George Gascón’s bid to be reelected as Los Angeles County District Attorney appears headed to a likely runoff in November.
With 51% of votes reported as of Wednesday morning, Gascón maintains a lead of about 30,000 votes over the top runner-up Nathan Hochman, a former federal prosecutor, but neither has come close to garnering a majority of the votes.
Gascón has garnered 21.4% of the votes, as compared with Hochman’s 17.72%.
Out of a field of 11 challengers, the only other candidate to hit double-digits in the percent of votes won was Jonathan Hatami, who has 13.37%.
Hatami is one of multiple candidates who have criticized Gascón’s progressive changes, such as the end of cash bail, though Hatami garnered extra attention as he is a deputy district attorney in Gascón’s office.
On Tuesday, Gascón told KTLA that he hopes this likely runoff election will lead to a more substantive race than the primary.
“It was all based on personal attacks and hyperbole, so I’m looking forward to actually a general election where we’ll have meaningful conversations around policy, disagreements in policy, and what the solution should be,” Gascón said.
On Tuesday night, Hochman seemed to indicate he also wanted to discuss policy, though he clearly tied it to his probable opponent.
“We have given [Gascón] a couple years to see if they have worked, and those policies have failed,” Hochman said.