Race, Reform, and Recalls: The Movement Against “Progressive” Prosecutors

This study examines the movement against “progressive” prosecutors in the United States. Prosecutors have significant discretion at the front-end of the criminal legal system, including over charges, bail recommendations, and plea deals. Although prosecutors have traditionally wielded their power in a way that contributes to mass incarceration, “progressive” prosecutors have been elected in growing numbers since 2016 on pledges to mitigate the racialized harms of the criminal legal system. While scholars tie the rise of progressive prosecutors to the Movement for Black Lives (BLM), less is known about the countermovement efforts – such as recalls, impeachments, and suspensions – challenging these prosecutors’ discretion and tenures. To address this gap, I constructed an original database of all local prosecutors in 2012 and/or 2022 in the country's 300 most-populous jurisdictions. Through archival research, I documented prosecutor demographics, state politics, and extra-electoral challenges, which I define as organized efforts to remove prosecutors from office or constrain their power outside of regularly-scheduled elections. Findings reveal that extra-electoral challenges disproportionately target women of color prosecutors, disproportionately occur in Republican-controlled states, and have nearly tripled over the last decade. I argue that extra-electoral challenges constitute a novel movement repertoire used by the political right to legally mobilize against racial justice efforts following BLM.