Larry Krasner’s tenure as District Attorney of Philadelphia has hit every headline giving the public a stark reminder how  out-of-control violent crime and public disorder has surged; it’s a story of one elite progressive winning a primary, and the rest of Philadelphia suffering for it.

But as many local progressives and media outlets like the Inquirer, will excitedly claim: homicides are falling! After years of record homicides, the rate has fallen from apocalyptic levels to still-higher-than-pre-Krasner-but-not-as-terrible-as-they-were (SHTPKBNATATW) levels. But another deadly weekend in West Philadelphia in late July provides a very different and sobering picture: many Philadelphia neighborhoods homicides were nearly 80 percent worse off than they were before Larry Krasner took office in 2018. The year before he took office, there were 315 homicides in Philadelphia, at the height of his incompetence there were 562. 

Neighborhoods in North and Southwest Philadelphia have deteriorated so significantly that state Republicans even attempted to limit the number of terms the Philadelphia District Attorney could serve to two. I witnessed this firsthand as a Temple University undergrad from 2018 to 2021.  Despite this shocking evidence, in 2025 Larry Krasner will undoubtedly run for re-election — and it will be Democratic primary voters who once again decide the fate of the city. 

And let’s be clear on why violent crime has come down; it has nothing to do with Larry Krasner’s progressive utopian visions paying off. Violence is down because local agencies and Mayor Cherelle Parker’s administration have rolled up their sleeves and actually done the police work that Philadelphia needs, from surprise sweeps in crime hotspots to increased enforcement on SEPTA. Having lived on and around Temple’s campus during the rapid rise in homicides from 2018-2020, I can tell you with confidence that not only is it not helping, Larry Krasner’s faux-kumbaya method of prosecution will let violent people back on the streets and eventually undo these newfound and well-fought successes.

Let’s not lose sight of how things got so bad, so quickly. Larry Krasner, a wealthy white progressive came into Philadelphia politics with the backing of everyone’s favorite foreign billionaire, and wreaked havoc on a city already reeling from the opioid epidemic. He refused to prosecute and let criminals walk — no amount of good policing can make up for that. 

Having worked with some of Krasner’s political challengers in Philadelphia of varying levels of electability, I’m intimately familiar with what doesn’t work. Voters who are looking to create a brighter future for Philadelphia will need to pick a great challenger, someone who is both left-of-center and who cares about prosecuting crimes. 

The political tide is turning both nationally and locally away from radicalism, from the election of Mayor Eric Adams in NYC, to the successful recall of radical DA Chesa Boudin in San Francisco. Closer to home, Allegheny County re-elected DA Stephen Zappala as a Republican after he was primaried from a left-wing Democrat; he changed parties and received extensive crossover support in the mostly blue city.

And of course there is Mayor Cherelle Parker, who prevailed over wacky Helen Gym and a number of other more progressive candidates by forging her own path through Philadelphia’s moderate black neighborhoods and appealing to working-class, labor union voters in the city’s Northeast.

Moderate Democrats will need to run a candidate who is credible, and who can beat Larry Krasner in a primary where Krasner will surely have the funding advantage. The obvious answer is former Councilman Derek Green, who dropped out and endorsed Parker in the mayoral race and served in the DA’s office himself out of law school. However, primary voters must not pigeon-hole themselves into looking only at a single candidate — a moderate, black Democrat with good ideas on law enforcement can beat Larry Krasner.  

A credible black candidate can silence Krasner’s accusations of racism and attempt to speak for minority voters who do not wish to disarm the police in our city, but rather want safety and justice, to borrow a term from New York Mayor Eric Adams’ campaign.

Krasner has to this point run on the politics of the far left wing, an opinion dominant only in select communities in gentrified and wealthy neighborhoods like Rittenhouse Square, Fishtown, and inner South Philly. By and large, the majority of Philadelphia’s communities which Krasner purports to represent are very moderate, miles away from Krasner’s radical politics. Not to mention, these voters are those who are most affected by the rampant lawlessness.

If Philadelphia primary voters want to stand by their support for a more moderate Philadelphia when they elected Cherelle Parker in 2023, they must follow the lead of cities across the nation which are abandoning radical politicians, finishing the job and kicking Krasner out. That is how Philadelphia can heal, but it’s only possible with the right candidate.

Craig Yeomans is the Head of Accounts at BlueStateRed, a Philadelphia and South Carolina-based messaging firm, and an avid enjoyer of Phillies baseball.