The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette reports that Matt Dugan, a Democratic candidate for district attorney running in Pennsylvania’s Allegheny County lost his election bid, despite receiving funding of nearly $2 million from George Soros.

The Post-Gazette reports that Dugan challenged incumbent District Attorney Stephen Zappala during the county’s primary election in May. He won by 10 points, after receiving funding of $700,000. This money was provided by the Soros-funded Pennsylvania Justice and Public Safety Political Action Committee. PAC contributed an additional $1.1m to Dugan’s campaign from June to October. Zappala, however, managed to defeat Dugan by just 3 points despite a major loss months earlier.

Dugan told the Post-Gazette that on Tuesday evening, “we connected with many voters.” “We just fell a little short.”

Dugan continued, “I am deeply concerned about criminal justice and I am deeply concerned about Allegheny County. There’s a place for me somewhere.” “I’ll deal with that tomorrow.”

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Dugan’s campaign website states that he ran on a platform for criminal justice reform. He advocated policies such as eliminating cash bail and prosecuting fewer “low-level offenders” and shrinking jail populations. Zappala was criticized for receiving funding by a Republican billionaire. The candidate also argued that Zappala had “betrayed the values” of Pennsylvanians with his criminal justice policy.

In a video campaign, Dugan said that “the whole system is broke”. “For 23 Years, we have had a prosecutor who’s calling card was that they were tough on crime. As chief public defender I have seen this approach fail almost every day. I’ve seen children’s lives destroyed for making a mistake that they thought was their only option to get out of a bad circumstance, but dangerous criminals never come to justice.”

Zappala, who has been district attorney of Allegheny County in Pittsburgh since 1998, has advocated more police involvement for crime-ridden downtown Pittsburgh areas. This is according to The Post-Gazette. He lost the Democratic primary for 2023 in May, but the Republican Party nominated him as a write-in.

Buta Biberaj lost her bid for reelection on Tuesday, too. Her campaign, which was also funded by Soros in Loudoun County, Virginia, had been backed as well. Soros-funded districts attorneys have been criticized for their lax approach to crime.

Dugan’s election campaign stated that the candidate would be taking some time to “regroup”, after the elections, and declined to make any further comments. Zappala’s campaign did no respond immediately to the Daily Caller News Foundation’s request for comments.