George Gascón won election as Los Angeles County district attorney in 2020 on promises to implement criminal justice reform in the wake of the police killing of George Floyd in Minnesota. Four years later he faces a tough-on-crime challenger who says such policies have gone too far.
Nathan Hochman, a former federal prosecutor, calls himself a “hard middle” candidate who would reject both mass incarceration and “decarceration” policies. Despite being a former Republican running as an independent in a heavily Democratic city, he has raised more than $4 million compared with Gascon’s less than $1 million, not including contributions to outside groups supporting the candidates.
