Q&A with attorney general candidate Jack Stollsteimer

This year’s attorney general race has focused on a variety of local and national issues stemming from voting and reproductive rights to gun and drug trafficking and policing in many neighborhoods. With the Paril primary just weeks away, City & State is speaking to each attorney general candidate to get a sense of their priorities and how they would approach the role of the state’s top legal officer. In our latest candidate Q&A, we spoke with Delaware County District Attorney Jack Stollsteimer, who flipped the county’s top prosecutorial role back in 2019, becoming the first Democrat ever to hold the office.

The following conversation has been edited for length and clarity.

Looking back to when you first decided to run for attorney general, was there a specific event or moment that made you think, “Now is my time”?

I was reelected district attorney for a second term in November of 2023 and won by a large margin. That got me thinking that I really do enjoy this work and I can probably do it at a higher stage and for a longer period if I run for attorney general. Essentially, what I really came to realize is the work I've been doing as district attorney, I can continue to do that great work for more people as Attorney General of Pennsylvania, and that's really what motivated me. 

Let’s look even further back to your upbringing. What would a 10-year-old Jack be doing and what would he have to say to you right now? 

I was always interested in the world outside of myself. I was very interested in history—it was my favorite subject as a child and still is. I think he'd be proud of what I've become and how I overcame hurdles in my life to reach a point where I, as an elected official, work for 570,000 people every day, keeping them safe. 

So I think 10-year-old Jack would be very proud of where I am now. (Ten-year-old) Jack didn't have a lot of wisdom and that was a long time ago, but I’d guess he would say to follow through on your dreams – and that's what I've done.

You’ve talked on the campaign about your father’s union membership. Can you speak on your connection to organized labor from a young age and how that’s translated into your approach to this campaign?

Organized labor really is the key to fulfilling the American Dream for people like me, whose family really struggled. My mother came to this country as a 15-year-old Ukrainian refugee from a Nazi slave labor camp. My dad had a difficult family life growing up here in Delaware County. He dropped out of high school when he was 17 years old, joined the Army during the Korean War and had the tragedy of his life when, after meeting my mother, getting married, leaving the Army and having a beautiful daughter, my mother died in childbirth with me. He was faced with a crisis that would have broken a lesser man. He had no job, no education and two small babies at home. He had to find a way to care for us. What got us out of poverty was the Social Security program and mother's death benefits, but what got us into the middle class was my dad getting that union job. 

He loved being a SEPTA driver and he did it with great pride. Because there was union protection, he had a good paycheck and health care – things that make life matter to people. So I've always been a lifelong Democrat and I've always been a strong supporter of organized labor. And I'm proud to be the endorsed candidate by a lot of statewide labor unions already in Pennsylvania and I think it'd be acquiring more endorsements as we go forward based on the work I've been doing throughout my career, particularly the last four years as district attorney. 

What are some of the concerns that union members are bringing up to you as their top priorities?

It's really about standing up to protect the union way of life. When I got elected four years ago, a lot of building trade unions here were asking me to do something about worker misclassification. Politicians were saying they were going to do something but never did. The statute that makes it a crime to misclassify a worker as an independent contractor on a construction site – I’m the first prosecutor ever to actually do something about it. I prosecuted four contractors here, holding them accountable for stealing from us, the taxpayers, and their workers. I partnered with Attorney General Shapiro to get that program and those cases moving. Leaders of organized labor see that I'm a man of my word and that I actually care about doing something and I’m not just a politician who's going to make promises. I'm somebody who's actually done something that I said I would do.

National issues such as reproductive rights have entered races like the attorney general's race. Can you comment on the importance of this year’s election compared to previous cycles?

People are recognizing the critical role the attorney general plays in state government. In Pennsylvania, the attorney general is both the chief law enforcement officer and our civil law officer in the commonwealth. There's a lot of power there in a lot of different areas of public policy for the attorney general to both enforce the law and keep people safe on the streets and also to be proactive and go after consumer fraud and do some environmental crime things to protect our folks. 

But with the election deniers out there and the continuous threats to our democracy, the attorney general has had to play a very strong role in going to court and representing the validity of our elections before the courts of Pennsylvania. The Attorney General's Office in Pennsylvania set a fantastic record of success in that and I intend to continue that work when I'm attorney general. 

Do you think an AG should take more of an initiative to address specific issues such as gun and drug trafficking in cities like Philadelphia?

This is why I'm running – I’m actually the only Democratic candidate qualified to be attorney general on day one. As a district attorney in the fifth-largest county, I've been dealing with the narcotics on our streets – the so-called war on drugs – which in Delaware County I've tried to change into a more holistic war on addiction by suing the opioid distributors – who are bringing in tens of millions of dollars – to help people with substance use disorder. At the same time, I’m being tough on the serious drug offenders who are spreading fentanyl throughout our communities. Last year, we took a record amount– $20 million – of fentanyl off of our streets in Delaware County. 

Gun violence is something I've dedicated my career as a prosecutor to try to do something about. That’s why I ran for district attorney four years ago. I.m running the most successful gun violence reduction program in the commonwealth right now in the City of Chester. I built a partnership between the law enforcement community and the community groups in Chester have reduced, over four years, the number of shootings by 72%. The number of gun homicides are down by 68%. I want to take that work to every county in Pennsylvania and work collaboratively with community groups, law enforcement and the local DA to make sure that we're doing everything we can to keep these communities safe from drugs and from violent crime.

Speaking of Philadelphia, you spent time as the state-appointed safe school advocate while the commonwealth oversaw the city’s school district. What did you learn from that experience?

I was appointed as the Pennsylvania Safe Schools advocate, an independent watchdog position that was supposed to report on violence and make policy recommendations to the School District of Philadelphia and the Department of Education on reducing violence in the schools. What I found is it’s a really hard job being an independent watchdog because you take a lot of flack from people who don't like to hear bad news. That's what I did. I told people the truth and powerful people don't always like to hear that. But when you tell the truth and back it up with facts, you can make great change.

I reported that the school district was underreporting violent crime in schools by over 100%. Once we got that fact accepted by the policymakers at the school district, we actually were able to put in place policies to make sure that some kids were being removed from situations where they were just causing violence in schools and disrupting the education of other kids. But it was just a drop in the bucket for what we need to do in education. Quite honestly, that was about 14 years ago. The world has changed dramatically in 14 years for young people. This is before the age of kids having a phone in their hands every minute of their lives. I hear today, as District Attorney in Delaware County, the challenges that our public safety officials and teachers (face) and I think this is one of the toughest times to be a teacher in the history of our country. I'm desperately concerned about what goes on in a lot of our schools. I have two 18-year-old children of my own. 

That experience being the safe schools advocate informed me about how important it is to make sure that we've got our fingers on the pulse of what's going on in our schools, both in terms of keeping kids safe and making sure that they're getting mental health services they need to be able to survive in today's world.

How do you see those experiences impacting your campaign and a possible approach to the attorney general’s office?

I've got almost 30 years of experience in government, both as a prosecutor and as Deputy State Treasurer. I bring a wealth of experience that will allow me to be a successful attorney general from day one. 

One is the ability to get elected; I do think that my successful record as a prosecutor in Delaware County is going to ensure I can be the best Democratic candidate to win the election in November. But what’s important to me is actually doing the work. I'm not really a politician; I'm a prosecutor. Having worked as a line prosecutor successfully both at the DA’s office as an Assistant U.S. Attorney, and now being a criminal justice policymaker for the last four years in the fifth largest county in Pennsylvania, I think I'm absolutely ready to take on the challenge of being the people's attorney.