photo by: Chris Conde/Journal-World

Dakota Loomis listens to a Baldwin City resident during public comment at the Baldwin City Council meeting on election night Nov. 5, 2024. Loomis is the attorney for Baldwin City. He'll be Douglas County's next DA after winning Tuesday night.

Dakota Loomis, who unseated the incumbent district attorney in August’s Democratic primary, handily defeated his Republican opponent Tuesday and will become Douglas County’s next DA in January.

After his victory became apparent early in the evening — with 86% of precincts reporting he was leading by 31 percentage points — he told the Journal-World that “the real work begins now.”

“I think our county, our community, knows what has been going on in that office the past four years, and it’s been time for a change,” he said, noting that he would hit the ground running, “probably tomorrow morning, working on how best to coordinate with our community and start working on a transition, working on getting folks involved who can help through the transition.”

Loomis, 44, will succeed one-term DA Suzanne Valdez, whose embattled tenure sparked his own run for office as he campaigned on the need to restore community trust in the county’s top law enforcement official. Both Loomis and the Republican candidate, Mike Warner, 71, were highly critical of Valdez, citing her poor relationship with the judiciary and law enforcement, high turnover in her office, disciplinary complaints against her and other matters. They were also both critical, to varying degrees, of her office’s charging decisions, plea deals and trial outcomes, saying she had severely damaged the reputation and integrity of the office.

The candidates clashed, though, on how best to rectify the situation, with Warner saying the county urgently needed a career prosecutor like himself to restore order and respect for the office and to mentor assistant DAs and Loomis saying that his deep familiarity with the local legal system and community partners was key to stabilizing the office and rebuilding public trust.

At multiple candidate forums in the run-up to the election Loomis said he was a reluctant candidate, recruited by law enforcement officials and his own conscience to step up and present an alternative to the “petty political fighting, personal conflicts, and a lack of leadership” that have characterized the DA’s office for the past four years. He has cautioned that it won’t be an overnight fix but could take years to right the ship, including recruiting and retaining qualified staff and repairing relationships with criminal justice partners.

“I look forward to working with all of our community partners, with the courts, law enforcement, anyone and everyone who wants to turn that office around and make sure our community is safe going forward, make sure that it is keeping folks safe, keeping its eye on what really matters, which is prosecuting the folks in this community who are harming others, getting folks help if they need help, if it’s addiction, if it’s mental health services, but really restoring that office to where it’s focused on public safety, protecting our community, and getting people back into the community in a safe and fair manner,” he told the Journal-World Tuesday night.

Loomis’ name is well-known in Democratic circles, thanks largely to his late father, Burdett Loomis, who taught political science at KU and was a fixture in state politics. Loomis, who said during his campaign that he had no higher political aspirations than DA, outraised Warner by more than $50,000, a likely record in the county, as the Journal-World reported.

photo by: Chris Conde/Journal-World

Dakota Loomis grins as the Baldwin City Council congratulated him on the early results of the district attorney race at the council meeting on election night Nov. 5, 2024.

Loomis spent election night at a City Council meeting in Baldwin City, where he is the attorney for the city and is also its local prosecutor. In addition to that role, Loomis has practiced law for 15 years, primarily as a defense attorney in Douglas County, but also briefly as the deputy chief of staff in the Shawnee County DA’s Office. He is also the defense attorney for the Douglas County Drug Court.

Throughout his campaign he described his experience as “local, relevant and recent” in distinguishing himself from Warner, who had not worked primarily in this jurisdiction and who had criticized Loomis’ inexperience with prosecuting felony cases. Loomis said the criticism was misguided as he has broad experience in defending hundreds of felony cases.

This election was the first in two decades in which voters had a choice between a Democratic and Republican candidate for DA. Democrats have held the office since 2004, when Charles Branson defeated Republican incumbent Christine Kenney. Branson held the office until 2020, when Valdez beat him in the Democratic primary and ran unopposed in the general election.

Loomis praised Warner for running an “issue-based campaign.”

“I have been out in the community with him time and again. I wish him well, and I thank him for focusing his energy and efforts on the issues that I think matter to our community,” he said. “I think Mr. Warner and I share a lot of the same concerns, a lot of the same values, and I think it was nice to run a campaign and be a part of campaign where issues and values were at the forefront, opposed to what we see, I think, on the national stage.”

Loomis attended Carleton College in Minnesota and law school at New York University. He lives in Lawrence with his wife, Krystal, and their two young daughters.

— Chris Conde contributed to this report.