Fact Check: Kamala Harris Was Willie Brown's Mistress and He Made Her Career?

Claim:

Vice presidential nominee Kamala Harris had an extramarital affair with former San Francisco Mayor and California State Assembly Speaker Willie Brown, who gave her two political appointments that launched her political career.

Rating:

Mixture ( About this rating? )

What's True:

Harris dated former Willie Brown in 1994 and 1995. As the state assembly speaker, Brown appointed her to two political posts: the California Unemployment Insurance Appeals Board, and later the Medical Assistance Commission.

What's False:

While Brown was still married when he and Harris started to date, he and his wife, Blanche Brown, had been separated 13 years by then. Harris' first, successful run for office in 2003 happened eight years after the relationship ended. Since then, Harris and Brown have taken several opportunities to distance themselves from each other.

After U.S. President Joe Biden, the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee, ended his 2024 campaign and endorsed Vice President Kamala Harris in July 2024, old rumors that she had "slept her way to the top" returned:

The claim spread quickly on X , Facebook and TikTok .

Several people, including former Fox News host Megyn Kelly, insisted that Harris' affair to former San Francisco Mayor and Speaker of the California Assembly Willie Brown was relevant to her White House bid as proof of her "ruthlessness" and "ambition." Indeed, they said, Brown gave her visibility by appointing her to two political posts in the mid-1990s, when they were reportedly "dating."

The claim first appeared in 2020, after Biden nominated Harris as his running mate. At the time, a headline from Teaparty.org story read, "Flashback: Kamala Harris Launched Her Political Career In Bedroom As Mistress Of Married Mayor Willie Brown."

Memes generated during the 2020 Democratic primaries also shared the claim:

The rumors were misleading as they exaggerated both the adulterous aspect of the relationship and the importance of Brown's influence on Harris' career.

Then 29, Harris dated Brown in 1994 and 1995, but Brown, who was 60 when their relationship began, had been separated from his wife, Blanche Brown, since 1981. Harris was assistant district attorney in Alameda County when they met. Brown then appointed Harris to two political posts while he was speaker of the California Assembly, but that was in 1994 — years before Harris was elected district attorney of San Francisco in 2003. She would remain in that post until 2011, when she won the office of California district attorney. In 2016, she ran for U.S. Senate and was elected.

Neither Brown nor Harris ever tried to conceal the fact they had been a couple . Brown addressed accusations of favoritism in the San Francisco Chronicle on Jan. 26, 2019 :

Yes, we dated. It was more than 20 years ago. Yes, I may have influenced her career by appointing her to two state commissions when I was Assembly speaker.

And I certainly helped with her first race for district attorney in San Francisco. I have also helped the careers of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, Gov. Gavin Newsom, Sen. Dianne Feinstein and a host of other politicians.

Harris announced she was running in the 2020 presidential election the next day .

The story was also well-known in California media. In 2019, Los Angeles Magazine published :

Willie Brown was a fixture in California politics for years, serving as speaker of the state assembly for 15 years, and known as something of an unofficial deal-maker and influencer. He first met Harris in 1994, when she was an assistant district attorney in Alameda County.

…

In his capacity as speaker, Brown appointed Harris to two political positions. The first was a six-month appointment to the California Unemployment Insurance Appeals Board; the second was a role on the Medical Assistance Commission, a body tasked with negotiating contracts to control Medi-Cal costs. At the time, Brown had a reputation for filling many openings with his personal associates and inner circle; when Harris vacated the Appeals Board gig, he replaced her with his longtime buddy Philip S. Ryan.

Harris ended the relationship – which was conducted in the open and frequently reported on at the time – in late 1995, shortly before Brown was sworn in for his first of two terms as mayor of San Francisco.

For years, Harris fought allegations that Brown had boosted her political career. When she was a candidate to San Francisco district attorney, she told SF Weekly she had long stopped needing Brown's support:

I refuse to design my campaign around criticizing Willie Brown for the sake of appearing to be independent when I have no doubt that I am independent of him — and that he would probably right now express some fright about the fact that he cannot control me.

His career is over; I will be alive and kicking for the next 40 years. I do not owe him a thing.

She added , regarding the positions Brown had appointed her to:

These jobs were created before I was born. Whether you agree or disagree with the system, I did the work. I worked hard to keep St. Luke's Hospital [in San Francisco's Mission neighborhood] open. I brought a level of life knowledge and common sense to the jobs. I mean, if you were asked to be on a board that regulated medical care, would you say no?

We deemed this rumor a "Mixture," because while it included some truth — Brown and Harris dated, Brown appointed Harris to two posts — the relationship was not actually adulterous and Brown's influence on Harris' career was exaggerated.

We addressed this claim when it first made the rounds in 2020.

— Snopes' archives contributed to this report.

Sources:

Brown, Willie. 'Willie Brown: Sure, I Dated Kamala Harris. So What?' San Francisco Chronicle , 25 Jan. 2019, https://www.sfchronicle.com/opinion/article/sure-i-dated-kamala-harris-so-what-13562972.php. https://archive.is/ZNvWA. 'Flashback: Kamala Harris Launched Her Political Career In Bedroom As Mistress Of Married Mayor Willie Brown'. Gateway Pundit , https://archive.is/hxY70. Kamala's Karma - SF Weekly . 13 Feb. 2020, https://web.archive.org/web/20200213202115/https://www.sfweekly.com/news/kamalas-karma/. Martin, Brittany. 'Kamala Harris Dated Willie Brown Decades Ago and Her Critics Claim It Matters'. LAmag - Culture, Food, Fashion, News & Los Angeles , 29 Jan. 2019, https://lamag.com/politics/willie-brown-kamala-harris. 'No Mere Mayor'. Peoplemag , https://people.com/archive/no-mere-mayor-vol-45-no-25/. Accessed 25 July 2024. Zhou, Li. 'Willie Brown's Op-Ed about Kamala Harris, Explained'. Vox , 29 Jan. 2019, https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2019/1/28/18200885/willie-brown-kamala-harris-2020.