Jeff Rosen appears headed for fifth term as Santa Clara County DA

SAN JOSE — Santa Clara County District Attorney Jeff Rosen appeared headed for a fifth term Tuesday night, holding a commanding early lead over Daniel Chung, the employee-turned-critic who turned years of internal conflict with Rosen into a second campaign to unseat him.

Rosen, who was backed by police and public safety unions and the vast majority of prominent elected leaders in the region, had garnered 60.6% of the county’s vote as of 9:51 p.m. Tuesday night — representing 18% of the potential vote — versus Chung’s 39.3% share.

If Rosen’s lead holds above 50%, he will avoid a November runoff. Unlike statewide races in California, county contests can be decided outright in the primary when a candidate wins a majority.

In a statement sent to campaign supporters Tuesday night, Rosen thanked his family, staff and endorsers.

“I will continue to be a strong and loud voice for public safety, for police officers and investigators, for prosecutors, for crime victim advocates and for criminalists,” he said in the statement. “Public safety is priceless and I will protect it and our residents like a lioness guards her cubs.”

Rosen has spent most of his prosecutorial career running the largest district attorney’s office in Northern California. Under his leadership, the office has become a state leader for its use of red-flag laws and championed the escalation of charges against reputed fentanyl dealers linked to fatal overdoses and parents whose neglect is alleged to have caused a child’s death. Last month, Rosen’s office secured the county’s first-ever murder verdict against parents whose child died from fentanyl exposure and ingestion due to their recklessness.

Chung, whose latest electoral run was seeded when he was a surprise runner-up in a three-candidate 2022 primary — which Rosen won outright — did not immediately respond to a request for comment Tuesday night.

He was once a rising prosecutor in Rosen’s office, and that changed most visibly in 2021 after Chung wrote an opinion piece published in The Mercury News criticizing criminal justice reforms. But he did not run it by his chain of command, and combined with other internal disputes, Rosen over the years twice moved to fire Chung.

What has unfolded is a yearslong legal and political clash in which Chung has pursued free-speech litigation and was reinstated in arbitration, so he technically remains employed as a county prosecutor. But that was not without some cost: Rosen has banned him from trying cases or working for the office, creating an extraordinary scenario where Chung was free to devote his time to build a grass-roots support network and prepare his second run for office.

Chung sought to galvanize Rosen’s critics with strategies including amplifying unfavorable outcomes like the recent forced recusal of the DA’s office from the prospective retrial of a group of pro-Palestinian activists charged with vandalizing offices at Stanford University.

But ultimately, the support for Rosen — through his prolific high-profile endorsements and corresponding fundraising advantage — along with the historical strength of incumbency in this countywide office, appear to have carried him to re-election.

This is a developing story. Check back for updates.