John Walsh wins race for Denver District Attorney

John Walsh, a career federal prosecutor and private practice attorney, will be Denver's next district attorney after winning Tuesday's election.

Walsh won about 58% of the vote, beating Leora Joseph by about 11,000 votes, according to the Denver Elections Division.

He'll will still need to go through the November general election, but they'd be the presumptive winner and would take office in January.

Both candidates agreed on a number of issues but split on a few. Joseph, for example, said she was completely opposed to the idea of safe injection sites, while Walsh said he was at least open to a pilot program with a single site, subject to approval by City Council, to gather more research on how it'd work in Denver.

Walsh ran on a campaign of reforming sentencing guidelines. A career federal prosecutor, he served as assistant U.S. Attorney and was appointed U.S. Attorney for the District of Colorado by former President Barack Obama.

He worked on Obama's clemency project and, at the time, reduced sentences for nonviolent drug offenders. In private practice, he's worked on business litigation, securities and conducting internal investigations.

He's also been involved in several high-profile cases, from leading a grand jury investigation into former Arizona Governor John Fife Symington to representing President Joe Biden's administration in one of the 2020 election lawsuits in Michigan.

Walsh was endorsed by outgoing Denver District Attorney Beth McCann, former Colorado Gov. Bill Ritter and former District Attorney Mitch Morrissey.

Leora Joseph, who worked as a prosecutor in Massachusetts for 25 years, served as chief of staff for the Colorado Attorney General's Office and led Colorado's Behavioral Health Agency.

You can view all of Tuesday's primary election results on CBS News Colorado.