It was fewer than three years ago that Republicans led an unsuccessful drive to impeach Philadelphia District Attorney Larry Krasner, whom they blamed for the city’s pandemic-era gun violence crisis.
But now, as Krasner seeks his third term in office, the Republican Party can’t find a single person who wants to replace him.
With just days left to file nomination paperwork to run in the primary election for district attorney this year, no candidate has emerged on the GOP side, and party leaders say it’s unlikely one will.
It means that, for the first time in decades, the city’s 130,000 registered Republicans won’t see a candidate from their party on the ballot for district attorney — despite Philadelphia’s shift to the right in last year’s presidential election.
Republican leaders said they’re disappointed that no one stepped up to run, especially since many in the party detest Krasner, a progressive prosecutor who has publicly feuded with Republicans in Philadelphia, Harrisburg, and Washington.
“A big part of our responsibility as a minority party is to present the voter with an alternative,” said Matthew Wolfe, a GOP attorney and ward leader. “Not running somebody for district attorney is extremely concerning to me.”
But Wolfe and other party leaders said it wasn’t for a lack of trying. Party chair Vincent Fenerty asked “every Republican lawyer with a pulse” to run, Wolfe said. They also openly recruited candidates on social media, posting messages on Facebook that read: “Are you a Philadelphia Republican and an attorney? This is your chance to step up and run against Krasner to help make Philly safe again.”
But, Fenerty said, there were no takers in a city where registered Democratsoutnumber Republicans 6-1. The last Republican to run for district attorney was lawyer Chuck Peruto, who lost to Krasner by 44 percentage points in 2021. On election night, when a reporter asked him what he would have done differently, Peruto replied: “Not run.”
“Most people believe for a Republican to beat Krasner is a very insurmountable task,” Fenerty said. “Nobody wanted to take 10 months out of their life to try to do it and not be able to attain it or get near it.”
Krasner’s appearance on the November general election ballot is not a done deal. He’s facing a challenge ahead of the May 20 primary from Democrat Patrick Dugan, a former Municipal Court judge who is backed by some politically influential labor unions and raised more money than Krasner last year. Dugan is presenting himself as a more pragmatic alternative to Krasner.
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Fenerty said his party’s rules prevent him from endorsing a candidate who is not a Republican, but he praised Dugan as a viable alternative, saying the former judge is “a fine gentleman and an excellent judge [who] would be honest, fair, and open-minded.”
Philadelphia Republicans say it is often a struggle to find candidates who want to run for office citywide, but they almost always land on someone. This year, the party is backing entrepreneur Ari Patrinos, who is running to be city controller.
And while no Republican has been elected mayor under the city’s current system of governance that was enacted in the 1950s, there have been Republicans who have served as the city’s top prosecutor in the modern era. Former District Attorney Ronald D. Castille served from 1986 to 1991, and later sat on the state Supreme Court. Longtime U.S. Sen. Arlen Specter got his start as Philadelphia DA, serving two terms beginning in 1966.
But a Republican hasn’t come close in recent years. Krasner soundly defeated Peruto in 2021 and, in his first general election in 2017, routed Republican Beth Grossman, a former prosecutor.
That record makes it challenging for Republicans running citywide to fundraise, and even to garner the thousands of petition signatures they need to get on the ballot.
Sam Katz, who ran for office as a Republican several times and was a serious contender for mayor in 1999 and 2003, said the party’s inability to field a candidate for district attorney merely confirms what was already known: that the Philly GOP does not have a citywide presence, and is instead geographically centered in Northeast Philadelphia and pockets of South Philly.
But he said even if a Republican would have been considered a longshot, running citywide is a learning opportunity for candidates newer to politics who might be eying a future run for a winnable seat. They certainly exist — just last year, Joe Picozzi stunned Northeast Philly Democrats by becoming the first Republican to win a Philadelphia state Senate seat in two decades.
“The mistake that they’re making is they aren’t giving a candidate the education in how to be one,” Katz said. “I think in the long run, that’s a loss.”
