The Prosecutors and Politics Project at UNC School of Law has released a report on prosecutor elections held across the United States from 2020 to 2024. It found that voters had less choice in selecting their local prosecutor than in any election cycle the Project has previously examined. 

Only 23% of the 3,231 regular prosecutor elections held during that period were contested, down from 27% in 2018-2019 and 30% in 2014-2017. Combined with two earlier reports, the study now covers a full decade of races across 2,340 jurisdictions. 

The United States is unique in the democratic role it reserves for prosecutors, and elections are the principal mechanism for accountability. Prosecutors have tremendous discretion to make decisions regarding the liberty of citizens. Their decisions about prosecutorial priorities, including what cases not to charge and what types of plea bargains to offer, are essentially unreviewable. 

That prosecutors elections are rarely contested can have serious consequences. In Neosho County, Kansas, a prosecutor accused of sexual extortion and multiple ethics violations remained in office for years despite repeated allegations of misconduct.  Because he never faced a challenger, he was repeatedly reelected without opposition, leaving office in 2024 after the state attorney general brought criminal charges against him. “Contested elections matter. They drive accountability and increase scrutiny of the people who hold some of the most powerful positions in the criminal justice system,” said Carissa Byrne Hessick, who directs the Prosecutors and Politics Project and is a professor at Carolina Law. Founded in 2018, the project studies how prosecutors are selected and held accountable by voters. 

The report includes state-by-state findings for all 45 states that held local prosecutor elections during the study period and is available here.