Patrick Dugan lost the Democratic primary to Philly DA Larry Krasner. But Republicans say he may now win the GOP nomination.

Philadelphia Republican Party chair Vince Fenerty said Tuesday night 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.

Dugan’s campaign has said he would not accept the GOP nomination if he received it. Fenerty said he was hopeful the Democrat will reconsider.

» READ MORE: DA candidate Pat Dugan has committed to declining the GOP nomination if he loses the Democratic primary

“Democrats, Republicans, and independents all have to join together to stop the insanity of what’s going on with Larry Krasner in this city,” Fenerty said. “Pat Dugan is a moderate Democrat who can attract votes.”

Dugan’s campaign issued a statement late Tuesday night conceding the race to Krasner and appearing to close the door on the possibility that he will continue the campaign as a Republican.

“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.”

It would take 1,000 Republican voters to write in Dugan’s name to make him the nominee. Early results do not say who received write-in votes, but they do indicate how many there were. As of late Tuesday night, partial results showed more than 6,000 GOP primary voters cast write-in votes for district attorney.

For comparison, that is far more write-in votes than GOP primary voters cast in the race for Common Pleas Court, in which the party also failed to field a candidate and Republicans cast about 1,500 write-in votes as of late Tuesday.

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

» READ MORE: Philly DA Larry Krasner defeats primary challenger Patrick Dugan, positioning him for a third term

Some voters on Tuesday expressed confusion over how the write-in votes would be counted and whether Republican votes for Democratic candidates would count in the Democratic primary.

They did not. Pennsylvania has closed primaries, meaning only registered Republicans can vote in Republican primaries, and only registered Democrats can vote in Democratic primaries. The Philly GOP was asking its voters to make Dugan the Republican nominee — not to vote for him in the Democratic primary.

Jeff Greenburg, a senior adviser for the Committee of Seventy, said fliering from an opposite party to encourage a write-in candidate is not uncommon.

“It’s absolutely legal and happens very often across the commonwealth in local offices,” he told The Inquirer.

Greenburg said he was not sure how effective the strategy is, but he was not concerned about the legality of the practice or the distribution of fliers.

“The fliers themselves are legal as long as they are 10 feet away from outside the polling room,” he said.