Updated 11/3 at 12:58 a.m.
Incumbent Democrat Larry Krasner was reelected to his second term as Philadelphia’s District Attorney today, winning approximately 69 percent of the vote, the Associated Press projected.
Krasner defeated Republican challenger Charles Peruto, a criminal defense attorney who won approximately 30 percent of Philadelphians’ votes.
Krasner believes his victory is proof of the city’s approval of his progressive agenda and that his win was due to his criminal justice reform initiatives, 6ABC reported.
“It’s a movement that has been led by Black and brown and broke people, and progressives,” Krasner said during his victory speech.
Peruto planned to call Krasner at 11 p.m. to officially concede the race, The Philadelphia Inquirer reported.
“First, I would congratulate him because he beat my pants off,” Peruto told CBS3. “It’s not even close from what I see so far. The city chose where it wants to go, what it wants to be, what it wants to do. If that’s what they want, that’s what they want.”
Krasner’s reelection campaign included taking a public health approach to gun violence, creating harm-reduction centers to prevent overdoses, promoting treatment for people suffering from opioid addiction and diverting juveniles from incarceration, The Temple News reported.
During his first term, Krasner created a police misconduct database that held officers accountable for unethical behavior. He wants to continue prosecuting crimes committed by police officers in his next term, The Temple News reported.
“One of the things that I believe we learned in the first term is that we got a lot done, we kept a lot of promises,” Krasner said after declaring victory. “And they were in fact what Philadelphia wanted. But Philadelphia did not always know what we were doing.”
Peruto, a Philadelphia attorney, ran on a platform that included incarcerating defendants carrying loaded firearms without a permit on their first offense, implementing an alternate emergency system to 911 and converting abandoned prisons into drug rehabilitation centers, The Temple News reported.
There are nearly seven times more registered Democratic voters in Philadelphia than Republican voters, The Temple News reported.
Krasner won his first term as District Attorney in November 2017 after defeating Republican Beth Grossman, who spent 21 years as an assistant district attorney, by a three-to-one ratio, The Philadelphia Inquirer reported.
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