Elections 2026: David Solet

David Solet, a former prosecutor in the Middlesex District Attorney’s Office, is challenging Marian Ryan for the DA position.

Solet, who had worked with and for Ryan during his 24 years as a prosecutor, is Ryan’s only challenger in the Democratic primary race.

Solet resigned from the DA’s office last September to run for the Middlesex DA position and launched his campaign in Dec. 2025. Solet said he’s committed to seeking justice for all residents of Middlesex County, a motto displayed prominently on his campaign website.

From Harvard Law to Prosecutor of the Year

Solet, a Cambridge native, earned a bachelor’s degree from Princeton University and a law degree from Harvard Law School in 2001. That same year, Solet started in the Middlesex DA’s Office as a prosecutor for domestic violence and organized crime cases. 

Solet left that role from 2015 to 2019 to serve as Gov. Charlie Baker’s chief legal counsel for public safety. He returned to the Middlesex DA’s Office in 2019 and served as the chair of the Conviction Integrity Committee. He was voted 2025 Prosecutor of the Year by the Middlesex DA’s Office.

Additionally, Solet served as chief of the Middlesex County Cold Case Homicide Unit from 2019 to 2025, during which time he and his team solved more than a dozen cases. 

Solet is also a major in the Judge Advocate General’s Corps of the U.S. Army Reserve, serving as a defense attorney for soldiers and a special victims counsel for sexual assault victims.

Disagreements with the current DA

Solet is running against Ryan because he believes she hasn’t done enough to protect the people of Massachusetts. He listed examples he said illustrate his claim.

To start, he pointed to an interaction he had with Ryan during the 2019 election, saying he encouraged her to prioritize fixing a legal loophole that makes it harder for prosecutors to hold suspects in jail on grounds of dangerousness. 

“She said to me, ‘I don’t want that responsibility, because if I had it and we didn’t use it right, people could blame us,’” Solet recounted.

Solet helped draft a bill to close that loophole but it did not pass. He said the bill’s failure has impacted public safety, citing a 2024 incident in which a 13-year-old girl was abducted and killed by her abuser while out on bail. Solet believes the crime could have been prevented if the man had been imprisoned on grounds of dangerousness during his pretrial proceedings, but it was not legally possible. When asked about the case later, Solet said Ryan stated that the law did not allow them to detain the man.

“Which is true,” Solet said, “but it was something that we had known for five years at that point. And [Ryan] specifically decided not to try to fix it. And even after that girl was killed, she has not lifted a finger to reform the law.”

Pushing for a change in direction

If elected, Solet promises to speak out for what he believes is right even if there may be political repercussions for him, something he says Ryan does not do.

Solet supports the elimination of the statute of limitations on sexual assault cases where DNA evidence is present. A bill passed on July 24 by Gov. Maura Healey lifted the statute of limitations for prosecuting sexual assault cases if there is conclusive DNA evidence pointing to a suspect. While Ryan has publicly supported this starting in Dec. 2025, Solet says this hasn’t always been the case.

Solet and his team solved a 1980 rape case with DNA evidence but couldn’t prosecute due to the statute of limitations. Solet said he had asked Ryan to support the elimination of the statute for cases with DNA evidence but said Ryan didn’t because, quoting her as saying “not everyone would agree.”

“The day after my campaign website went up, [Ryan] called a press conference to announce that she was calling for the reform of the statute of limitations. When she spoke out in December, it seems to me that the only thing that changed was the political dynamics. Left to her own devices, she would have buried this issue,” Solet said.

When asked for a response to Solet’s account of events and Ryan’s comments, Ryan’s campaign spokesperson Scott Ferson said, “Leadership is not about quibbling over who gets credit; it’s about recognizing those who deserve it. The undisputed facts are that the idea for legislation creating a DNA exception to the statute of limitations did not originate in the Middlesex district attorney’s office. District Attorney Ryan was proud to play a minor role in helping advance this worthy legislation towards its recent passage.” 

Ferson did not address the specific allegations Solet made regarding Ryan.

Solet, who lives with his wife and their two daughters in Newton, has spent the past few months campaigning full-time. More than 28 public safety unions and associations, including the Waltham Superior Officers Association and the Waltham Police Patrol Union, have endorsed Solet.

The Middlesex District Attorney primary will take place along with other primary races on Sept. 1 from 7 a.m. to 8 p.m. at precinct locations around the city. Residents can use an online tool on the Secretary of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts website to find their polling location. Early voting for the primary takes place Aug. 22 through 28, though Waltham has not yet announced early voting locations.