Allegheny County 2023 Democratic District Attorney Primary Results

UPDATED 11 p.m.

PITTSBURGH, PA — Stephen Zappala, Allegheny County's district attorney for the past 25 years, faced a vigorous challenge in the Democratic primary from county Public Defender Matt Dugan. Vigorous enough for Zappala to have apparently lost his quarter-century hold on his office.

With 96 percent of precincts reporting, Dugan led Zappala, 92,399-73,584.

All results are unofficial until verified by the county elections board.

Zappala ran without the endorsement of Pittsburgh Mayor Ed Gainey, U.S. Rep. Summer Lee of Pittsburgh and the Allegheny County Democratic Committee. Dugan won that support.

Those endorsements were somewhat surprising in a county where Democrats hold a strong grip on most of the top elected offices and generally do not back challengers to incumbents. But Zappala has grown increasingly controversial in recent years and seemingly alienated some elected officials who normally would back him.

In 2021, calls for Zappala to resign occurred after he instructed his office not to offer plea deals to a Black attorney who publicly called his office "systemically racist."

"We are addressing issues that disproportionately affect people of color and other marginalized communities," Zappala recently told the League of Women Voters of Greater Pittsburgh.

"Steps we have taken are special courts that address mental health and addiction, and the Phoenix Court, which addresses relatively minor, non-violent offenses. The goal of these courts is to allow people to receive treatment rather than incarceration. Our office provides training to all employees to ensure they are sensitive to any biases they may have to ensure that it does not impact the cases they handle."

Most recently, Zappala drew the ire of Democratic state Rep. Nick Pisciottano of West Mifflin. He criticized the district attorney after Zappala last month vowed to keep Kennywood from opening
its season over security concerns. Those issues were resolved in a meeting between officials of Kennywood, Zappala's office and the Pennsylvania State Police.

Dugan, of Moon, was appointed county public defender in January 2020 after having served as acting public defender since June 2019. He ran as a progressive candidate whose commercials frequently stated that Zappala "has betrayed our values."

"The District Attorney’s Office must acknowledge the significant racial disparities in our criminal justice system, and must actively work to eradicate those disparities with every decision and policy it implements," Dugan recently told the League of Women Voters of Greater Pittsburgh. "We must build a system that works."

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