Arlington Commonwealth's Attorney Primary Results: Dehghani-Tafti Overcomes Challenger

ARLINGTON, VA — Incumbent Parisa Dehghani-Tafti defeated challenger Josh Katcher in Tuesday's Democratic primary for Commonwealth's Attorney of Arlington County and the City of Falls Church, according to preliminary election results released by Arlington County.

Dehghani-Tafti won 56 percent of the vote, compared to 44 percent for Katcher.

See live election results for local races at the bottom of this story.

In a statement released shortly before 9 p.m., Katcher said he called Dehghani-Tafti to congratulate her on her victory.

"Over the course of the last six months, we’ve had an important debate in our community over the future of criminal justice reform," Katcher said in the statement. "Our team left it all on the field, as we sought to have a debate about what real reform and real justice could mean for our community."

In the Democratic primary election four years ago, Dehghani-Tafti defeated incumbent Theo Stamos by about 760 votes out of more than 26,200 votes cast. According to preliminary results, about 27,000 votes were cast in this year's primary election.

Dehghani-Tafti is expected to easily win re-election in November's general election.

In the 2023 Democratic primary campaign, both Dehghani-Tafti and Katcher ran as reform-oriented prosecutors, vowing not to return to the days when "law-and-order" commonwealth's attorneys held office in Arlington and neighboring jurisdictions in Northern Virginia.

Candidates and volunteers for both campaigns greeted voters at precincts across Arlington on Tuesday, hoping to win their votes on election day.

Heather Keppler, who was campaigning for Katcher on Tuesday morning outside the Overlee Knolls and Lexington precincts in Arlington, said she volunteered for Dehghani-Tafti's campaign in 2019. But Keppler said she became concerned about the lack of prosecution of certain cases by the commonwealth's attorney office under Dehghani-Tafti.

Keppler's daughter was hit by a car while riding her bicycle, shattering the car's windshield. Her daughter, a top cross country runner at Yorktown High School, was unable to get back to her same running pace after recovering from the injuries.

Arlington County police issued a citation to the driver, but when the case "got to Parisa's traffic court, there were no prosecutors in court and there was no police officer that showed up, so all the charges were dropped," Keppler said.

"Our family wasn't even informed, and no one even reached out to us. That's when I decided that I did not like how Parisa and her team were running the commonwealth's attorney office," she said.

When talking to Katcher on the campaign trail, Keppler said he spoke about the importance of traffic court and how it is a good training ground for prosecutors and "how you need to have all those jobs filled."

"He convinced me that he will continue my passion for criminal justice reform but do it in a way where he is going to be a good steward of that office," she added.

Michael, who lives in Shirlington and describes himself as a "reformed Republican," said he would vote for Dehghani-Tafti because he would like to see her win a second term to further implement her criminal justice reform agenda.

"Given her track record and the things she has done in the past, I’d like to see her continue her work," Michael said. "I appreciate her position on mental health care and on the drug court."

Josh, a resident of North Arlington, who was campaigning for Dehghani-Tafti Tuesday morning outside the Overlee Knolls and Lexington precincts, said he believes Katcher's campaign has engaged in scare-mongering on crime in Arlington.

"Arlington is a low-crime jurisdiction and always has been," Josh said. "To campaign on, 'Oh, we have this crime spike,' and then call yourself a reformer doesn't wash. The biggest slander on criminal justice reform is that it causes crime to go up when it doesn't. All the evidence shows it doesn't cause crime to go up."

"There's a mismatch there, and it makes me not trust that he will continue her reforms if he is elected," he said.

Dehghani-Tafti ran on a reform platform in 2019, and she delivered on all of her promises, Josh argued.

"Four hundred years of the criminal justice system being used for oppression is hard to reverse. She's made a good start, and we need to stay the course and keep reform going," he added.

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• Top Prosecutors In Arlington Question Candidate's Reform Credentials
• Arlington Commonwealth's Attorney Race Centers On Type Of Reformer

View unofficial election results for Arlington County below. Be sure to refresh this page for the latest.