On Nov. 4, State Rep. Tarik Khan’s (D, 194th District) brother Joe was elected as the first Democratic district attorney in Bucks County since 1891.

When Joe Khan assumes office in January, both brothers will be serving as elected officials in Pennsylvania. Both say they were inspired by their parents, each other, and former President Barack Obama to enter public life and serve their communities.

Tarik Khan, who represents Chestnut Hill, Roxborough, Manayunk, and East Falls, ran for office in 2022, defeating incumbent Democrat Pam DeLissio in the primary.

Before he ran, he gained attention during the pandemic, starting his own COVID-19 vaccination program using leftover vaccines before they expired and administering them to people in need. He said much of his venture into politics was inspired by his older brother.

“I always grew up looking up to my older brother … Joe was always like a trailblazer for me,” Tarik Khan told the Local. “Joe was always setting the bar high for me, and was always a great role model … he pursued law, I pursued health care. And then I think following both our parents’ example of working in public service ended up with us in public service.”

Their mother was a nurse, and their father became a chief engineer for the city of Philadelphia after moving to the United States in the 1960s and studying civil engineering at Penn.

“Our dad did a lot to build our public transit, to build some of the, you know, the great infrastructure in the city,” Joe Khan told the Local.

Growing up in Northeast Philadelphia, the brothers both attended Central High School.

“We have a somewhat unique but very American background. Our father is Muslim, our mother is Catholic. They raised us in a Jewish neighborhood, so we were really exposed to lots of different viewpoints,” Joe Khan said. “We were always expected to do more. When there were heavy snowfalls, our dad would wake us up and say, you need to go out and you need to shovel the driveways and the sidewalks of all of our neighbors. … We weren’t allowed to take any money for it. We were just expected to help those who need help.”

Tarik Khan said his brother was interested in politics at a much younger age than he was. While at Central High, Joe Khan said he became interested in “the world of law,” sparking his interest in becoming a prosecutor.

“Prosecutors not only can catch the bad guys and hold them accountable, but can really stand up for those who need someone to be their champion, especially when we’re talking about people who are really vulnerable,” Joe Khan said. “While you’re doing that, you have this special obligation to really protect the rights of the accused. So it was this really appealing idea that really captured my imagination.”

A venture into politics

Graduating from the University of Chicago Law School, Joe Khan began working in the Philadelphia District Attorney’s office, becoming an assistant district attorney.

In 2017, he ran for district attorney in Philadelphia, but lost the primary to Larry Krasner. Two years later, Joe Khan was invited to become the county solicitor in Bucks County after Democrats won a majority in the Board of Commissioners.

During that time, Joe Khan became more involved in local politics in Bucks County. Shortly after moving there with his family, a group of Moms for Liberty members took over the school board in the district his kids were attending.

“It had always been a Republican majority board, but it hadn’t been run by zealots and people who were trying to push some kind of political agenda down the throats of our teachers and our staff,” Joe Khan said. “We never had problems with people saying that it’s time to ban books and pick on kids for who they are.”

He and other parents in the school district helped organize against the Moms for Liberty school board members. He held fundraisers, door-knocked, donated, and spoke on behalf of candidates running to replace the school board members.

“We kicked all the Moms for Liberty out of our school board, and today, there isn’t a single Republican on the nine-person Central Bucks school board,” Joe Khan said. “That’s just because of the work of a lot of parents and activists concerned about people misusing these important offices to push political agendas instead of just doing the work that people expect to protect our community.”

While involved in local politics, Joe Khan had begun to settle into a private legal career and was spending time raising his family. With the encouragement of Democratic Committee members in Bucks County, he decided to run for district attorney.

“For me, it’s impossible to say no, because I looked at the challenges that the Democratic Party had faced trying to win the DA’s office here in Bucks County, and I saw the consequences of what happens when we lose,” he said. “It’s an office where, fairly or unfairly, Democrats don’t get the benefit of the doubt, and the Republicans do. It requires somebody who both has the resume and the credibility of the prosecutor, but also the political skills necessary to win.”

Running for a position that consistently has been held by Republicans, Joe Khan emphasized authenticity, believing it to be a “huge” part of his victory.

“People have a lower and lower tolerance level for BS, and I think that people will be willing to vote for someone with whom they might have differences on some political issues, if they feel like they’re getting an honest broker,” he said. “I think that we are now in an era in our politics of voters demanding authenticity. I think candidates who are able to run as themselves with a compelling reason for people to vote for them are going to be more likely to do things like what we did in Bucks County.”

Inspiration for politics

One of Joe Khan’s first ventures into politics was volunteering for a political campaign in 1999 and 2000. One of his law professors had begun a campaign for Congress, but eventually lost the race. That professor was Barack Obama.

It would be Obama’s campaign for the presidency in 2008 which inspired Tarik Khan to venture further into politics.

“It was really very interesting to think that Joe’s constitutional law professor in law school was the person who inspired me in politics,” he said. “I knocked on hundreds of doors for Obama, maybe a few thousand doors for him, registered hundreds of voters with my mom for that race. We were both really inspired by him.”

After Joe Khan’s 2017 campaign, he and his brother both served as Democratic committee people in the 21st Ward, which represents Manayunk and Roxborough.

Tarik Khan described a sense of pride he felt at the time, being able to serve the community he lived in alongside his brother. Now, both will serve as elected officials in Pennsylvania.

“As a citizen, I’m really proud to have someone like Joe in that role. He’s one of the fairest people that I’ve ever met,” Tarik Khan said. “This gives me a lot of pride and a lot of optimism that things are actually going to be okay, because we have someone like Joe in that office.”

Tommy Tucker can be reached at Tommy@Chestnuthilllocal.com.