This post was updated Nov. 8 at 12:17 a.m.

Nathan Hochman won the race for Los Angeles County District Attorney, unseating incumbent George Gascón. 

Hochman, a former federal prosecutor and United States assistant attorney general, won the race by more than 540,000 votes as of Thursday. The result reflects polling from the UC Berkeley Institute of Governmental Studies and the LA Times throughout the campaign, which put Hochman ahead of Gascón by around 30 percentage points. 

Campaigning on a platform of restoring trust and integrity to the DA office, Hochman pledged to restore the partnership between the DA and law enforcement agencies, prioritize victims’ interests and create rehabilitation opportunities for previously incarcerated individuals and those with mental illness. 

“I am shocked and disappointed at how our public safety has seriously worsened over the last four years under current DA George Gascon,” Hochman said in a statement on his campaign website. “I am prepared to fight to restore it.”

Early tabulated votes from around midnight Wednesday showed Hochman receiving more than 1.2 million votes and Gascón with just around 780,000. By Thursday, Hochman led the race with 1.4 million votes. 

Hochman, an independent who unsuccessfully ran for California Attorney General in 2022, emphasized nonpartisanship as a necessity for the role of DA. Gascón made attempts to link Hochman to former President Donald Trump, though Hochman endorsed Vice President Kamala Harris. 

Hochman’s “Blueprint for Justice” says he plans to make decisions based “solely on the facts and the law” instead of party preference, despite the fact that he was a Republican until 2023. 

Gascón has faced criticism since his early days in office, seeing two recall efforts within his four years in office, though neither reached enough signatures to qualify for a vote. He took office in 2020 under the promise of reform and restorative justice following a nationwide movement sparked by the murder of George Floyd by police. 

Gascón also faced disapproval from his own staff – more than 20 of his prosecutors have sued him under allegations that they were demoted or retaliated against for challenging his policies. 

Hochman pledged to erase Gascón’s prohibition of the use of strikes, sentencing enhancements and special allegations, saying that under his administration, criminals who use guns or other deadly weapons will be prosecuted and punished instead of released into the community. 

“Day one will be a great day. I’ll have hopefully as many of those 750 prosecutors and hundreds of thousands of law enforcement agents, victims groups, all with me, … and we will deal with these extreme Gascón pro-criminal policies by eliminating them,” Hochman said in an interview with the Daily Bruin. “But not replacing them with mass incarceration policies.” 

Hochman also has promised to allow prosecutors to reinstate the death penalty. Hochman said that though he is aware of the “troubled history” of the death penalty, he feels it should be considered for extreme cases. 

“Hopefully I’ll be able to bring some real change and get it back on track and restore safety and implement that criminal justice agenda at the same point,” Hochman said.