Inside Kamala Harris' Age-Gap Fling With Willie Brown

Vice President Kamala Harris' controversial age-gap relationship with former San Francisco mayor Willie Brown made its way back into the spotlight after she announced her 2024 presidential bid. Harris and Brown started dating when she was around 29 and he was 60. According to The Times, the San Francisco Chronicle reported that the VP was in attendance at Brown's 60th birthday party, where Clint Eastwood accidentally splashed some champagne on her. At the time of Brown and Harris' relationship, he was a speaker for the California Assembly, and she was serving as a district deputy attorney in Alameda County. In Harris' early days as a prosecutor, she dealt predominantly with cases of domestic and child abuse. Harris also tackled drug trafficking, sexual abuse, and gang-related crimes during her time as a deputy D.A. 

Then, in 1994, Brown awarded his partner a spot on the Unemployment Insurance Appeals Board followed by the California Medical Assistance Commission. Politico estimated that the then-speaker handed out over $400,000 to Harris over a 5-year period in addition to her prosecutor's salary. Thus, when Harris officially joined the presidential race, many people took to X, formerly known as Twitter, to unfairly credit Brown for the impressive career that Harris had poured her blood, sweat, and tears into. In conservative commentator Matt Walsh's post, he ludicrously claimed that the Vice President owed her successes to the powerful male politicians in her life, including charging that, "Kamala Harris got her start in politics by sleeping with Willie Brown."

In 2019, Willie Brown wrote an op-ed in the San Francisco Chronicle to offer his stance on the offensive idea that Kamala Harris wouldn't have a political career without him. The former mayor acknowledged that he "influenced her career" with the two positions Brown awarded Harris and lent her a helping hand through her district attorney elections too. However, as Refinery29 clarified, he only directly contributed about $500 to her campaign and instated a political consultant to gather more funds for Harris, which she notably didn't consent to. In Brown's op-ed the former mayor also reasoned that he had helped out countless political figures over the years including Nancy Pelosi, Gavin Newsom, and Dianne Feinstein, noting, "The difference is that Harris is the only one who, after I helped her, sent word that I would be indicted if I 'so much as jaywalked' while she was D.A." 

In fact, according to Politico, you would be hard-pressed to find a San Francisco-based political figure whose career wasn't influenced by Brown in one way or another. While speaking to The Times in July 2024, the outspoken politician firmly stated, "I don't think she owes her career to me," adding, "I think talent is what got her where she is." All Brown had to do to make his case was detail her career trajectory. But, while he was supportive of Harris' presidential bid, another one of her exes, Montel Williams, slyly shaded her.

Kamala Harris has also defended herself against the notion that she owes her career to Willie Brown. As reported by Refinery29, she once told the San Francisco Chronicle, "I do not owe him a thing." When the interviewer brought up how Brown awarded Harris her high-profile positions on two boards, the VP replied, "Whether you agree or disagree with the system, I did the work. [...] 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?" At the end of the day, though, certain people took offense to more than just Harris' supposed political advancements from her relationship with Brown. 

Many dubbed their romance an affair because he was still married to Blanche Vitero at the time. But according to TIME, the former San Francisco mayor and his wife had already gone their separate ways in 1981, so it doesn't seem like infidelity was involved. In a 2004 interview with San Francisco Magazine, Brown confirmed that Harris initiated their breakup in 1996, after he was elected as the city's mayor, "because she concluded there was no permanency in our relationship, and she was absolutely right," (via Politico). Of course, everything worked out perfectly for Harris' love life. She had the most adorable meet-cute with Doug Emhoff, and they went on to marry in 2014, despite the awkward revelation Harris made to Emhoff on their first date.