Anti-Krasner ads funded by a super PAC hit the airwaves with just weeks left in Philly DA race

With fewer than three weeks until election day, a new political group funded by Philadelphia unions and building industry is running television and radio advertising to oppose District Attorney Larry Krasner, the progressive prosecutor seeking his third term in office.

The independent expenditure organization, called the Concerned Citizens of Philadelphia, was set to begin running negative advertising about Krasner on Friday, according to the media tracking firm AdImpact.

The commercials cast Krasner as a failed prosecutor who has made the city less safe through his two terms, pointing to shooting rates that increased and highlighting cases of people released on bail during Krasner’s tenure who went on to commit new crimes.

The advertising blitz ahead of the May 20 Democratic primary election adds a new wrinkle to the otherwise relatively subdued district attorney’s race that is pitting Krasner against challenger Patrick Dugan, a former judge. The two candidates have not met for a televised debate and have appeared publicly together only a handful of times. No Republican is running for the office, meaning that the May election will likely be decisive.

Krasner‘s campaign is just starting to advertise on television, but Dugan, who has raised significantly more money than Krasner, has been running commercials for several weeks. Those ads are largely aimed at introducing Dugan, who has less name recognition than Krasner, to voters.

The new commercials funded by the anti-Krasner super PAC do not mention Dugan, but feature a narrator saying: “If Larry Krasner can’t do his job, we’ll find someone who will.”

The campaign is led by Mo Rushdy, a developer and president of the Building Industry Association of Philadelphia, who has orchestrated similar efforts to oppose progressives in recent years.

Rushdy said he and other moderate Democrats are “united for true social justice,” which he described as a prosecutor who both holds repeat criminals accountable and oversees programs for low-level offenders “that have second chances actually work.”

“We need justice for victims of crime and for the communities that deserve a safe Philadelphia,” Rushdy said. “We simply need common sense.”

» READ MORE: Philly DA Larry Krasner’s first TV ad touts lower homicide rate and jabs ‘Trump and his billionaire buddies’

Krasner’s campaign said in a statement that the ad is misleading, citing the city’s steep decline in gun violence over the last year, and that it is exploring “legal options.”

“We decry the millionaire special interests who are using deeply misleading crime statistics to try to inspire panic among Philadelphians,” spokesperson Anthony Campisi said in a statement. “The truth is that Larry’s approach to reforming our criminal justice system has helped create a safer and fairer Philadelphia — with a 50-year low in homicides and plummeting crime rates that are improving faster than most of the country."

A line in the ad says “aggravated assaults with guns in Philadelphia skyrocketed by 73%.” The ad does not specify a time frame for when that spike occurred.

According to data compiled by the Philadelphia District Attorney’s Office, the number of aggravated assaults with guns — the charge often associated with nonfatal shootings — did increase while Krasner was in office. That corresponded with a national trend, as shootings and homicides rose in jurisdictions across the country in 2020 and the several years that followed.

In Philadelphia, aggravated assaults with a gun reached a high point in 2023, when there were 2,422 such incidents. That’s an increase of 72% compared with 2017, the year before Krasner first took office. Those incidents declined to 2,218 last year, and the pace has continued to slow through the initial months of 2025.

Murders in Philadelphia and nationally have declined precipitously, with the city last year experiencing its largest annual decline in homicides in at least 50 years.

Krasner’s internal polling showed he held a significant lead in March, but the effect of advertising in the run-up to the election, which began after the poll was conducted, has yet to be seen. Rumors have swirled for months that out-of-town billionaires might get involved in the race by funding advertising, but so far, the Concerned Citizens of Philadelphia is the first super PAC to emerge as a player.

Rushdy said the vast majority of the group’s fundraising is from local interests, including several of the city’s building trades unions and other BIA members.

The super PAC will be required to publicly disclose its donors and how much money it has raised in campaign finance filings that are due next week.

The city’s politically powerful building trades unions have already made their opposition to Krasner public. Ryan N. Boyer, business manager of the Philadelphia Building and Construction Trades Council, an umbrella organization of unions, is the cochair of Dugan’s campaign. The deep-pocketed electricians’ union has also been a top Dugan supporter.

Dugan has raised more money than Krasner thus far, in large part because of support from the trades unions, several of which gave maximum contributions. Under the city’s current campaign finance laws, PACs can give campaigns up to $14,800 per year.

But a super PAC allows the trades to sink far more money into the effort to oppose Krasner. Super PACs can raise and spend unlimited amounts of money to influence elections, so long as they don’t coordinate with the candidate or campaign they are supporting.

» READ MORE: Philly DA challenger Patrick Dugan frames himself as ‘the real reformer’ in first TV ad of the campaign

For example, the Laborers’ District Council — a group of three unions in the city run by Boyer — gave $50,000 to the Concerned Citizens of Philadelphia, according to campaign finance papers filed in March, the most recent filing deadline.

The Laborers’ District Council also gave maximum contributions to both Dugan’s and Krasner’s campaigns. Boyer has said that is because the locals that make up the council split their endorsements. Local 332, led by business manager Samuel Staten Jr., is the only union in the building trades backing Krasner.

No other organization disclosed a donation to the Concerned Citizens of Philadelphia ahead of last month’s deadline.

The ad blitz is the second time Krasner has faced negative advertising in a bid for reelection. In the 2021 Democratic primary, a group formed by retired police officers ran ads opposing Krasner and criticizing how his office handled violent crimes.

The local police union, which strongly backed Krasner’s opponent at the time, also kicked in funding for the negative advertising effort. Krasner ultimately prevailed in the race by a substantial margin.

The police union has not backed a candidate this year. Officials said neither candidate has requested an endorsement.