Danny Ceisler Credit: Submitted
Democrat Danny Ceisler, elected Bucks County’s next sheriff in the 2025 General Election, said the turning point came weeks before Election Day, when “No Kings” rallies in Morrisville, Doylestown, Perkasie and Langhorne drew what he described as unprecedented crowds.
In a Bucks County Herald interview, Ceisler said the anger and energy directed at Donald Trump and his administration, combined with a strong Democratic mail-in ballot lead, convinced him the race was shifting in his favor.
On Nov. 4, he defeated Republican incumbent Sheriff Fred Harran with just over 55 percent of the vote.
Ceisler’s background stretches from military intelligence work to state-level emergency management. An Army veteran awarded the Bronze Star for counterterrorism work in Afghanistan, he later prosecuted cases as a certified legal intern at the Philadelphia District Attorney’s Office and served as a senior public safety official in Gov. Josh Shapiro’s administration, according to the article.
Ceisler said those experiences prepared him for the sheriff’s role, which he characterized as a leadership job focused on managing people and resources rather than political fights.
The race ultimately centered on immigration enforcement and Harran’s controversial decision to join ICE’s 287(g) partnership, which allows local deputies to perform certain federal immigration duties.
According to the report, Ceisler campaigned hard against the program, arguing it diverted deputies from core sheriff duties and made immigrant residents less willing to report crimes.
He said he plans to issue a moratorium on the agreement on his first day in office, Jan. 5, and begin working on a responsible path to withdraw from it.
Ceisler told the Herald that community reaction since the election has been overwhelmingly positive and that his first months will focus on assessing the office and positioning deputies “to succeed in the greatest possible ways.”
