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Home / Research / Data Analysis

Tipping the Scales: Challengers Take on the Old Boys Club of Elected Prosecutors

October, 2019

  • View the Report
Graphs showing the breakdown of elected prosecutor demographics

Despite a scattering of notable victories by women of color prosecutors in cities like Baltimore, Chicago, and Boston, elected prosecutors are 95% white, a data point that hasn’t shifted for half a decade. Yet change is possible. When diverse challengers run against the mostly white and male incumbent prosecutors, they are favored by voters. For criminal justice reform to truly take hold, more women and people of color must be voted in.

This report examines the demographics of elected prosecutors, and charts the course for change:

  • White men are 73% of elected prosecutors – down from 79% in 2014
  • Women prosecutors have increased by 34%
  • While women of color are gravely under-represented as prosecutors, their numbers are growing
  • Prosecutors run unopposed 80% of the time, but when challengers take them on, voters respond

In the Media

Prior to the November 2019 election cycle, 20% of the population are women of color, but represented 1.87% of the 2,396 elected prosecutor titles — district attorney, prosecuting attorney, county attorney, county prosecuting attorney, state’s attorney, solicitor general and attorney, according to the Reflective Democracy Campaign…, the only organization believed to keep this recent data.

“For the few black women prosecutors, hate and ‘misogynoir’ are part of life.” ABC News

Elected prosecutors have historically and overwhelmingly been White (95 percent) and male (80 percent). They still are, but since 2015, women of color have been chipping away at this hierarchy, with nearly 50 percent more of them stepping into prosecutorial positions in just five years, according to a new study from the Reflective Democracy Campaign.

“Study Says When Women of Color Enter Prosecutor Races, They Win.” Colorlines
  • View the Report

About the Data

Reviewing voter files and other publicly accessible data, we tracked over 2,800 elected state and county-level prosecutors (known in some localities as Assistant District Attorneys) and over 1,300 candidates for prosecutor across the nation.

  • Prosecutor Elected Officials 2019 (xlsx, 6.05 MB)
    Download Dataset
  • Prosecutor Candidates 2019 (xlsx, 265.16 KB)
    Download Dataset

Read more on...

Criminal Justice System Demographic Power Shifts

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Graphic
A map showing women constitute only 24% of elected prosecutors nationally
Elected Women Prosecutors by State 2019

Elected Women Prosecutors by State 2019

A map showing women constitute only 24% of elected prosecutors nationally

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Graphic
Prosecutors were 95% white in 2015 and are 95% white today
Elected prosecutors over half a decade

Elected prosecutors over half a decade

Prosecutors were 95% white in 2015 and are 95% white today

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Graphic
Column charts showing that women of color win at the same rate as white men
Contested prosecutor elections in 2018

Contested prosecutor elections in 2018

Column charts showing that women of color win at the same rate as white men

Right click and save the image or click here to download it.

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