Gascón defeated as Hochman clinches LA County DA race

Nathan Hochman has won the Los Angeles County District Attorney's race, defeating incumbent George Gascón, according to the Associated Press.

Early returns from the L.A. County Registrar's office showed Hochman receiving more than 1.4 million votes and Gascón around 890,000. That's about 61% of voters backing Hochman and 39% supporting Gascón.

The race to run the largest prosecutors' office in the country was a contentious one, as Hochman and others pushed back hard on policies Gascón put in place when he was elected four years ago.

Speaking to supporters on Election Night at a gathering in Beverly Hills, Hochman said deputy district attorneys working under Gascón had been trying to serve justice with their hands tied behind their backs.

Nathan Hochman speaks with the media at Platinum Equity in Beverly Hills, the site of his election party on Nov. 5, 2024.

(

Robert Garrova

/

LAist

)

“I’m here to tell you your hands will no longer be tied,” he said.

He added later: “We will go ahead and get back in the business of justice. Making crimes illegal again.”

Gascón, who was seeking a second four-year term, was seen as a darling of the criminal justice reform movement. But the political conversation, particularly in this election year, has changed from a focus on reform to public safety.

On Wednesday morning, he released a statement conceding the race to Hochman.

“The rightward shift across America last night is heartbreaking," Gascón said. "Democrats have a long road ahead, but the work is more vital than ever and our commitment will not waver. Nevertheless, I have called Mr. Hochman and wish him the best as Los Angeles County’s next District Attorney.

He continued: "I’m deeply proud of what we’ve accomplished over the past four years and grateful to the communities who have been and will always be the heart of criminal justice reform.”

Hochman addressed his victory in a brief message posted on X.

"The voters of Los Angeles County have spoken and have said enough is enough of D.A. Gascon’s pro-criminal extreme policies; they look forward to a safer future," he wrote on the platform. "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."

Who is Hochman?

Hochman, a former federal prosecutor and criminal defense attorney, has promised to reverse all Gascón policies in favor of an approach he calls “the hard middle.” He has said repeatedly that he rejects Gascón’s “extreme pro-criminal, decarceration policies.”

He has added: “I also reject the extreme mass incarceration policies.”

Outside committees working to help elect Hochman raised more than $7.2 million compared to $605,000 for Gascón, according to an analysis conducted by LAist.

Hochman was born and raised in Beverly Hills. He attended Brown University and Stanford Law School. As a federal prosecutor in L.A., one of his biggest cases involved prosecuting corrupt sheriff’s deputies.

He entered private practice in 1997, and has mostly worked as a white collar defense attorney. In 2008, then-President George W. Bush appointed Hochman to oversee the Tax Division of the U.S. Department of Justice. He served for a year.

In one of his most high-profile cases, Hochman defended former L.A. County Sheriff Lee Baca, who was convicted of obstruction of justice in 2017 for covering up the abuse of inmates at Men’s Central Jail.

In 2020, when some people were calling for reduced funding for law enforcement, Hochman and his brother created the Los Angeles Sheriff’s Foundation, an independent group that raises money for the county department.

From 2011 to 2016, Hochman was president of the L.A. City Ethics Commission, a volunteer position. The panel enforces city campaign finance and lobbying rules.

In 2022, he was the Republican nominee for California Attorney General, losing to Democrat Rob Bonta. Last year, Hochman changed his party affiliation to No Party Preference.

How we got here

When Gascón was voted into office four years ago, he was spurred by a national criminal justice reform movement that gained momentum after the 2020 murder of George Floyd by Minneapolis police and the protests that followed.

Although many other progressive district attorneys were voted into office at that time, Gascón was the most widely known.

George Gascón at an election party in Los Angeles ahead of the polls closing, on Nov. 5, 2024.

(

Erin Stone

/

LAist

)

One major goal of criminal justice reform has been to help reduce mass incarceration. Gascón's reforms fundamentally changed how L.A. prosecutors operate.

On the day he was sworn in, he introduced a broad set of directives. Prosecutors would no longer be allowed to seek the transfer of juveniles to adult court. They could no longer seek sentencing enhancements, which let prosecutors add many more years to someone’s potential sentence for things like carrying a gun or acting on behalf of a gang, or file charges for certain low level misdemeanors.

And they could no longer seek the death penalty (California has a moratorium on carrying out executions while Gov. Gavin Newsom is in office, but that does not prevent prosecutors from seeking capital punishment for a defendant when they go to trial).

Those changes rankled some of the prosecutors in the District Attorney's Office. Three weeks after Gascón took office, the union representing L.A. County prosecutors filed a lawsuit seeking to block some of his directives. Some of them ran against him in the March primary.

The effort to oust Gascón from office has been vocal, with his detractors blaming him for an increase in local crime — property crime in particular — including high-profile smash-and-grab robberies at retail stores.

Some experts have said placing that blame on Gascón — or any district attorney — isn't quite fair because they have less of an influence on overall crime rates than do police.

Violent crime rose 7% in 2023 from 2020 in L.A., the year Gascón took office, according to the state Department of Justice. More recently, violent crime has been trending downward.

Property crime jumped 20% during the same time frame and continues to rise.

One major factor affecting those numbers is the COVID-19 pandemic, during which crime jumped dramatically. It's also noteworthy that the same crime trends are being seen across the country in big cities with and without progressive prosecutors.

LAist reporters Erin Stone and Robert Garrova contributed to this story.

Listen to Frank Stoltze and Antonia Cereijido break down the LA DA race results on Imperfect Paradise here

Listen • 24:25

Listen • 24:25

George Gascón’s reelection loss and whether there’s a future for the progressive prosecutors' movement

Nathan Hochman defeated incumbent George Gascón in the Los Angeles County District Attorney race. Many see the outcome as a bellwether for the criminal justice reform movement nationwide. LAist Correspondent Frank Stoltze breaks down the LA DA race results and helps us understand what Hochman's decisive victory and Gascón’s loss means. Also, Imperfect Paradise host Antonia Cereijido speaks with Alyssa Kress from the Prosecutors Alliance of California (PAC), a nonprofit that supports progressive prosecutors including Gascón, about the future of the broader social justice movement and their strategy moving forward.