Lethal Elections: Pro-Death Penalty Candidates Falter in Major State Races

Today’s elec­tions fea­ture viable can­di­dates who crit­i­cize use of the death penal­ty and pledge reforms or even non-use in death penal­ty states, reflect­ing the con­tin­ued decline in pub­lic sup­port for the death penal­ty. Following up on its 2024 Report on elec­tions and the death penal­ty, DPI can­vassed a wide range of resources, drilling down on guber­na­to­r­i­al, court, and pros­e­cu­to­r­i­al elec­tions in the 2024 – 2025 elec­tion cycle to assess results in races that promi­nent­ly fea­tured the death penal­ty in either cam­paign com­mu­ni­ca­tions or in the nature of the office sought. While many can­di­dates con­tin­ue to use the death penal­ty and sim­i­lar ​“tough on crime” mes­sag­ing as a cam­paign tac­tic, the 2024 – 2025 elec­tion cycle demon­strates that this approach is less like­ly than ever before to secure their path to victory. 

In the 2024 North Carolina gov­er­nor elec­tion, then-Attorney General (AG) Josh Stein defeat­ed then-Lt. Governor Mark Robinson by almost a 15% mar­gin. As part of his pub­lic safe­ty plan, Lt. Gov. Robinson hoped to rein­state the death penal­ty for those con­vict­ed of killing police and cor­rec­tions offi­cers. Candidate Stein did not include a posi­tion on the death penal­ty in his cam­paign plat­form. During Gov. Stein’s tenure as AG from 2016 to 2024, no one was exe­cut­ed in North Carolina, and in 2017, then-AG Stein, along with for­mer Governor Roy Cooper, came under fire from leg­is­la­tors for not try­ing to over­come legal hur­dles to restart­ing exe­cu­tions in the state. Roy Cooper, Gov. Stein’s pre­de­ces­sor, used his final days in office to com­mute the death sen­tences of 15 men on North Carolina’s death row. 

Based on the direc­tion of pub­lic sen­ti­ment in North Carolina, the 2024 elec­tion result is not a sur­prise. As of 2019, a major­i­ty of respon­dents in a North Carolina vot­er sur­vey pre­ferred life with­out the pos­si­bil­i­ty of parole to the death penal­ty as the high­est form of pun­ish­ment in the state. 57% said they would also sup­port a deci­sion by their local dis­trict attor­ney to stop seek­ing the death penalty. 

In the Kentucky 2024 Supreme Court elec­tion, for­mer Kentucky Court of Appeals Judge Pamela Goodwine defeat­ed attor­ney Erin Izzo by over 50 per­cent­age points. The race saw hun­dreds of thou­sands of dol­lars in cam­paign finance spend­ing by par­ti­san fundrais­ing groups fight­ing to have a say in the state’s high­est court. In this tra­di­tion­al­ly deep-red state, vot­ers elect­ed a Supreme Court judge who vocal­ly oppos­es the death penal­ty by a landslide. 

Judge Goodwine’s views on the death penal­ty were well known and have been long held. She recent­ly com­plet­ed a Master of Laws and her the­sis was titled ​“Fighting Death: A Critique of Kentucky’s Death Penalty System.” Judge Goodwine has often crit­i­cized the death penal­ty as cost­ly and arbi­trary. As a cir­cuit judge in 2015 she called for leg­isla­tive action to end the death penal­ty from the bench dur­ing a hear­ing. Ms. Izzo’s cam­paign mate­ri­als did not include her stance on the death penal­ty, and she billed her­self as the ​“law and order can­di­date,” enjoy­ing endorse­ments by law enforce­ment offices from across the state. 

Judge Goodwine’s elec­tion results are aligned with Kentucky pub­lic opin­ion. Despite main­tain­ing the death penal­ty, Kentucky last sen­tenced some­one to death over a decade ago and has only exe­cut­ed three indi­vid­u­als in the mod­ern era — none since 2004. As of 2016, pub­lic opin­ion polling showed the vast major­i­ty (64%) of Kentuckians sup­port­ed replac­ing the death penal­ty with a sen­tence of life with­out parole as the high­est form of pun­ish­ment in the state. 

In Philadelphia’s 2025 Philadelphia District Attorney pri­ma­ry, incum­bent Larry Krasner com­fort­ably defeat­ed his oppo­nent Judge Patrick Dugan to secure his path­way to reelec­tion. Judge Dugan stat­ed that he would impose the death sen­tence in severe cir­cum­stances. Mr. Krasner is a long-time oppo­nent of the death penal­ty and has crit­i­cized Pennsylvania’s use of the pun­ish­ment while in office. Support for the death penal­ty has been declin­ing in Pennsylvania for many years—2015 polling showed only 43% of Pennsylvanians sup­port­ed the pun­ish­ment. The state has had a mora­to­ri­um on exe­cu­tions in place since 2015. 

In the Texas 2024 Harris County District Attorney elec­tion, Sean Teare won after defeat­ing Dan Simons in the gen­er­al elec­tion by a slim mar­gin. In December 2024, before leav­ing office, AG Teare’s pre­de­ces­sor, Kim Ogg, sought the death penal­ty in a high-pro­file case involv­ing a child vic­tim and defen­dants who are immi­grants, a posi­tion Mr. Simons expressed sup­port for dur­ing his cam­paign. Mr. Teare does not believe the death penal­ty is a deter­rent and has only rec­om­mend­ed it twice in his career. Harris County, home to Houston, once lead the nation in exe­cu­tions but now serves as a bell­wether of the nation­wide decline in sup­port for the death penal­ty. No one has been exe­cut­ed in Harris County since 2004, and juries have decid­ed for death only three times in the last ten years. As of 2020, only 20% of Houstonians sup­port the death penal­ty as the harsh­est form of judge­ment, down from 41% in 2000. 

In Florida’s 2024 Orlando States Attorney elec­tion, Monique Worrell defeat­ed Andrew Bain 53% to 47% to win back her posi­tion as Orlando State Attorney. Mr. Bain had served as act­ing State Attorney after Governor Ron DeSantis sus­pend­ed Ms. Worrell from her posi­tion in 2023. Ms. Worrell has pre­vi­ous­ly sought the death penal­ty, but also says she is per­son­al­ly ​“unequiv­o­cal­ly opposed” to it. During her pre­vi­ous tenure she imple­ment­ed a pro­to­col that mit­i­gat­ed the use of the death penal­ty. When Mr. Bain assumed Ms. Worrell’s office dur­ing her sus­pen­sion, he crit­i­cized the pol­i­cy, say­ing it was ​“incon­sis­tent­ly” imposed, and went on to seek the death penal­ty more fre­quent­ly as the State Attorney than Ms. Worrell. In 2016, 57% of Florida respon­dents pre­ferred life with­out parole to the death penal­ty for peo­ple con­vict­ed of murder.