A look at the crowded 2024 field for Pa. attorney general

The race to become Pennsylvania’s next attorney general will be one of the most hotly contested statewide races on the 2024 ballot — and more than a half-dozen candidates are vying for it in the upcoming primary.

There is good reason for the race to be so competitive: The attorney general is seen as one of the most influential roles in state government, and often serves as a launching pad to the governorship, with two recent attorneys general using their statewide recognition to win the governor’s mansion, including Gov. Josh Shapiro.

There are five Democratic candidates and three Republican candidates in the race, which is wide open as the incumbent, Michelle Henry, whom Shapiro appointed to fill the rest of his term, is not running for a full term.

While the Republicans are expected to endorse a candidate in January at a virtual convention in hopes of avoiding an attack-filled primary, Democrats declined to endorse in the race.

Here’s a look at the candidates running to become Pennsylvania’s next attorney general. The primary election is scheduled for April 23, 2024.

Katayoun “Kat” Copeland, of Radnor, is a former assistant U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania, who briefly served as the Delaware County district attorney in 2018 before the county flipped blue.

Copeland, 56, boasts a 30-year career as a prosecutor at the county and federal levels. She worked her way up in the Eastern District to chief of the criminal division and as a member of its national security and cyber crimes unit, before joining a private firm in November while running for state attorney general.

The Delco native, who spent several years in Iran as a child, said her time abroad “shaped my appreciation for the rights and freedoms that we hold dear in our country.”

York County District Attorney Dave Sunday, 48, was the first Republican candidate to join the race for attorney general during the summer.

His early entrance helped him get the endorsement of the Republican Attorneys General Association, which is the big-pocketed national group trying to elect Republicans to the top prosecutor spot.

The Navy veteran has worked as a prosecutor in the south-central Pennsylvania county for 15 years. He is in his second term as district attorney of the state’s eighth-largest county, and won reelection as the county’s top prosecutor in an unopposed election in 2021.

State Rep. Craig Williams (R., Delaware), who led an effort last year to impeach Philadelphia District Attorney Larry Krasner, is running his campaign with a promise to restore law and order in cities across the state.

Williams, 58, of Concord Township, had a 28-year career in the Marine Corps and retired as a colonel. He also served as a chief prosecutor and legal counsel to the joint chiefs of staff on a Marine Corps base.

As the lone Republican state representative representing a Delaware County district, Williams said he is the party’s best chance at winning statewide.

Philadelphia’s former chief public defender, Keir Bradford-Grey, 48, would be the first Pennsylvania attorney general to have spent most of her legal career as a public defender, rather than as a prosecutor.

Her experience as the top public defender in Philadelphia and Montgomery County prepared her to be the state’s top prosecutor, she said, because she understands where the criminal justice system needs improvement.

Bradford-Grey, who lives in East Germantown, would also be the state’s first Black attorney general and first Black woman to hold a statewide row office. She has been on the front lines of racial justice issues, including in 2020.

Bradford-Grey received the endorsement of EMILYs List, a major national political action committee aimed at electing female candidates that support abortion access.

Pennsylvania’s former auditor general Eugene DePasquale is running on the promise that he can win statewide, after having done so twice to get elected as the state’s top fiscal watchdog.

DePasquale performed the best of any Democratic candidate at the state Democratic Party’s endorsement meeting this month, but failed to meet the two-thirds threshold necessary to get the party’s endorsement.

DePasquale, 52, of Pittsburgh, widened the responsibilities of the auditor general’s office during his tenure from 2013 to 2021, where he became an unavoidable figure in Harrisburg. He last ran for office in 2020, when he unsuccessfully challenged U.S. Rep. Scott Perry (R., York).

Joe Khan, a former prosecutor and Bucks County solicitor, wants to use his experience defending Pennsylvania’s fourth-largest county to take on “big fights” as the state’s top prosecutor.

Khan, 48, of Doylestown Borough, helped defend Bucks County from former President Donald Trump’s push to throw out thousands of mail ballots. He also previously served as an assistant district attorney in Philadelphia, as well as as a federal prosecutor.

Khan previously ran unsuccessfully for Philadelphia district attorney in 2017 in the Democratic primary, but received Gov. Ed Rendell’s endorsement at the time.

State Rep. Jared Solomon (D., Philadelphia) is a former community activist and military lawyer who ousted a 42-year incumbent, State Rep. Mark Cohen, from his Northeast Philadelphia district, running on a good-government platform.

While in the state House, Solomon, 45, has introduced accountability and ethics proposals — and now wants to take that message to a statewide audience.

Solomon was the first elected Democrat in 2019 to call for then-Philadelphia City Councilmember Bobby Henon to resign after he was indicted in a bribery case and said he has a long list of people and companies he’d like to investigate, if elected, including neglectful landlords and gun manufacturers.

Delaware County District Attorney Jack Stollsteimer is the lone Democratic candidate in the race who has been a top county law enforcement officer — and in one of the state’s most populous counties.

Stollsteimer, 60, of Havertown, was the first Democrat elected to be Delco’s district attorney. He won reelection to a second term in November and lists gun violence as one of his top issues.

Stollsteimer received the coveted Pennsylvania Building and Construction Trades Council endorsement, and emphasized his efforts prosecuting worker misclassification.