A trio of progressive prosecutors in large northern Virginia counties swept the Democratic primary Tuesday night — a vote of confidence from Democrats on his performance amid a national debate over which policies strike the right balance in public safety and criminal justice reform.
Arlington County Commonwealth’s Attorney Parisa Dehghani-Tafti, Fairfax County’s Steve Descano and Loudoun County’s Buta Biberaj were elected in 2019, ousting incumbents with support from voters who embraced messages about change the traditional approach of district attorney offices, including directing resources to hold certain defendants. out of prison Each also had the help of a PAC funded by Democratic megadonor George Soros, which has been a big-spending force in recent district attorney races around the nation.
But the prosecutors’ more than three-year tenures have come amid rising crime rates nationally, and each has sparked backlash among a segment of the population over how they handled certain cases, from local Republicans to some Democrats who lined up against them.
Dehghani-Tafti faced a former subordinate in her office, Josh Katcher, in her primary, while Descano and Biberaj faced Democratic challengers who were experienced defense attorneys in their counties.
Tuesday’s three victories represent another step forward for the progressive DA movement, which has seen dozens of new district attorneys elected in America’s largest counties over the past decade. While there have also been some notable losses to the movement, including the retirement of former San Francisco District Attorney Chesa Boudin in 2022, many of the DAs elected in the mid-2010s have been re-elected by voters.
Dehghani-Tafti took 57% of the Democratic primary in Arlington County, according to unofficial results, compared to Katcher’s 43 percent. Biberaj won 56 percent against her challenger, Elizabeth Lancaster, a former public defender. And Descano of Fairfax, the chief prosecutor in a county of more than a million residents, captured 55 percent of the Democratic primary vote against challenger Ed Nuttall.
All three counties lean Democratic, though only Biberaj narrowly won his general election in 2019 against his Republican opponent. Bob Anderson, a former Loudoun County commonwealth’s attorney, will be the Republican candidate against Biberaj this fall.
The Virginia races are part of a national cycle of big races for local prosecutors over the next two years — a sharp turnaround for an office that has typically seen established incumbents elected and re-elected unopposed until now.
Pennsylvania’s second-largest county, Allegheny County, is also in the midst of a fiscal race with high political implications: Democrat Matt Dugan, a former chief public defender, defeated District Attorney Stephen Zappala in the Democratic primaries in May.
Dugan criticized the incumbent on reform grounds, arguing that the Pittsburgh-based county was not focusing resources on the most serious crimes because it was overcharging lower-level crimes. The debate will continue through the fall: Zappala won the GOP nomination as a write-in candidate and will face off in the November general election against Dugan, who raised hundreds of thousands of dollars in support from the Justice and Public Safety PAC of Soros in primary school.
Dozens of other large counties will also have important elections next year. It includes Arizona’s Maricopa County, currently the largest county in the US with a Republican attorney general.
Illinois’ Cook County will also see a rare open-seat prosecutor’s race: Kim Foxx, the current state’s attorney who unseated an incumbent in 2016 while running on a reform platform, announced earlier ‘year that he will not seek re-election in 2024. .
