Philly DA Larry Krasner has all but secured a third term. What will he do with it?

So, what’s next?

That’s the question for Philadelphia District Attorney Larry Krasner, who all but ensured himself a third term in office by winning Tuesday’s Democratic primary against former Municipal Court Judge Patrick Dugan.

During an at times contentious but relatively subdued campaign — one that did not include a televised debate and saw Krasner and Dugan conduct only occasional head-to-head forums — the typically outspoken Krasner spent little time specifying what, if anything, he might do differently during another four years in office.

» READ MORE: How Larry Krasner won Philadelphia’s District Attorney primary — again

That stands in contrast to Krasner’s last two election cycles — first in 2017, when he campaigned as a brash outsider determined to transform an office he viewed as overly punitive, and then four years later, when he defended his progressive policies and said they would continue even in the face of the city’s worst gun violence crisis in history.

This time, the race largely centered on Krasner’s seven-plus years as the city’s top prosecutor, with Dugan accusing him of building a disorganized and unserious office and suggesting that the district attorney was not a “real reformer.”

Krasner, meanwhile, touted his tenure and sought to highlight the city’s plummeting homicide and incarceration rates — saying Philadelphians are now safer and freer than they have been in decades.

The district attorney echoed that message as he made his way around the city Tuesday afternoon, saying in an interview at an election luncheon: “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.”

And in his victory speech a few hours later, he cast his win as another milestone in that longer journey.

“The campaign did not necessarily start a few months ago — the campaign actually started January the first of 2018,” Krasner told his supporters, referring to when he was sworn in. “Because that is when the work started. And in a democracy, I would like to think, and I would like to hope, that it is the work that you do, and it is the results that you get, and it’s the way that you do the job, that mean a little bit more than whether somebody’s got more money for television advertising.”

If Krasner does go on to cement his reelection in November, he would be just the second Philadelphia district attorney in nearly a century to serve more than two terms. (The first was Lynne Abraham.) He also would be one of the few progressive prosecutors in the nation to sustain a prolonged run in office. In recent years, his contemporaries in cities including Los Angeles, San Francisco, Chicago, and Boston have either been ousted or decided to leave their jobs.

Here are several areas that may affect Krasner’s future if he does go on to clinch a third term. He has no Republican opponent, although GOP leaders said they may have been able to secure Dugan a spot as the party’s nominee, though the final outcome may not be known for several days (Dugan has said he would decline the nod).

Either way, in a city where Democratic voters heavily outnumber Republicans, Krasner is a favorite to continue serving as the city’s district attorney.

From the moment he announced his reelection bid earlier this year, Krasner took aim at an opponent who was not on the ballot: President Donald Trump.

In speeches and campaign ads, Krasner touted himself as a counterweight to the Republican president, saying he would serve as a “democracy advocate” and use the power of his office to stand up to any Trump administration policies that might endanger local residents.

But it’s not clear how often Krasner’s office will actually intersect with Trump’s over the next few years. And although Krasner has said he will not comply with federal orders that might cause him or his staff to break the law, he has acknowledged that federal authorities — including Immigration and Customs Enforcement — are legally able to conduct operations in the city, even if he does not agree with them.

During Trump’s first term, the most tangible sign of local friction between Krasner’s office and the federal government was the district attorney’s relationship with then-U.S. Attorney William McSwain, a Trump appointee who was frequently and openly critical of Krasner.

New U.S. Attorney David Metcalf — who has yet to be confirmed by the U.S. Senate — has kept a markedly lower profile during his first few months as the region’s top federal prosecutor. It remains to be seen how the relationship between his office and Krasner’s might unfold.

One area that Dugan sought to highlight during the campaign was what he called a high level of turnover in Krasner’s office.

Krasner had made no secret of what he viewed as the need for change after he was sworn in — he fired 31 prosecutors during his first week in office in 2018, and he and his staff later cast ongoing churn as part of a necessary shift in the office’s culture.

But even some Krasner supporters came to question over the years whether the turnover has at times affected office performance. Dozens of office veterans have left in recent years, and just this month, two supervisors departed from the Conviction Integrity Unit (CIU), whose work Krasner has frequently pointed to as being among the office’s most important.

Krasner said the CIU supervisors left for new jobs elsewhere, and he cast the departures as a reflection of the quality of lawyers in his office. He said it was “positive news for the country” that people can move from his office into other roles that often come with better salaries or lower levels of stress — even if the most recent departures left the CIU without its top two leaders.

“I would never want to clip the wings of a highflier,” Krasner said at a news conference earlier this month when questioned about the CIU departures. “These are highfliers. They should soar. They should go and do great work out in the world.”

It is true that violence has dipped to levels not seen in Philadelphia in decades: According to police statistics, 83 people have been killed in homicides so far this year, the lowest pace of slayings since the 1960s.

But officials including Krasner and Police Commissioner Kevin Bethel have long said that the reasons are complicated and difficult to pinpoint, as was the case when violence was on the rise.

And either way, the district attorney’s office is still responsible for prosecuting tens of thousands of cases in court each year.

Conviction rates — which dipped below 30% during the pandemic — began to rebound slightly last year, according to data Krasner’s office published on a website it maintains.

But thousands of cases remain unresolved each year. And year-to-date, the website says, only about 35% of violent crime cases that have reached a verdict have resulted in a conviction, while more than half have been withdrawn, been dismissed, or led to an acquittal — similar to pre-pandemic rates.

Staff writers Julia Terruso and Fallon Roth contributed to this article.