Voters in Los Angeles County tossed District Attorney George Gascón out of office on Election Day, picking challenger Nathan Hochman by the staggering margin of 61.5% to 38.5%.
The 22-point victory was slightly smaller than polls had predicted in the weeks leading up to the election; the latest poll had Gascón 25 points behind. Still, only 59.49% of votes had been counted as of Wednesday morning.
Gascón won in 2020, at the height of the Black Lives Matter movening, with the help of millions of dollars from left-wing billionaire George Soros, and the endorsements of the Democratic Party establishment.
Then-Mayor Eric Garcetti, who had previously endorsed incumbent D.A. Jackie Lacey, the first black woman to hold the job, withdrew his endorsement and backed Gascón.
Gascón went on to adopt radical “criminal justice reform” policies favored by Soros-backed prosecutors throughout the nation: reducing sentences, ending cash bail, and taking pride in setting criminals free.
His performance led to open rebellion by rank-and-file prosecutors, and two recall attempts by residents of the county, the second of which failed only because county officials disqualified enough signatures to keep the recall vote off the ballot.
Elsewhere, voters in Oakland were close to recalling another Soros-backed prosecutor, Pamela Price, as of Wednesday morning. California voters also approved Proposition 36, an anti-crime ballot measure that reverses some of 2014’s Proposition 47, which reduced many criminal sentences.
The backlash against “woke” criminal justice demonstrated that there are limits, even for Democratic voters who overwhelmingly supported Vice President Kamala Harris in her home state.
Hochman, a former federal prosecutor and former Republican candidate for California Attorney General, has promised to reverse Gascón’s policies.
His slogan was simple: “Gascón must go!”
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