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Ryan Khojasteh
Ryan Khojasteh ran for election for San Francisco District Attorney in California. He lost in the general election on November 5, 2024.
Khojasteh completed Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection survey in 2024. Click here to read the survey answers.
Biography
Ryan Khojasteh was born in San Jose, California. He earned a high school diploma from the Bellarmine College Preparatory, a bachelor's degree from Santa Clara University in 2016, and a law degree from the University of California, Hastings College of the Law in 2018. His career experience includes working as a prosecutor.[1]
Elections
2024
See also: City elections in San Francisco, California (2024)
General election
General election for San Francisco District Attorney
The ranked-choice voting election was won by Brooke Jenkins in round 1 .
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Total votes: 347,374 |
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 = candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey. | ||||
Endorsements
To view Khojasteh's endorsements as published by their campaign, click here. Ballotpedia did not identify endorsements for Khojasteh in this election.
2018
General election
General election for U.S. House California District 12
Incumbent Nancy Pelosi defeated Lisa Remmer in the general election for U.S. House California District 12 on November 6, 2018.
Candidate | % | Votes | ||
| ✔ |  | Nancy Pelosi (D) | 86.8 | 275,292 |
 | Lisa Remmer (R) | 13.2 | 41,780 | |
| Total votes: 317,072 | |||
| = candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey. | ||||
| If you are a candidate and would like to tell readers and voters more about why they should vote for you, complete the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection Survey. | ||||
Do you want a spreadsheet of this type of data? Contact our sales team. | ||||
Nonpartisan primary election
Nonpartisan primary for U.S. House California District 12
The following candidates ran in the primary for U.S. House California District 12 on June 5, 2018.
Candidate | % | Votes | ||
| ✔ | | Nancy Pelosi (D) | 68.5 | 141,365 |
| ✔ | | Lisa Remmer (R) | 9.1 | 18,771 |
 | Shahid Buttar (D) | 8.5 | 17,597 | |
 | Stephen Jaffe (D) | 5.9 | 12,114 | |
 | Ryan Khojasteh (D) | 4.6 | 9,498 | |
 | Barry Hermanson (G) | 2.0 | 4,217 | |
| Michael Goldstein (Independent) | 1.4 | 2,820 | ||
| Total votes: 206,382 | |||
| = candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey. | ||||
| If you are a candidate and would like to tell readers and voters more about why they should vote for you, complete the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection Survey. | ||||
Do you want a spreadsheet of this type of data? Contact our sales team. | ||||
Withdrawn or disqualified candidates
- Chase Demasi (R)
Campaign themes
2024
Ballotpedia survey responses
See also: Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection
Ryan Khojasteh completed Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection survey in 2024. The survey questions appear in bold and are followed by Khojasteh's responses. Candidates are asked three required questions for this survey, but they may answer additional optional questions as well.
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I have worked in many different units within the criminal legal system, including: misdemeanors, juvenile delinquency, general felonies, collaborative courts, victim restitution, and parole & PRCS revocation.
As a regular in the courtroom, I understand the system well and have been a successful trial attorney.
Right after law school, I gained valuable experience as a post-bar fellow and volunteer attorney with the San Francisco Public Defender’s Office. This allowed me to have a holistic perspective of the criminal legal system and has prepared me to be a better skilled and more balanced prosecutor.
I envision a criminal legal system that responsibly balances accountability and rehabilitation so that we can be effective on crime.
Lastly, I want to be a competent and effective department head. Under the current DA, over 125 people have left the office – citing mismanagement, chaos, abuse and nepotism. We need to prioritize the well-being of our staff so that we can competently prosecute cases and ensure continuity in victim services. I want the San Francisco District Attorney's Office to be an effective and ethical legal office.- 1) Juvenile Justice – many of the programs that I helped start at juvenile hall have been dismantled by Jenkins. These were programs that were proven to work and that got kids back on track. The District Attorney's Office has the power to save lives, not just destroy them. Saving lives makes us safer. Having a kid succeed with the proper care, support and services helps our city and advances public safety. Right now, youth incarceration has gone up by 300%, programs have been slashed, and now youth crime is rising. This is irresponsible. We cannot play politics with the future of our children. I will re-establish the programs I worked on at juvenile hall so that we can meaningful intervene in kids' lives before it's too late.
- 2) Collaborative Courts (Treatment Courts) – we have a number of Collaborative Courts that are meant to holistically address defendants' underlying issues to reduce recidivism and make us safer. These include: Behavioral Health Court, Drug Court, Veterans Court, Young Adult Court, and the Community Justice Court. These treatment programs have been proven to stabilize someone, get them connected to care, support and housing, and reduce the rate of re-arrest significantly. It is also much cheaper than temporary incarceration or probation. These referrals have been reduced by over 70%! I will expand these referrals for non-violent offenses, reducing the backlog of criminal cases, so we can focus fully on prosecuting serious and violent crime.
- 3) Special Prosecutions Unit – under Jenkins, the special prosecutions unit of the District Attorney's Office has been gutted. The staff has been significantly reduced and political allies have been placed in this role, where nothing is meaningfully being prosecuted. All police shooting cases have been dismissed. There is no environmental prosecution. They are not going after corruption. And, they are not going after corporations for wage theft and other labor violations. This is unacceptable. I will bolster this unit with staff who will hold everyone accountable under the law – that includes law enforcement, government officials, and big corporations.
Note: Ballotpedia reserves the right to edit Candidate Connection survey responses. Any edits made by Ballotpedia will be clearly marked with [brackets] for the public. If the candidate disagrees with an edit, he or she may request the full removal of the survey response from Ballotpedia.org. Ballotpedia does not edit or correct typographical errors unless the candidate's campaign requests it.
See also
2024 Elections
External links
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Candidate San Francisco District Attorney |
Personal |
Footnotes
- ↑ Information submitted to Ballotpedia through the Candidate Connection survey on August 22, 2024
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State of California Sacramento (capital) |
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