San Francisco District Attorney Brooke Jenkins Declares Victory In DA Race Before Race Is Officially Called

San Francisco District Attorney Brooke Jenkins declared victory Wednesday following a tight DA special election where she squared off against the candidate backed by the Democratic Party upset, following changes she has made since being appointed by Mayor London Breed earlier this year.

In June San Francisco voters ousted former DA Chesa Boudin in a landslide recall election over enacting numerous policies that caused the city’s crime rate to skyrocket and allowed many arrested criminals to walk free. The next month, Mayor London Breed chose former assistant DA and Boudin critic Jenkins as the next DA until the special DA election in November. Despite some early questions, Jenkins quickly brought a reversal to many key Boudin policies, angering many progressives in the city who saw several years work of DA policy changes undone in an instant.

With Jenkins entering the special election in August, several other contenders entered the race, including former SF Police Commission member John Hamasaki and fellow lawyer Joe Alito Veronese. While Hamasaki seemed like a controversial pick, due in a large part to being a critic of the SFPD and resigning from the SF Police Commission in March over the commission not acting on certain things he wanted done, his civil rights record and record on oversight over the police won over many democrats. This led to Hamasaki getting the San Francisco Democratic County Central Committee first endorsement for DA last month. Jenkins received no votes, surprising many and leading some to believe that Jenkins was in trouble.

However, even with the support of the party and liberal democrats in the city, Jenkins continued to do well in polls, with the support of Mayor Breed and more central Democrats. Even some Republicans in the city backed her for dismantling many of Boudin’s policies and putting focus back on the police.

This all led to the election Tuesday, with Jenkins quickly pulling ahead of Hamasaki. By Wednesday morning, Jenkins was leading with 48% of first choice votes, compared with Hamasaki down by double digits with 34%. By that afternoon, her total went up even more, with projections showing her likely to receive 55% by the end of vote tallying. As a result, Jenkins declared herself the winner later in the day

“I extend my thanks and gratitude to the voters of San Francisco for placing their trust in me to serve as District Attorney,” tweeted Jenkins on Wednesday. “It is an honor of a lifetime to be elected and I pledge that improving and promoting public safety will be my and our office’s top priority.

“We will work with city and law enforcement partners to address public safety challenges in every neighborhood that have festered for years with a renewed sense of urgency and purpose.”

I extend my thanks and gratitude to the voters of San Francisco for placing their trust in me to serve as District Attorney.

It is an honor of a lifetime to be elected and I pledge that improving and promoting public safety will be my and our office’s top priority.

— Brooke Jenkins 謝安宜 (@BrookeJenkinsSF) November 9, 2022

Jenkins declares victory

A statement by her team confirmed her win declaration, adding that “San Francisco voters have chosen to overwhelmingly elect Brooke Jenkins to serve as San Francisco’s District Attorney. Jenkins earned support and first-place votes from literally every neighborhood and corner of San Francisco. The latest ranked choice voting scenario from the San Francisco Department of Elections shows District Attorney Jenkins easily passing the required 50 + 1% threshold and will likely cruise to victory with over 55% percent of the vote.”

Some, such as Mayor London Breed, tweeted out messages of congratulations.

However, outlets have yet to declare a winner, with Hamasaki not yet conceding. Elections experts noted to the Globe on Wednesday that many Democrats are holding out hope that Jenkins may still fall under the threshold for victory.

“A lot of liberals in San Francisco really do not want her to be elected,” explained Shannon Walker-Corby, a legal researcher who has following DA races on the West Coast. “Boudin was their guy, put in a lot of changes, and in a flash, was suddenly gone with a lot of what he put into place, and a lot of people he put into place, also gone. And then they banked on voters feelings about reform in the city, pushing hard several lines coming from changes made by Boudin. But crime is just too big to ignore there. Drugs are just too big to ignore there. People want a lot of these criminals behind bars or for drug users to get help, but the previous system kind of blocked that. They’re giving Jenkins, and by extension Breed, more time to fix this, with liberal Democrats seething.

“It’s not yet a sure thing, but it will probably all be over in Jenkins favor soon enough.”

Final results in the SF DA race are to come in in the coming weeks.