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.