She made history again when she was elected attorney general of California in 2010.
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Harris was sworn into office in 2011, serving as California’s top prosecutor for six years.
CBS reported that, as attorney general, she enacted a groundbreaking mortgage debt relief package for homeowners affected by bad foreclosure practices. She also worked on criminal justice reform, including requiring California police officers to wear body cameras, and supported various climate action efforts.
However, some of her decisions while working as a prosecutor have received criticism from progressives.
Prior to 2018, she opposed the legalization of recreational marijuana, and convictions for drug sellers rose from 56% in 2003 to 74% in 2008 in her district, Harris wrote in her 2009 book “Smart on Crime,” NBC News reported.
She’s also been criticized for upholding the death penalty and objecting to the release of lower-level offenders.
“I’ve been consistent my whole career,” Harris said when asked at a January 2019 rally about her “tough-on-crime mentality” while working as a prosecutor.
“My career has been based on an understanding, one, that as a prosecutor, my duty was to seek and make sure that the most vulnerable and voiceless among us are protected, and that is why I have personally prosecuted violent crime that includes rape, child molestation, and homicide,” she said. “And I have also worked my whole career to reform the criminal justice system, understanding, to your point, that it is deeply flawed,” she continued.
As San Francisco district attorney, she backed a city policy that turned over young immigrants to Immigration and Customs Enforcement if they were arrested or charged with a felony.
In a statement to CNN, a Harris campaign spokesperson said that the policy “could have been applied more fairly.”
Harris left the position in 2017 after she was elected to the Senate.
