RFK Children Rory and Max Kennedy Endorse Nathan Hochman for County District Attorney

Rory and Max Kennedy, children of the late Sen. Robert F. Kennedy, announced their support of Nathan Hochman for Los Angeles County District Attorney on Tuesday. They described their stand against District Attorney George Gascón as “the first time that we’ve ever supported a candidate against a Democrat.”

Rory Kennedy, an Academy Award-nominated documentary filmmaker, said she and her sibling, Max, an author and historian, support Hochman because of his diverse background in criminal justice and their belief he will strongly advocate for crime victims while pursuing alternatives to incarceration when appropriate for first-time, nonviolent offenders.

Gascón will face Hochman, a former federal prosecutor, in the November general election. In the March 5 primary, Gascón topped the field of 12 candidates with 25.19% of the vote, with Hochman finishing second with 15.94%.

With nearly 75% of the primary vote going to candidates other than Gascón, Hochman is the heavy favorite in the runoff.

Max Kennedy, who served for more than three years as an assistant district attorney in Philadelphia, said he and his sister were “deeply disappointed” that Gascón has refused to consider opposing parole for murderers — including Sirhan Sirhan, who was convicted of the 1968 murder of their father — and violent rapists.

“Los Angeles deserves a DA who cares as much about crime victims as he does about the criminals who murder and rape in cold blood,” Max Kennedy said.

“The DA is the only effective advocate for crime victims at parole hearings, and Gascón has abdicated his responsibility. He is simply not qualified to protect Angelenos.”

Added Rory Kennedy: “People should feel that the District Attorney has our back. We have lost confidence that Gascón is protecting Angelenos. Nathan Hochman has our back.”

A message seeking comment from Gascón’s campaign spokeswoman was not immediately answered.

“The people of Los Angeles County will be much better served by Nathan Hochman, a man of integrity who shares many of our father’s values,” Max Kennedy said of his late father.

Robert F. Kennedy served as United States attorney general and as a U.S. senator from New York until his assassination on June 5, 1968 at the Ambassador Hotel in Los Angeles, when he was running for the Democratic presidential nomination. He was 42 years old.

Hochman, who has served as a federal prosecutor, U.S. assistant attorney general overseeing the U.S. Department of Justice’s tax division, president of the Los Angeles City Ethics Commission and a defense attorney, said he is extremely grateful for the Kennedys’ support.

“Robert F. Kennedy was one of our nation’s greatest leaders and an advocate for the less fortunate who stood strongly against injustice and sought to make our country a better place,” Hochman said.

“I am humbled and honored that his children, Rory and Max, support my candidacy for district attorney. When I am elected, I will strive every day to make them proud, serve the memory of their father and be a champion for victims and their families.”

Like all local offices in California, the district attorney’s race is officially nonpartisan, with candidates’ party affiliation, if any, not listed on the ballot.

Hochman was the Republican candidate for attorney general in the 2022 general election and later changed his registration to no party preference.

Sirhan, the Palestinian-Jordanian man who assassinated Kennedy in retaliation for his support of Israel following the 1967 Six-Day War, was convicted of first-degree murder, among other charges, and subsequently sentenced to death.

In 1972, the sentence was commuted to a life sentence after the California Supreme Court ruled the state’s death penalty law unconstitutional.

In August 2021, after 15 years of being denied parole by parole board panels, Sirhan was granted parole by a two-person panel. Prosecutors declined to participate or to oppose his release under a policy by Gascón.

In January 2022, California Gov. Gavin Newsom blocked Sirhan’s release on parole.

Sirhan, now 80, was denied parole again in March 2023, and is again up for parole in August.