Electoral history of Kamala Harris

In 2003, Harris challenged Terence Hallinan, the two-term incumbent District Attorney of San Francisco.^[6] Harris finished second to Hallinan, but received more votes than Bill Fazio, who had run in 1995 and 1999. However, since no candidate received a majority, Harris and Hallinan advanced to a run-off election.^[7][8] She criticized Hallinan's relatively weak conviction rate. During the campaign, she stated that she would give herself a spending cap; despite this she exceeded it. Harris defeated Hallinan by a large margin, outperforming Gavin Newsom in the concurrent mayoral election.^[8]

Harris ran for reelection in 2007. She was unopposed and won the election with just over 98 percent of the vote.^[10][11] It was the first time since 1991 that the incumbent district attorney ran unopposed in San Francisco.^[12]

In 2010, Harris ran to replace Jerry Brown, who was retiring to run for governor,^[14] as the attorney general of California.^[15] She won a highly competitive Democratic primary with around 30 percent of the vote.^[16][17] Harris received the endorsement of the Los Angeles Times and Los Angeles mayor Antonio Villaraigosa.^[18][19] All six major candidates participated in a debate at the Milken Institute in Santa Monica, California.^[20]

In the general election, Harris faced Republican Steve Cooley, the Los Angeles County District Attorney.^[21][22] Early in the race, Harris trailed Cooley in polls. The two debated at the UC Davis School of Law in Davis, California.^[23] During the debate, Cooley gave a controversial answer to a question about his pension; he stated that if he won, he would accept a pension for both his role as LA County District Attorney and as California Attorney General, receiving over $400,000. The New York Times dubbed the answer "the 47 seconds that saved Kamala Harris’s political career".^[24] In 2024, during Harris's 2024 presidential campaign, Cooley, while being interviewed by ABC News, criticized her debating skill, saying "She needs her teleprompter. She needs her notes that are probably written by someone else in order to do well."^[25]

On Election Day, Cooley held a narrow lead and claimed he had won the election. However, after all votes were counted, the race was called in favor of Harris by a margin of less than one percent.^[25] The race was one of the closest statewide elections in the history of California.^[22] She became the state's first female attorney general.^[16]

Following the passage of Proposition 14 in 2010, California began using nonpartisan blanket primaries, where the top two candidates advance to the general election for most non-presidential elections, including attorney general.^[26] In early February 2014, Harris announced she would run for a second term as attorney general.^[27] Harris and Republican Ronald Gold received the most votes in the primary and advanced to the general election.^[28]

In the campaign finance reports released at the end of July 2014, Harris reported millions of dollars in campaign funds, while Gold had raised less than $20,000 and was in debt.^[30] Donors to Harris's reelection bid included then-businessman and future political opponent Donald Trump.^[31] In the general election, Harris defeated Gold by fifteen percent and over a million votes.^[29]

On January 5, 2015, incumbent Democrat Barbara Boxer announced she would not seek a fifth term in the Senate.^[32] On January 13, Harris announced she planned to run for the open seat.^[33] In the primary election, Harris, who received just over 3 million votes,^[34] and Representative Loretta Sanchez of California's 46th congressional district, who received 1.4 million votes, advanced to the general election.^[35]

Harris and Sanchez participated in a debate at University of California, Los Angeles.^[35] The election was not particularly competitive, with Politico's Will Kane characterizing the race as one of the "least-exciting races in California history." Due to Sanchez and Harris holding similar positions, Kane felt it was a poor implementation of the open primary system.^[37] On Election Day, Harris defeated Sanchez by 2.8 million votes and a margin of 23 percent.^[38]