George Soros PAC Continues Not To Fund Los Angeles DA George Gascon In The L.A. DA’s Race

Q3 2024 fundraising for District Attorney races was unveiled this week, with Los Angeles DA George Gascon’s race having been found to have received nothing from billionaire George Soros’ California Justice & Public Safety PAC, who had been his largest donor in the 2020 DA race.

In 2020, Gascon, who had been the former San Francisco DA from 2011 to 2019, defeated then-incumbent DA of Los Angeles Jackie Lacey with 53.5% of the vote. Much of the funding came from Soros’ PAC, the California Justice & Public Safety PAC. From 2018 to 2020, over $5 million had been brought into the race from there, including $4.5 million in 2020 alone. That money, combined with strong social justice rhetoric being brought about by Black Lives Matter and other groups in the wake of the George Floyd incident then propelled him to victory.

However,  the negative backlash over Gascon’s reform-minded policies, which included reduced sentencing, death penalty opposition, and general discontent from many, began to turn away many former supporters, as he was plummeting in popularity within a few years after election, with attempts at recalling him popping up. While the Soros PAC had continued to contribute, by 2023, they had stopped. When Gascon ran  again for DA in 2024, an expected resumption of campaign funds going into his campaign never happened, despite Gascon managing to get just over 25% of the vote in the primary, with former Assistant U.S.  Attorney General for the Tax Division and current General Counsel for Ross LLP Nathan Hochman barely beating out Assistant DA Jonathan Hatami 16% to 13% of the vote, or roughly 36,000 votes.

Polls since the primary have made it clear just how hopeless the situation is for Gascon this year, with every poll since April showing him at least 20 points behind. The latest polls earlier this month put it at 24 points. Rather than help turn the ship around, the PAC continued to not give anything. In July, the Globe reported that the PAC still had not given money to the Gascon campaign, with the newest reports this week still finding that the figure has continued to be zero in the last 3 months.

A spokesman for Soros, Michael Vachon, came out on Wednesday and said that Soros is endorsing Gascon, but has his PAC focus on the national elections instead:

“Mr. Soros’ focus this cycle is on national elections, particularly the presidential contest,” said Vachon. “This reflects the unprecedented stakes facing the nation and should not be misconstrued as an abandonment of Gascon or other local leaders who are implementing effective and humane approaches to public safety. Los Angeles County District Attorney Gascon has George Soros’ endorsement.”

However with massive support and funding, Hochman’s campaign is expected to be effected either very little or not at all by Soros’ endorsement.

“Gascon needed that PAC money in the beginning of the year,” explained LA County pollster Manny Rodriguez to the Globe on Wednesday. “With little in campaign funding, no big BLM style push like we saw in 2020, and four years of mostly negative headlines from his tenure as DA, it’s amazing Gascon got this far. Soros not throwing him any money is a big indicator that they don’t think he can win. They threw him a bone with the endorsement, but that is barely a consolation prize.

“For Gascon to have had a chance, he would have needed statistics showing the good his policies did, millions in campaign funding, and the same black and Latino support he had back in 2020. He doesn’t have any of that. Soros not giving him any money isn’t a shocker, but it does hurt his campaign even more now since his biggest backer is out.”

Final polling for the DA’s race is expected later this week.