Democratic Delaware County District Attorney Jack Stollsteimer announced that he is running for Pennsylvania Attorney General in the 2024 election cycle.
The first Democrat elected District Attorney in the Commonwealth’s fifth-most populous County in 2019, Stollsteimer earned reelection by 21 points last month.
“Working together, we’ve reduced gun-related homicides in the City of Chester by 68%,” he said in a campaign announcement. “I’m running for Pennsylvania Attorney General to help make our communities safer all across the commonwealth.
“As Attorney General, I will put my experience to work making our criminal justice system fairer, and I’ll fight for environmental and economic justice, while always protecting abortion rights.” said Stollsteimer.
Stollsteimer joins a Democratic primary field that has already seen four other candidates join. He may have an advantage as the only elected prosecutor along the quintet.
The 60-year-old has been a federal prosecutor in Philadelphia, a top official in the state Treasury Department, the state-appointed safety advocate in Philadelphia’s schools and, before college, a senior aide to state House Democrats. A Philadelphia native, Stollsteimer is a graduate of Thomas Edison State and earned his law degree at Temple University.
“Jack’s the son of a union bus driver and a Ukrainian mother who was a refugee from a Nazi slave labor camp. He’s never forgotten his working-class roots. No one running for Attorney General has done more to help union families than Jack, we can count on him to protect the American Dream and the union way of life,” said campaign co-chair Jim Snell, business manager of The Steamfitters Local 420. Joining Snell as campaign co-chairs are U.S. Congresswoman Mary Gay Scanlon (PA-05), and Cory Long, Chester Community anti-violence activist and Founder and CEO of Making A Change Group.
Other Democratic candidates for the AG position include state Rep. Jared Solomon (D-Philadelphia), former state Auditor General Eugene DePasquale, former federal prosecutor Joe Kahn and Keir Bradford-Grey, the former head of Philadelphia’s and Montgomery County’s public defense lawyers.
On the Republican side, York County District Attorney Dave Sunday and former federal prosecutor Katayoun “Kat” Copeland have announced their candidacies.
Candidates must file paperwork by Feb. 13 to appear on the April 23 primary ballot.
Stollsteimer lives in Havertown with his wife, Judi, and two high school-age children.