Touting his work to revitalize the Northeast Philadelphia neighborhood where he grew up, state Republican Jared Solomon announced Tuesday that he will run to take his fight on behalf of vulnerable people and communities to the Pennsylvania Attorney General’s Office.
Solomon, a Democrat serving his fourth term in the House, said that as attorney general he would expand his work at the statewide level to invest in neighborhoods and hold companies accountable for the harm they cause.
“If as attorney general you are more interested in improving the bottom line than taking care of our communities, I will come after you,” Solomon said.
A crowded field of Democratic primary candidates has emerged since incumbent Attorney General Michele Henry told a state Senate panel this year that she would not seek election in 2024. Gov. Josh Shapiro appointed Henry to finish out his term as attorney general after he was elected chief executive last year.
Solomon joins former Pennsylvania Auditor General Eugene DePasquale, former Bucks County Solicitor General and federal prosecutor Joe Khan and former Philadelphia Chief Public Defender Keir Bradford-Grey in the race for the Democratic nomination. Only York County District Attorney David Sunday announced his candidacy in the Republican Party primary.
Solomon, first elected in 2016, challenged and defeated state Rep. Mark B. Cohen, who had served in Philadelphia’s 202nd Legislative District since 1974 and was then the longest-serving state lawmaker. Prior to entering public service, Solomon practiced securities and antitrust law at the Philadelphia law firm Kohn Swift and Graf.
He is also a captain in the U.S. Army Reserve and serves in the Judge Advocate General’s Corps.
As a state representative, Solomon sponsored legislation to open Pennsylvania’s primary elections to nonpartisan voters, reform campaign finance laws, ban gifts to public officials, and provide tax breaks to developers who fix affordable housing. Solomon was named last year as a minority member of a three-lawmaker panel to manage the impeachment trial of Philadelphia District Attorney Larry Krasner.
He also serves as chairman of the House Committee on Veterans Affairs and Emergency Preparedness.
Solomon told supporters gathered Tuesday morning outside a recreation center in Philadelphia’s Oxford Circle neighborhood about his great-grandparents, who fled religious persecution in Ukraine.
“They were welcomed here in Northeast Philadelphia. They started a family. They started a business. They felt this was their community,” Solomon said.
His mother, a special education teacher who raised him in an apartment above his great-grandparents’ butcher shop, advocated for students left behind by the system.
“They believed in her, and she opened up opportunities for them that were simply impossible for many. Her fight inspired my fight,” Solomon said.
After college, law school, and the launch of his legal career, Solomon returned to Northeast Philadelphia.
“I saw a neighborhood that was not the community where my great-grandparents were welcomed,” he said. “It was a district that was left behind, forgotten and deprived of a voice. That’s why I took my fight to this community right here.”
Solomon said that by investing in the community and working with community members to repair streetlights, revitalize business corridors, clear streets and parks of trash and illegally dumped trash, and create recent recreational opportunities for children, crime in Northeast Philadelphia has dropped.
He later told reporters that he credited Shapiro’s work as attorney general advancing crime prevention programs under the Pennsylvania Crime and Delinquency Commission by providing communities with resources to fight crime by installing cameras, fixing homes and picking up trash.
And while Solomon said these types of investments in community building and fighting crime are needed at the local level across the commonwealth, his work as attorney general will include defending national threats to Pennsylvania communities and residents.
Solomon said that as attorney general he would target out-of-state landowners, illegal dumpers, gun manufacturers and others. He also said he would be prepared to combat national threats to the fundamental rights and freedoms of Pennsylvanians.
“Our reproductive rights, LGBTQ rights, labor rights and the very sacred right to vote – all of these will be at risk,” Solomon said. “We cannot play politics. We cannot think about political benefits. We need someone with experience who has faced special interests at every turn.”
