Reclaim Philadelphia’s Citywide Committee 1st Round of Recommendations for member endorsement in the 2025 Primary Election
Last week, Reclaim Philadelphia’s Citywide Committee met to discuss and vote on our first recommendation for member endorsement for Philadelphia’s 2025 Primary Election. The race with the most power when it comes to mass liberation and real justice both locally and nationally, is the one for District Attorney.
Reclaim Philadelphia’s Citywide Committee is excited to recommend that our members vote to endorse movement champion Larry Krasner for re-election for District Attorney of Philadelphia.
When Larry Krasner was first elected in 2017, it was seen as our movement’s first win following the election of President Donald Trump. A public defender elected as District Attorney in the most incarcerated city in America started a national dialogue around the need for progressive prosecutors. Since then, Krasner has won every primary election in landslides despite Philadelphia’s democratic establishment either refusing to support or actively opposing him. This year for the third time, Reclaim’s leadership asks our members to stand with a proven winner and defender of our civil rights
Eight years after his first election, Philadelphia voters have proven that safety doesn’t come from simply locking our neighbors up. Krasner has shown us what is possible with a progressive vision built on using diversionary initiatives for low-level offenses so his office can focus its time and resources on the most serious of crimes. His office has taken a public health approach to the drug crisis and focused on the root causes. Instead of prosecuting people for simple drug possession, he’s sued Big Pharma for their role in this epidemic. He has held bad cops accountable, convicting police officers for crimes for the first time since 1978! His record exonerations of 18 innocent people unjustly incarcerated account for 10% of exonerations nationwide. Many had tried to build a narrative that this campaign was radical and would lead to increases in crime. But like Krasner’s campaign slogan in 2017 rightly predicted: Justice makes us safer. Even Krasner’s opponents cannot deny that violence and homicide rates in the city have gone down under his leadership.
Today, we find ourselves politically in a moment even more precarious than when Krasner was first elected in 2017. Donald Trump is president again and Republicans control every branch of the federal government as well as the Pennsylvania’s Attorney General’s office. Locally, our Mayor Cherelle Parker and the majority of City Council appear more aligned with Trump and Republican’s tough-on-crime policies than the vision of Philadelphia voters. Krasner has vowed to hold ICE agents accountable against the Mayor’s lukewarm commitments to upholding Philadelphia’s sanctuary city status. Elon Musk, who Krasner’s office has sued, has made intentions to use his PAC to retaliate against Krasner and progressive prosecutors nationwide. The same labor unions who backed Mayor Parker’s candidacy (as well as the failed arena in Chinatown) are supporting Krasner’s opponent. They say they’re doing this because they want a District Attorney more aligned with Parker’s tough-on-crime and anti-harm reduction positions. And for a third time, our local Democratic City Committee has failed to support Krasner.
At Reclaim Philadelphia, we have always believed in the importance of public safety we can feel to build a city that works for everyone. While we are relieved to see violent crime go down, we recognize it’s little comfort to those that continue to be impacted. We also know these historic reductions in crime are huge steps in the right direction. This race, like Krasner’s first, will be a fight against the status quo backed by both parties in our city. It will be a test to see if our movement can keep pushing our vision of safety built on justice or if we return to tough-on-crime policies that have consistently failed us in the past. We look forward to making our case to our neighbors for a third time. To get started, we need our members to take the first step in this fight and participate in our endorsement vote.
Reclaim Philadelphia members can now begin voting on our 1st round of endorsements for the 2025 Primary Election! Membership voting will begin online Wednesday, February 19 and conclude at the end of the day Wednesday, March 5.
Reclaim Philadelphia’s endorsements are decided by members. All members can and should participate in the endorsement process! Candidates who receive the votes of at least 60% of the participating members (members who submit a ballot) are endorsed. Not a member? You can become one now to weigh in on endorsements and other future important decisions about the direction of Reclaim Philadelphia and our movement. If you cannot afford to pay monthly dues at this time, you can become a member by emailing info@reclaimphiladlephia.org.
In Solidarity,
Citywide Committee Members,
Kyra Schwartz (Chair)
Tess Kerins (Vice Chair)
Lev Hirschhorn (Treasurer)
Dom Shannon (Secretary)
Elizabeth Schlingmann (Meeting Coordinator)
Julia Tackett (Membership Coordinator)
Tammer Ibrahim (At-Large)
Adams Rackes (At-Large)
Adrián Rivera-Reyes (At-Large)
Seth Anderson-Oberman (Executive Director)
Sergio Cea (Political Director)
Walter Bilderback (Neighborhood Leader)
Sarah Bishop-Stone (Neighborhood Leader)
Rahul Datta (Neighborhood Leader)
Sarice Greenstein (Neighborhood Leader)
Mijuel Johnson (Neighborhood Leader)
Emily Kraeck (Neighborhood Leader)
Jayson Massey (Neighborhood Leader)
Judith Max Palmer (Neighborhood Leader)
Alison Wallach (Neighborhood Leader)
