Patrick Dugan is a former Municipal Court judge who resigned in 2024 to run for District Attorney against sitting DA Larry Krasner in the 2025 Democratic primary. A military veteran and lifelong Philadelphian, Dugan has said he is running to restore both stronger prosecution for violent crimes and more robust diversion for lesser offenses.
Judge Patrick Dugan
Governor Ed Rendell appointed Dugan to the bench in 2007. In 2010, Dugan founded the Philadelphia Veterans Court, one of several Philly “problem-solving” courts designed to help divert specific, low-risk populations to rehabilitative social services instead of incarceration. He has also supported other problem-solving courts, including Drug and Alcohol court, Mental Health court and Project Dawn, which focuses on prostitution.
In 2019, Dugan’s peers elected him President Judge. As President Judge, he guided the courts through the pandemic and authorized the Eviction Diversion Program, which helped more than 46,000 families remain in their homes during the pandemic.
More controversially, in 2013, he presided over the nonjury trial of Philadelphia Police Lieutenant Jonathan Josey, who was recorded and accused of assaulting a woman at the 2012 Puerto Rican Day Parade. Dugan’s wife is a PPD officer and was in the courtroom during the trial — which some legal experts argued was a conflict of interest. The judge ruled the evidence was not enough to convict Josey.
In 2024, Dugan ran for Superior Court and lost.
Campaign for District Attorney
Dugan told Citizen co-founder Larry Platt he’s running for DA because “he was tired of seeing untrained prosecutors in his courtroom subvert justice and endanger Philadelphians.” Platt described Duban as “a reluctant candidate” and “blue-collar guy who bleeds Eagles green and red, white and blue.”
If elected DA, Dugan believes he can make Philadelphia safer by splitting the DA’s Office into six regional divisions, each with a dedicated prosecutor to better build relationships within communities, in a similar vein to community policing.
Dugan wants to focus on diversion programs for low-level offenders — which he has a record of doing as a Municipal Judge. He says under Krasner, the “DA’s office is an impediment to collaborative efforts like evidence-based GVI (Gun Violence Initiative) strategies.
He has attacked Krasner’s handling of retail theft in the city, which has increased year over year and criticized Krasner for framing the DA’s race as a referendum on President Donald Trump, whom both candidates have denounced.
Building Trades manager Ryan Boyer, often pictured alongside Mayor Parker, whose campaign he also championed, and multiple trade unions have endorsed Dugan. (Boyer has said Dugan’s stance on retail theft convinced him.)
City Democratic ward leaders have declined to endorse any candidate for DA in the May 2025 primary. By mid-February 2025, the Dugan campaign had raised more than $300,000.
Dugan and Krasner faced off in their first debate in West Philadelphia on March 11, 2025. The Inquirer reported Dugan laid out additional positions: He “said he would retain some of Krasner’s reforms and even bolster them, including the office’s Conviction Integrity Unit, which reviews closed cases and works to exonerate the innocent. Krasner has made the office’s work to exonerate more than 50 people a central focus of his administration … Dugan framed his own positions on major policy issues as more flexible” (than Krasner’s).
He explained prosecutorial philosophy to The Citizen this way: “A judge and a DA should do the same thing, and it’s really just common sense: You help a good person who’s having a bad day and winds up in court, but those people who are going around having bad days on purpose? They need to be held accountable.”
Dugan vs. Krasner
They’re both Democrats, with similar legal principles. Neither is a fan of Trump. But there are some differences:
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- Both tout diversion, but Dugan says he can better deliver on “wraparound services” based on his experience in diversion courts.
- Anti-capital punishment, but would consider it in the case of a mass murder.
- Wants to embed prosecutors in communities, to give them a sense of what specific neighborhoods want and need.
- Hire from local law schools, as opposed to the Ivy League schools and HBCUs Krasner has recruited from.
- Wants to prosecute gun crimes to the fullest extent of the law.
- Rallies against shoplifting, although has not put forth a definitive plan to combat it.
Before becoming Judge
A lifelong Philadelphian, Dugan was born in Fairmont and grew up in Frankford and comes from a long line of first responders and military men. He served in the Army from 1981 to 1989, first as a Nuclear Biological Warfare Specialist and airborne infantryman. Afterwards, he attended law school at Rutgers-Camden. He re-enlisted after 9/11 and went on to coordinate democracy training and establish one of the first Women’s Empowerment Groups in Iraq. A father and grandfather, Dugan is married to Nancy Farrell Dugan. They live in Northeast Philadelphia.
More about Pat Dugan
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- Philly DA candidates Larry Krasner and Patrick Dugan debated for the first time, and the gloves came off — March 12, 2025, The Philadelphia Inquirer [paywall]
- Is Larry Krasner in Trouble? — February 14, 2025, The Philadelphia Citizen
- Former Philly judge announces run for district attorney, setting up likely Democratic primary challenge — January 15, 2025, WHYY
Pat Dugan’s campaign
Follow the campaign on social media: Facebook and Instagram.
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