Dugan Declares Victory In Allegheny Co. D.A. Democratic Primary

PITTSBURGH, PA — Allegheny County Public Defender Matt Dugan declared victory Tuesday in the Democratic district attorney primary. He appeared to defeat incumbent Stephen Zappala, the county's district attorney for the past 25 years.

With 97.8 percent of county precincts reporting, Dugan had 93,179 votes to Zappala's 74,287. All results are unofficial until verified by the county elections board.

Although Zappala conceded, he did not rule out challenging Dugan in the November general election as a Republican. The GOP did not have a Republican candidate in the primary and party officials had been calling for write-in votes for Zappala. The county does not immediately tally write-in votes, but Zappala needs at least 500 to be the Republican nominee.

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."

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."