This week a Washington Post puff piece leaped to the defense of the progressive district attorneys propelled into office by the campaign cash of billionaire George Soros, portraying these prosecutors as well-meaning reformers besieged by racist Republicans.
But while Soros’ left-wing fans thrill to the way his funding has fundamentally transformed criminal justice across America, here’s what they won’t acknowledge: The results have been disastrous.
Through both direct and indirect donations, Soros has poured money into a staggering number of DA races across the country.
By 2023, progressive prosecutors had jurisdiction over at least 20% of the US population, and half of Americans living in its biggest cities, reports Matt Palumbo in his book “The Heir.”
Soros-funded district attorneys have won in Tampa Bay, Denver, Orlando, Northern Virginia, Portland, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Boston, Philly, St. Louis, Dallas and many others; 126 of them have held office at some point, per the Media Research Center.
Over the past decade, Soros’s Justice and Public Safety PAC alone has spent money in at least 62 primary and general elections, according to the WaPo report, winning 77% of the time — without having to lay out much to tilt those typically low-spending local elections.
But the key point isn’t the size of Soros’ investment in each race; it’s the frequency of his involvement and its nationwide reach.
Back in 2016, Politico wrote of Soros’ “quiet overhaul of the US justice system,” describing how he recognized DA races as an untapped opportunity to remake cities according to his progressive ideology.
Soros realized these races are particularly vulnerable to outside influence: Few voters know who their district attorney is, despite the DA’s major role in shaping crime enforcement.
As Soros spokesman Michael Vachon admitted, “We started a movement . . . the knee-jerk, so-called tough-on-crime philosophy has been discredited in many communities.”
He is right, and the results are catastrophic.
The foundational belief these progressive DAs share is that systemic social change, not aggressive prosecution, is the answer to crime.
This ideology fit perfectly with the ascension of woke politics, which blamed problems on systems and focused on identity above all else.
That’s why the core of their radical criminal justice reform involved eliminating cash bail, declining to prosecute minor offenses, and drastically limiting the use of sentencing enhancements such as “three strikes.”
It meant the effective elimination of criminal justice, putting more criminals — even repeat offenders — back on the streets.
This week an NYU student was assaulted in Greenwich Village by James Rizzo, a recidivist criminal with 16 arrests and a lengthy record of assaulting women.
Last week in Chicago Lawrence Reed, a man with a 72-arrest record and eight felony convictions, set a young woman on fire on the CTA Blue Line.
In Denver last month, repeat offender Charles Cooley broke into the home of Kevin and Sarah Root. After posting a $500 surety bond, Cooley is back on the street (“awaiting trial”).
And these harrowing stories aren’t one-offs; they reflect the data showing how Soros-backed prosecutors worsened crime.
In 2021 Philadelphia, under Soros DA Larry Krasner, broke its all-time murder record — as did 12 other cities with progressive DAs.
In Chicago under DA Kim Foxx, overall reported crime skyrocketed by 369% between 2019 and 2023, driven largely by huge jumps in property crimes like motor vehicle theft.
Other major cities saw similar spikes.
In Oregon, under the direction of Soros-funded DA Mike Schmidt, drug decriminalization policies coincided with a huge spike in drug overdose fatalities, which more than tripled from 280 in 2019 to 956 in 2022.
And, as Rafael Mangual has noted, in places where violent crime is down, it’s largely due to the deterrent effect of increased policing.
Many voters have begun to recognize the outsized role their DA plays in public safety and are turning against criminal justice reform.
George Gascón, the Los Angeles district attorney who survived multiple recall attempts, was finally ousted in 2024, and at least 21 other Soros-linked DAs have been replaced by tough-on-crime counterparts since 2022.
To put it plainly, Soros’ “movement” has failed.
The question is how much longer communities will have to suffer before progressive prosecutors admit it.
Josh Appel is a Manhattan Institute policy analyst.
