“This is an incredible moment for Brooklyn and this is an incredible moment for my family,” Gonzalez said. “I’m honored by the trust that each and every one of you have put into my candidacy and the belief that I could follow in the footsteps of our late beloved Ken Thompson.”

With 99.5 percent of precincts reporting, Gonzalez picked up a total of 76,947 votes (53.1 percent) to beat his five Democratic competitors in a landslide. Anne Swern (11.5 percent) turned out to be his closest competitor, with Marc Fliedner (10.2), Patricia Gatling (9.3), Vincent Gentile (8.7) and Ama Dwimoh (7.2) following behind.

Gonzalez, 48, never had political aspirations prior to the death of the late DA Thompson in October 2016. Despite the fact that Thompson handpicked Gonzalez to run the agency in his absence, there was speculation that his lack of political experience could hurt him if he decided to run officially for office.

All candidates in the race tried to ride the coattails of Thompson, including Gentile, who endorsed Thompson’s opponent in the 2013 DA race. However, Gonzalez benefitted from Thompson’s widow Lu-Shawn Thompson coming out early in the race to endorse him.

“Ken, her husband, was a transformational figure in this city, in criminal justice, and for her to believe that I could carry on in his footsteps and carry that baton to make this city the kind of place that Ken believed we could be — I won’t let you down, Lu-Shawn,” Gonzalez said.

Despite his lack of a political background, Gonzalez quickly jumped ahead of the pack and eventually outraised all his opponents combined with a total of more than $1.6 million in donations.

Gonzalez almost didn’t get to that point, though. After the death of Thompson on Oct. 9, 2016, Gov. Andrew Cuomo could have decided to hold a special election to replace Thompson. However, Cuomo decided to stick with Gonzalez as the acting district attorney, a move that Gonzalez hasn’t forgotten.

“After Ken passed, he had the opportunity to replace me, and he gave me the opportunity to serve as your acting DA,” Gonzalez said.

A big part of the reason that Thompson’s tenure as district attorney, although short, was considered very impactful, was his creation of the Conviction Review Unit that eventually saw 23 cases overturned. Gonzalez was integral in forming and running that unit, and that experience gave him the credibility he needed to standout in a crowded race.

“Eric has made it a priority to review old convictions to ensure that those being penalized are being penalized for crimes that they actually committed and not because they are victims of systemic racism or poverty,” said Public Advocate Letitia James.

On top of the overturned wrongful convictions, Gonzalez benefitted from record low crime numbers in the borough, which enabled him to institute progressive reforms like bail reform, and declining to prosecute low-level crimes as often. He has also pledged to help close Rikers Island by shrinking its population.

All of that benefitted Gonzalez locally, but he no doubt helped himself by speaking out against the Trump administration. Gonzalez penned an op-ed criticizing Attorney General Jeff Session for his tough stance on drug crime. Gonzalez also publicly called for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement to stay out of the Brooklyn courthouses and pledged that he would defy the federal government if he felt morally compelled to.

“I’m here to make sure that our criminal justice system becomes the fairest, most progressive system that we have while also making sure that our families in Brooklyn are safe,” Gonzalez said. “I’m not going to settle for what we’ve already accomplished, and we’ve accomplished a lot.

“We have the national model for conviction review. We vacated 143,000 summonses warrants, we’ve saved tens of thousands of young black and Hispanic men from getting arrested on low-level offenses and we’re going to do more. We’re going to transform the system so that we lead the most progressive District Attorney’s Office in the country.”

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