George Gascon’s Defeat Is Blow for Progressive Prosecutors

The defeat of George Gascon in the Los Angeles district attorney election will alarm progressives who share his values.

Amid a night of bruising election results for Democratic candidates in some prosecutor races, Gascon, who took office four years ago in 2020, lost his re-election bid to former federal prosecutor Nathan Hochman.

Newsweek contacted Gascon by email to comment on this story.

Gascon was elected in 2020 with backing from national Democrats including Vice President Kamala Harris and progressive donor George Soros.

He made headlines recently by recommending that Lyle and Erik Menendez, who were convicted of first-degree murder in 1996 having killed their parents in 1989, be resentenced to life with the possibility of parole rather than their current sentence of life without parole. The brothers admitted they gunned down their parents but said that Erik had been sexually assaulted by his father.

During the election campaign, Hochman criticized Gascon’s opposition to the death penalty and what he termed the “public safety failure” of Gascon’s term, while he instead positioned himself as tough on crime.

“The voters of Los Angeles County have spoken and have said enough is enough of D.A. Gascón’s pro-criminal extreme policies; they look forward to a safer future,” Hochman said in a statement early Wednesday when it was announced he had won.

“As D.A., I look forward to representing all of the people, whether they voted for me or not, since their safety will be my responsibility.”

Speaking to Newsweek, William Hall, a professor of political science and business at Webster University, said Hochman’s win represented “a significant change, signaling a major shift in both prosecutorial style and criminal Justice approaches for the future in Los Angeles County, California.”

He continued: “The defeat of incumbent Los Angeles District Attorney George Gascon, has sent a clear statement that the majority of citizens of Los Angeles County, have determined that the time for a change for both a new prosecutor and a new approach, is now.”

Meanwhile, other Democratic candidates lost election bids in some prosecutor elections across the country. In Macomb County, Michigan, Democratic candidate Christina Hines lost the prosecutor election to Republican Peter Lucido, who won another term in office with 57 percent of the vote.

Steve Howe, the district attorney in Johnson County, Kansas, won a fifth term in office, defeating Democrat Vanessa Riebli, a former assistant prosecutor.

However, other Democrats’ had more favorable outcomes. Monique Worrell, a Democratic prosecutor, won back her position as the 9th circuit state attorney in Florida with 57 percent of the vote after the state’s governor, Ron DeSantis, suspended her from office last year, having accused her of failing to prosecute crimes.

Travis County, Texas, District Attorney Jose Garza also won a second term against his Republican challenger, Austin criminal defense attorney Daniel Betts, while Karen McDonald was re-elected as the prosecutor in Oakland County, Michigan, with 58 percent of the vote, beating Scott Farida, the Republican candidate for the role.

At the federal level, Republican candidate Donald Trump was declared the winner of the presidential election early Wednesday morning, having won key battleground states. Meanwhile, Republicans are set to win control of the Senate, multiple projections show.