PHILADELPHIA (AP) — Progressive stalwart Larry Krasner has won Philadelphia’s Democratic primary election Tuesday to continue serving as district attorney after withstanding an impeachment attempt and years of criticism by President Donald Trump and other Republicans.
Krasner’s victory all but guarantees him a third four-year term in office as the city’s top prosecutor, with no Republicans filing to run in November’s general election.
The longtime civil rights lawyer defeated Pat Dugan, a U.S. Army veteran who served in Iraq and Afghanistan and was the head administrative judge of the Philadelphia Municipal Court before he resigned to run.
Krasner, speaking at an election night gathering in a downtown Philadelphia office building with a view of City Hall, said work on his reelection campaign started when he first took office in January 2018.
He said the city had become more safe, more fair and more free in the years since, citing the dozens of exonerations he has pursued and the falling crime rate and prison population.
“There are these people who think you can buy votes that other people have earned,” Krasner told the crowd. “There are these people that think the way to win campaigns is to lie, all the time; is to ignore the truth and ignore reality; is to whip up fear; is to turn people on each other, instead of getting them to turn to each other.”
His victory, he said, was powered by small-dollar donations and his willingness to defend democracy. In a nod to Krasner's anti-Trump positioning, the crowd of perhaps a few hundred supporters included those wearing messages such as “Black Voters Matter” and “Make Fascism Wrong Again.”
While some of Krasner’s fellow progressive prosecutors around the country have been forced out of office, Krasner has maintained that the progressive movement remains ascendant and influential.
Krasner originally ran in 2017 on a progressive platform that included opposition to the death penalty, cash bail, prosecuting minor nonviolent offenses and a culture of mass incarceration, as well as holding police accountable.
Krasner survived a failed impeachment attempt by Republican state lawmakers and years of Trump and other Republicans using him as a campaign trail punching bag amid rising crime in Philadelphia and other U.S. cities during the COVID-19 pandemic.
The past couple years has seen crime rates falling in Philadelphia — and elsewhere — while the city’s jail population is down by almost half in the past decade.
Like some big-city Democrats, Krasner has turned toward pro-public safety messaging, saying he is serious about pursuing violent crime and touting new technologies and strategies that his office is using to solve or prevent crime.
He also tried to show that he is combating quality-of-life crimes, recently announcing a new unit to prosecute illegal dumping, such as household trash, tires, construction materials and more.
He repeatedly invoked Trump during the campaign and suggested that he is the best candidate to stand up to the president.
Krasner made his campaign slogan “F—- around and find out,” and invoked it in a TV ad where he cast himself as the foil to “Trump and his billionaire buddies, the shooting groups and gun lobby, the old system that denied people justice for too long. They can come for Philly, but I’m not backing down.”
Labor unions were split between Krasner and Dugan during the primary. But Krasner held his base of support among progressives, reformers and influential members of the city’s Black political establishment.
Levy contributed from Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. Follow Marc Levy on X at https://x.com/timelywriter.
Democratic Philadelphia District Attorney Larry Krasner arrives to speak during a primary election night event in Philadelphia, Tuesday, May 20, 2025. (AP Photo/Matt Rourke)
Democratic Philadelphia District Attorney Larry Krasner speaks during a primary election night event in Philadelphia, Tuesday, May 20, 2025. (AP Photo/Matt Rourke)
Democratic Philadelphia District Attorney Larry Krasner speaks during a primary election night event in Philadelphia, Tuesday, May 20, 2025. (AP Photo/Matt Rourke)
SAN FRANCISCO & JACKSONVILLE, Fla.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Jan 12, 2026--
Abridge, the leading enterprise-grade AI for clinical conversations, is collaborating with Availity, the nation’s largest real-time health information network, to launch a first-of-its kind prior authorization experience. The engagement uses cutting-edge technology grounded in the clinician-patient conversation to facilitate a more efficient process between clinicians and health plans in medical necessity review.
This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20260112960386/en/
Rather than creating parallel AI systems across healthcare stakeholders, Abridge and Availity are working together to ensure shared clinical context at the point of conversation powers administrative processes, such as prior authorization review and submission, improving outcomes for patients and the teams delivering care.
This collaboration unites two trusted and scaled organizations: combining Abridge’s enterprise-grade AI platform, serving over 200 health systems and projected to support over 80 million patient-clinician conversations in 2026, with Availity’s next-generation, FHIR-native Intelligent Utilization Management solution, which helps payers and providers digitize and operationalize coverage requirements within administrative workflows.
Availity’s FHIR-native APIs enable fast, scalable, and secure connectivity of payer information across the entire healthcare ecosystem. With Abridge’s Contextual Reasoning Engine technology, clinicians can gain visibility into relevant clinical information during the conversation to support documentation aligned with prior authorization requirements.
“At Availity, we’ve invested in building AI-powered, FHIR-native APIs designed to bring clinical policy logic directly into provider workflows,” said Russ Thomas, CEO of Availity. “By embedding our technology at the point of conversation, we’re enabling faster, more transparent utilization management decisions rooted in clinical context. We’re excited to collaborate with Abridge and to demonstrate what’s possible when payer intelligence meets real-time provider workflows.”
The development of real-time prior authorization is just a component of a broader revenue cycle collaboration that is focused on applying real-time conversational intelligence across the patient, provider, and payer experiences. The companies intend to support integration by collaborating on workflow alignment between their respective platforms in the following areas:
“Abridge and Availity are each bringing national scale, deep trust, and a track record of solving important challenges across the care and claims experience to this partnership,” said Dr. Shiv Rao, CEO and Co-Founder of Abridge. “We’re building real-time bridges between patients, providers, and payers, unlocking shared understanding, focused at the point of conversation.”
About Availity
Availity empowers payers and providers to deliver transformative patient experiences by enabling the seamless exchange of clinical, administrative, and financial information. As the nation's largest real-time health information network, Availity develops intelligent, automated, and interoperable solutions that foster collaboration and shared value across the healthcare ecosystem. With connections to over 95% of payers, more than 3 million providers, and over 2,000 trading partners, Availity provides mission-critical connectivity to drive the future of healthcare innovation. For more information, including an online demonstration, please visit www.availity.com or call 1.800.AVAILITY (282.4548). Follow us on LinkedIn.
About Abridge
Abridge was founded in 2018 to power deeper understanding in healthcare. Abridge is now trusted by more than 200 of the largest and most complex health systems in the U.S. The enterprise-grade AI platform transforms medical conversations into clinically useful and billable documentation at the point of care, reducing administrative burden and clinician burnout while improving patient experience. With deep EHR integration, support for 28+ languages, and 50+ specialties, Abridge is used across a wide range of care settings, including outpatient, emergency department, and inpatient.
Abridge’s enterprise-grade AI platform is purpose-built for healthcare. Supported by Linked Evidence, Abridge is the only solution that maps AI-generated summaries to source data, helping clinicians quickly trust and verify the output. As a pioneer in generative AI for healthcare, Abridge is setting the industry standard for the responsible deployment of AI across health systems.
Abridge was awarded Best in KLAS 2025 for Ambient AI in addition to other accolades, including Forbes 2025 AI 50 List, TIME Best Inventions of 2024, and Fortune’s 2024 AI 50 Innovators.
Abridge and Availity Collaborate to Redefine Payer-Provider Synergy at the Point of Conversation
Abridge and Availity Collaborate to Redefine Payer-Provider Synergy at the Point of Conversation
