philadelphia District Attorney Larry Krasner had one message during his victory speech to supporters Tuesday night: “This has been a people’s campaign.”

In a roughly 10-minute speech not long after he defeated challenger Patrick Dugan, Krasner touted that his campaign had prevailed against an opponent who had a deep-pocketed campaign. This was largely thanks to the backing of the politically powerful Philadelphia Building & Construction Trades Council.

“You cannot just buy elections,” Krasner said.

As news spread that the race was called for Larry Krasner, the energy at Patrick Dugan’s party fizzled.

The reality was unavoidable; after a large television screen began airing Krasner’s victory speech, an attendee quickly jumped in to switch over to the Phillies game - which appeared much more like a victory.

Dugan did not give a concession speech, instead sitting and chatting with family and friends as attendees began to trickle out.

Philadelphia voters have approved three ballot questions, advancing what are City Council’s aims to combat homelessness, boost spending on affordable housing, and better regulate the prison system.

With Question 1 approved, Philadelphia will create an Office of Homeless Services ombudsperson – an independent inspector for the city’s homelessness program who will also serve as a public advocate for homeless people and their families. The ombudsperson’s efforts could lead to more thorough investigations of complaints at homeless shelters, for example, or streamlined spending on homelessness programs.

With Question 2 approved, Philadelphia will be required to spend more money on affordable housing. When developers build in Philadelphia, they can choose not to build zoning-mandated affordable housing units if they instead make payments to the city that are supposed to go toward the Housing Trust Fund. But the sum of those payments routes through the general fund, and mayoral administrations don’t always spend it on housing — now, they’ll have to increase spending specifically for housing.

Philadelphia Republican Party chair Vince Fenerty on Tuesday night said it appears that a last-minute write-in campaign by the city GOP has succeeded in electing Democrat Patrick Dugan as the Republican nominee for district attorney.

Dugan lost to incumbent District Attorney Larry Krasner in the Democratic primary on Tuesday. But after no Republican filed to run for the race, the GOP organized to give Dugan another bite at the apple in the November general election by nominating him as a Republican.

It will take days for election workers to read the names of the write-in votes and determine whether Dugan won the GOP nomination. But Fenerty said early results indicate the party pulled it off.

Clarion County’s Maria Battista will serve as the Republican candidate for Superior Court judge in November, besting Ann Marie Wheatcraft in the primary election.

Currently president of consulting firm Judge Government Services, Battista ran for Superior Court unsuccessfully in 2023. She was not endorsed by the state Republican Party, and did not participate in the Pennsylvania Bar Association’s rating process.

Prior to her consulting work, Battista was assistant general counsel for the Pennsylvania Departments of Health and State, serving under Republican Gov. Tom Corbett, and Democrat Gov. Tom Wolf. Battista also served as a prosecutor in Franklin and Venango Counties, and worked at the Department of Defense as a contract specialist.

Challenger Corey O’Connor ousted Pittsburgh Mayor Ed Gainey in Tuesday’s Democratic primary election, beating an incumbent in a race that hinged on how Gainey was handling city finances, affordable housing and public safety.

O’Connor is all but assured of winning November’s general election against a low-profile Republican nominee in a city that hasn’t elected a Republican mayor in nearly a century.

O’Connor is the Allegheny County controller and the son of a former Pittsburgh mayor who had won the local party’s endorsement over Gainey.

Erica Deuso is one step closer to becoming the first openly transgender person elected mayor in Pennsylvania.

The longtime local Democratic advocate who works in management at a pharmaceutical company won the Democratic nomination for Downingtown mayor Tuesday, earning 62% of the vote and defeating the borough’s former main street manager Barry Cassidy who earned 38% of the vote in the race in which 814 ballots were cast.

She’ll face Republican Richard Bryant in November.

Patrick Dugan’s party is full of family and friends — and local officials are in the mix, too.

Among the crowded Sprinkler Fitters union hall was State Rep. Amen Brown, a Democrat who represents parts of West Philadelphia.

“I believe so much more can be done in the District Attorney’s Office,” said Brown. “[Dugan’s] a fair guy, and he understands the other side of the fence. He’s experienced every level of the criminal justice system.”

Over the last eight years, Philadelphians have seen the rate of shootings and homicides soar to unthinkable heights, they’ve seen the violence decrease at a dizzying pace, and through it all, the city’s Democratic voters have stood by District Attorney Larry Krasner.

Krasner, a leader of the national progressive prosecutor movement, is poised to win a third term after prevailing over a well-funded challenge from former Municipal Court Judge Patrick F. Dugan in Tuesday’s Democratic primary, according to an Associated Press projection.

No Republican has filed to run, likely clearing the path for Krasner to secure a new four-year term in November. (The Philadelphia GOP on Tuesday encouraged its voters to write in Dugan for district attorney in an effort to let the Democratic runner-up run as the Republican nominee in the general election, but Dugan’s campaign has said he would decline such an opportunity.)

Patrick Dugan, the former judge, was at ease behind the podium as he presided over a growing crowd of supporters at his Northeast Philadelphia election party around 9:20 p.m.

“I want to thank all the folks who are in this room, the people in the city of Philadelphia who helped us,” Dugan said. “You worked tremendously hard for the past five months. I believe we didn’t leave a stone unturned.”

Dugan told supporters he believed the city needed to be “much safer than it has been,” and that he was feeling “optimistic” as vote tallies trickled in.

Matt Wolford has won the Republican primary for Commonwealth Court judge, beating out Joshua Prince.

Wolford, an Erie-based attorney with a focus on environmental law, previously served as a state attorney for the Department of Environmental Protection. Prior to that, he worked as a deputy state attorney general who supervised the Meadville regional field office’s environmental crimes section.

In addition, Wolf also served as a special prosecutor for the attorney general’s office, and worked as the U.S. attorney for the Western District of Pennsylvania.

State Sen. Sharif Street, the Pennsylvania Democratic Party chair, said Tuesday night that he thinks District Attorney Larry Krasner will win re-election and that he’s “earned the support of most people in Philadelphia.”

“I think African American voters will overwhelmingly break for Larry, progressive voters,” Street (D., Phila.) told The Inquirer shortly after arriving at Krasner’s party soon after 8:30 p.m. He noted that the decline in crime also helps Krasner’s case.

But of Dugan, Krasner’s challenger, Street says he’s a “good man” but “it was a bad race in that he shouldn’t have chosen this race.”

While we’ve yet to learn the winner of the Democratic nomination for district attorney, one thing is certain — Northeast Philly is looking like Dugan country.

Signs for Patrick F. Dugan are blanketing the sprawling lanes of Roosevelt Boulevard, a show of force for the former city judge and moderate candidate in what is Philadelphia’s largest red-leaning enclave.

The multi-lane thoroughfare leads to Sprinkler Fitters Local 692, the massive union hall in Mechanicsville where Dugan and his supporters will close out their campaign against incumbent District Attorney Larry Krasner.

As of 7 p.m. Tuesday just over 60% of Philadelphia voters who had requested a mail ballot had returned it, according to data reported by the Pennsylvania Department of State.

Typically, about 80% of the voters who request a mail ballot in Philadelphia return it in time for it to be counted. But Philadelphia seems poised to miss that mark this year, even as the overall return rate is likely to rise above 60% after ballots received between 7 and 8 p.m. on election day are accounted for.

Officials had worried that fewer voters would return their ballots this year after ballots went out later than normal, just two weeks before the election. Legal challenges to candidacies stretched late into the election season, delaying the mailing of ballots.

District Attorney Larry Krasner’s election night party is gearing up Tuesday as his team sets up a large buffet of food and drinks for attendees at Pipeline Philly on the 15th floor of the Graham Building.

Krasner himself was helping with the set up.

As a view of Philadelphia City Hall towers on in the background, guests are trickling in to the Center City building and mingling with each other, including City Councilmember Nicolas O’Rourke of the progressive Working Families Party.

In the middle of a relatively quiet election day, the music was bumping at West Philly High School for the after-work crowd of voters, most of which seemed to be going heavily toward District Attorney Larry Krasner.

Jillian Privet, 23, said that she voted for the incumbent district attorney because his priorities align with “the betterment of the city. Crime has been down, the city has been thriving more” during his tenure. Drawing President Donald Trump’s ire with public statements and court fights against the administration weighted the scale toward Krasner, too.

“The fact that Trump hates him is a plus. It’s a good sign,” she said.

Minutes before polls closed, voters trickled in at Pilgrim church, but not everyone came for the district attorney’s race.

Andre Bustamante, 48, rushed inside the church hoping to cast a vote for Patrick Dugan, who is opposing incumbent Larry Krasner.

The finance worker saw this election as an opportunity for a change toward a more peaceful Philadelphia.

Polls officially closed as of 8 p.m. Tuesday following a day of what workers at polling places in the Philly region largely described as low voter turnout.

Despite the low turnout, no major issues had been reported at closing time. Still, some poll workers said the lack of voters was disheartening to see during a politically fraught time in the country.

Now, clerks will begin reporting the results for the Democrat and Republican nominees who will appear on the ballot in November. Voters who are in line at ther polling place by 8 p.m., however, will still be able to cast their ballot.

Voters at Roxborough Memorial Hospital were divided over who the next district attorney should be.

Standing next to a “vote for Patrick Dugan” sign, Suzanne DeMalto, 60, said she felt eager for a change.

DeMalto has never cast a vote in favor of District Attorney Larry Krasner, viewing his policies as “too soft.” This time, she is hoping the incumbent loses his seat in favor of former Municipal Court Judge Patrick Dugan.

Margaret Harris has been working the polls at Albert M. Greenfield School in Rittenhouse neighborhood on Election Day for nearly thirty years. The Democratic committeeperson prints a letter in which she reviews races and recommends candidates.

Armed with letter copies and rocking a blue Democratic committee vest, she waited for voters all day. At the high points, she saw a trickle of citizens participating in democracy.

“It’s very sad when democracy is being threatened in the U.S. and people aren’t coming out to vote,” Harris said.

If it weren’t for President Donald Trump, Michelle Spain wouldn’t have been voting at the Lea School in West Philly Tuesday. Before Trump was reelected, Spain, 44, said she was an irregular voter who cast a ballot in the biggest elections, but participated sporadically in everything else. Now she wants to use her vote to fight for everyday Philadelphians like her.

“Anytime there’s something to vote for, I’m doing it,” she said. Spain voted for incumbent District Attorney Larry Krasner, and said she has noticed crime going down in recent years. She’s also felt an increased police presence in her neighborhood and said she felt positively about it.

Robin Duncan, 35, though, is not a believer in heavy policing. Duncan voted for Krasner because “he’s as progressive as we got” and is the “best we’re gonna do until someone abolishes the police,” he said.

Mallery Recreation Center is packed with people but few are there to vote.

As the bouncing sounds from the basketball courtyard camouflage the silence inside, poll worker Kenneth Hawkins, 59, can’t help but feel heartbroken.

“It’s disheartening to see the turnout be this low. I don’t understand how people don’t see how the people on this ballot are going to affect them first,” said Hawkins, who was not able to provide an official count of voters.

The most foot traffic outside the Glavin Recreation Center’s poll site in Port Richmond Tuesday afternoon seemed to come from children at the playground next door. At the nearby Tomaszewski Funeral Home polling place, election workers were bored.

But a slow afternoon at the polls didn’t phase Joann Frederick, 73, a longtime Democratic committee member and retired Teamster worker.

“Off year they’re always like this,” she said. “It doesn’t matter really who’s running.”

On a slow day at the polls in West Philly, Larry Krasner was stacking votes, even while people acknowledged he wasn’t a perfect candidate.

“He’s been shown to be effective,” said Ronald Ivory, 74.

“We need to keep in place people who have proven track records,” said Sam Korn, 29, mentioning lowering violent crime in Philadelphia and Krasner’s targeting of financial crimes.

Republican committeepeople and election day workers on Tuesday distributed fliers instructing GOP voters to write in Patrick Dugan for district attorney in an effort to potentially allow Dugan, a Democrat, to stand as the GOP nominee in the general election should he come short among his own party’s voters.

Dugan is running against incumbent District Attorney Larry Krasner in the Democratic primary, and no Republican has filed to run. If 1,000 GOP voters write in Dugan’s name, he would have the option of serving as the party’s nominee.

Republican Party leaders have said they prefer Dugan, a former Municipal Court judge and Army veteran seen as tougher on crime than Krasner. Dugan, however, has emphasized he is a “lifelong Democrat,” and his campaign manager said Dugan would decline the GOP nomination if he received it.

Hours into election day, voters have yet to come rushing into one of Mount Airy’s busiest polls. Many of those showing up have been voting to reelect Larry Krasner as district attorney.

At Grace Epiphany Episcopal Church, voters have slowly trickled in through the day, said committee person Nadine Stevenson, 52, who couldn’t provide an estimate.

“This is usually a very high turnout area, but it’s been steady, there hasn’t been a rush,” Stevenson said.

At the political luncheon and gathering at South on North Broad Street, District Attorney Larry Krasner and former Municipal Court Judge Patrick Dugan schmoozed with elected officials and party leaders on what was looking like a low-turnout election.

Krasner said he felt good “because democracy is alive and well in Philadelphia.” The district attorney, who has focused much of his campaign on fighting President Donald Trump’s policies, said he hoped to continue the work that brought down the city’s homicide rate to a 50-year low.

“We are continuing on a course that has gotten us to the point where we have the lowest number of homicides on May the 20th that Philadelphia has had in over 50 years,” Krasner said. “That’s where we are right now. We need to stay on that path, but we need to also fight against these forces that are trying to drive up our crime by slashing the social safety net, by defunding a city that needs its resources.”

If Larry Krasner is reelected this year, he will join Lynne Abraham as the only Philadelphia district attorney to serve more than two terms since the current Home Rule Charter was adopted in the early 1950s.

It’s unlikely they’ll bond over the shared experience should Krasner succeed.

“Larry Krasner is a provocateur,” said Abraham while she ate lunch at the Famous 4th Street Deli in Queen Village at the traditional election day gathering for Philly politicos. “He’s dishonest to his core.”

Canvassers crowded the entrance to the Lower Merion School District administration building on Tuesday morning as voters trickled in to cast ballots for school board and a handful of largely uncontested local races.

Lower Merion’s school board race has drawn significant attention amid allegations of an unfair Democratic endorsement process, rising antisemitism in the school district, and mismanagement by the current board.

Outside of the school district building, Amy and Jim Palmer, a married couple and longtime friends of Democratic candidate Rich Lester, said Lester has the “even-keeled personality” and business acumen to steer the district in the right direction.

Judicial candidates, campaign pros, union officials, and other Philly Democratic apparatchiks on Tuesday chatted and chowed down at the Famous 4th Street Deli during the traditional election day lunch for the city’s political class.

Former District Attorney Lynne Abraham, City Controller Christy Brady, City Commissioner Lisa Deeley, and State Rep. Mary Lou Isaacson were among the elected officials past and present to pass through the Jewish deli in Queen Village.

Electricians union leader Mark Lynch Jr. dined at a table with Mo Rushdy, the Philadelphia developer who worked with Lynch and other union leaders to organize a super PAC opposing District Attorney Larry Krasner’s reelection campaign.

It’s Taco Tuesday at the Philadelphia Fraternal Order of Police Lodge #5 in Northeast Philadelphia, which may have drawn more people than the polling site. Shortly before 1 p.m., just 88 out of 1,388 registered voters in the three divisions set up at the lodge showed up to vote.

A woman representing the city’s Republican committee handed out fliers instructing Republicans to write in a vote for former Municipal Court Judge Pat Dugan, the Democrat challenging District Attorney Larry Krasner.

“Don’t give Larry Krasner a free ride,” the card said. Republicans did not run a candidate for district attorney this year, and the committeewoman did not know why.

Philadelphia voters will decide on several ballot measures Tuesday that could affect how the city monitors its jails, provides affordable housing, and advocates for its homeless population.

And it is the homelessness ballot question that has riled some of the city’s most ardent advocates for that vulnerable population.

Should voters codify a new city role into law — the ombudsperson for the Office of Homelessness Services — that individual would act as an advocate for homeless residents, investigating their complaints and holding the city accountable through power of subpoena.

At Ward 31 in East Kensington, one division endorsed Larry Krasner in the Philly district attorney race, and the one next door backed Patrick Dugan.

Thomas Hillhouse, a Democratic committeeman in the 31st, called Krasner “a really fair-minded district attorney.”

“The simple fact that he’s willing to go after, you know, obviously criminals, but also people that violate the law on the police force, or within government,” Hillhouse said. “I think that that speaks of his basic fairness in his approach.”

Fewer than 25 people had showed up to vote at one poll site at the Settlement Music School in Northeast Philadelphia by 9:45 a.m. on Tuesday. Poll workers said turnout is always low for primaries, but that Tuesday morning felt slower than usual. Weather couldn’t be an excuse, since the birds were chirping and the greenery was flush on the beautiful spring morning.

Several signs for former Municipal Court Judge Patrick Dugan were on display in front of the school, and they seemed to be effective. Various voters said they voted for Dugan, all with different motives.

Kathleen Cameron, 73, said the Dugan signs all over her neighborhood swayed her to vote for him.

Throughout this year’s Democratic primary for district attorney, Mayor Cherelle L. Parker kept her powder dry, declining to publicly endorse District Attorney Larry Krasner or his challenger, former Municipal Court Judge Patrick Dugan.

But the mayor’s allegiance has finally been revealed thanks to the mechanics of Philadelphia’s ward politics: Parker is backing Krasner.

Parker is the Democratic leader of the 50th Ward, a Northwest Philadelphia powerhouse that often boasts the highest turnout in the city.

Roughly a dozen independent activists demonstrated outside the polling place at Tenth Presbyterian Church in Center City, holding signs with messages such as “I paid for these primaries but I can’t vote” and chanting “let us vote!”

The activists were protesting Pennsylvania’s closed-primary system, in which voters must be registered with a political party to vote in a primary election. Independents can vote on ballot measures in Philadelphia primaries.

Only nine other states, including New Jersey and Delaware, have closed primaries.

It was quiet when Philadelphia District Attorney Larry Krasner cast his ballot Tuesday morning in his race against former Municipal Court Judge Patrick Dugan.

“I was the first vote of the day, which is kind of fun,” Krasner told reporters outside his polling place on 13th Street.

Krasner, a national figure in the progressive prosecutor movement and an outspoken supporter of criminal justice reform, was asked about numbers that show violent crime is down the past three years.

Former Municipal Court Judge Patrick Dugan cast his ballot in Tuesday’s primary election, where he’s challenging incumbent Philadelphia District Attorney Larry Krasner to become the city’s next top prosecutor.

Speaking to reporters outside his polling place in Northeast Philly, Dugan encouraged residents to vote and was critical of Krasner’s tenure.

“Philly deserves better,” Dugan said. “We haven’t prosecuted retail theft, illegal dumping. The gun conviction rate is the lowest it’s been in decades. Over 3,100 murders in the last eight years.”

Off-year primary turnouts historically are dismal, but the weather shouldn’t be anywhere in Pennsylvania on Tuesday.

Locally, the Pennsylvania primary fortuitously is being held during a lull between stormy periods and is looking like the finest day of the week, with highs in the 70s and sun expected most of the time during the voting hours, which will conclude in daylight. (The sun is setting around here 8:14 p.m., and after 8:30 p.m. in western Pennsylvania.)

In fact, no rain is expected during the voting times from Erie to State College to Marcus Hook, with just an outside shot of a shower around closing time, the National Weather Service says.

While the primary race between incumbent District Attorney Larry Krasner and former Municipal Court Judge Patrick Dugan has generated considerable interest — and campaign dollars — if the pattern holds, in all likelihood a decided minority of Democratic voters are going to decide the outcome.

In 2021, Krasner defeated challenger Carlos Vega, a former prosecutor in his office, by a 2-to-1 ratio, but the turnout was so low that he won with just 16% of registered Democrats voting for him.

In 2017, in a seven-person race, he defeated his nearest rival — Rich Negrin, now the state’s secretary of the Department of Environmental Protection — by a better than 2-to-1 margin.

When are polls open?

Polls are open from 7 a.m. to 8 p.m. on Election Day. Voters in line by 8 p.m. will still be allowed to vote — don’t leave.

Where is my polling place?