Kamala Harris Has Been Pretty Transparent About Her Salary Over The Years
Joe Biden and his newly announced running mate Kamala Harris are officially the Democratic candidates in the 2020 presidential election. All eyes will be on her as she takes the virtual Democratic National Convention stage to speak on Wednesday night. It's far from her first major speech, though. Kamala has been well-known in the world of politics for years, thanks to her career as district attorney of San Francisco, attorney general of California, and senator from California.
Kamala also ran for the Democratic nomination for President of the United States, but dropped out in December, due to a lack of funds. In a statement at the time, Kamala said that her campaign "simply doesn't have the financial resources we need to continue."
"I'm not a billionaire. I can't fund my own campaign," she continued. "And as the campaign has gone on, it's become harder and harder to raise the money we need to compete."
But Kamala isn’t broke—according to Forbes, she’s worth an estimated $6 million. The new VP candidate has been transparent about her income, releasing 15 years of tax returns in 2019. Here’s how the California senator makes her money:
Kamala's political career spans two decades and paycheck ups and downs.
She worked at the San Francisco district attorney’s office after graduating from law school. It’s unclear how much she made in that job, but Forbes points out that Kamala bought a condo for about $300,000 in the San Francisco’s SoMa neighborhood around the same time that’s now worth an estimated $900,000.
Once she became district attorney of San Francisco, her salary details were more available. Kamala was elected as district attorney of San Francisco in 2003, and made more than $140,000 that year, per Forbes. She eventually made $260,000 a year during her time as district attorney. That job also made Kamala eligible for a pension, which is worth at least $250,000 today.
In 2010, Kamala was elected attorney general of California. That big job came with a pretty significant salary cut, though. Kamala made $160,000 as California’s attorney general, according to her tax returns, which were obtained by The New York Times.
When she became a senator in 2017, Kamala also took a slight pay cut. She was elected to the Senate, representing California and Kamala's tax records indicate that she made $157,352 in that job.
Kamala's book deals did bring in some solid money, though.
The senator released her memoir, The Truths We Hold: An American Journey, in 2019. According to her tax returns, she made $320,000 from writing the book.
That wasn't her first writing venture, either. In fact, she's authored a total of three books over the years. She also wrote Smart on Crime: A Career Prosecutor’s Plan to Make Us Safer and a children’s picture book called Superheroes Are Everywhere. Kamala brought in $13,000 related to her first book, Smart on Crime, according to her tax returns.
Kamala and her husband have millions in shared assets.
The bi-coastal couple has homes in several major cities. Kamala and her husband, lawyer Douglas Emhoff, own residences in Los Angeles, Washington, D.C., and San Francisco that are worth an estimated $5.8 million, Forbes says.
Kamala and her husband keep adding to their bank accounts. They made $2 million in 2018, according to tax records obtained by Politico. The couple’s adjusted gross income was $1.89 million that year. Emhoff's paychecks come from his legal career with positions at DLA Piper, Venable and others per his LinkedIn profile.
That’s not all: Kamala and her husband have retirement accounts worth at least $1.4 million and two accounts tied to law firms where Emhoff has worked that are worth at least $1 million.
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