2024 Election Results Confirm Public Safety Is a Priority for Americans
Key Points
- In state and local elections, voters across the political spectrum chose candidates who shared their priority for greater public safety and order.
- The 2024 election results underscore an important pillar of healthy communities: Safety is the first step to stability and prosperity.
In state and local elections, voters across the political spectrum chose candidates who shared their priority for greater public safety and order.
While the 2024 election represents different things to different voters, it may well be remembered, as my friend Rafael Mangual of the Manhattan Institute put it, as the “anti-crime election.”
In recent years, there has been a divide between elected officials and the public when it comes to crime. As more local leaders have taken relaxed stances to public safety, voters have become increasingly concerned.
With the 2024 election, this crime divide between voters and politicians has narrowed because voters changed their politicians. As Mangual lays out in a great new piece in City Journal, voters all over the country rejected soft-on-crime approaches to public safety, including in progressive enclaves like Oakland, CA.
Search Interest by State in Crime
Source: Associated Press, “What election issues are Americans searching on Google?”, October 2024
From Georgia to California, voters reject the “progressive prosecutor” movement
Voters’ frustration with soft-on-crime prosecutors began in 2022 with the recall of San Francisco District Attorney Chesa Boudin and continued with the defeat of Portland-area District Attorney Mike Schmidt earlier this year.
For residents favoring law and order and a return to normalcy, another boost came on election day. The biggest news of the day was the defeat of Los Angeles District Attorney George Gasćon.
Gasćon had run on a progressive platform and quickly made good on his promises. He declined to pursue the death penalty in capital murder cases, instructed his office to avoid seeking lengthy sentences in gang and gun cases through available sentence enhancements, and diverted more and more cases from prosecution. Gasćon lost his re-election bid by a margin of 60-40.
Closer to home, in Athens, GA, progressive District Attorney Deborah Gonzalez lost to challenger Kalki Yalamanchili by almost the same margin. In Tampa, FL, incumbent Andrew Warren, suspended by Gov. Ron DeSantis over his non-prosecution policies, lost to a law-and-order challenger. In total, of the 25 progressive prosecutors on the ballot this election, 12 either lost or were recalled.
Voters favor local candidates and ballot measures focused on stronger public safety
Voters also showed a pro-public safety bent on election day in their support of ballot initiatives. In California, voters approved an initiative to enhance penalties for repeat drug and theft offenses. Colorado residents overwhelmingly passed a ballot initiative that increases consequences for violent offenses.
Voters in San Francisco elected a mayor who plans to get tough on the drug dealing plaguing the city. Oakland residents also recalled their mayor who, through a mix of bad policy and benign neglect, had let violent crime spiral.
Americans repeatedly told pollsters ahead of the 2024 election that they were concerned about crime. On November 5, they voted like it. The 2024 election may well be remembered for voters demanding better and reminding elected officials of what every leader should remember—that the first step to a prosperous community is a safe one.