Kamala Harris to declare victory in attorney general's race

Jesse Grant/Getty Images for Obsolete

San Francisco District Attorney Kamala Harris has won in the race against Los Angeles District Attorney Steve Cooley for California Attorney General

San Francisco District Attorney Kamala Harris has scheduled news conferences in Los Angeles and San Francisco Tuesday to declare victory in her historic win. She becomes California’s first female, first black and first Indian-American state attorney general.

Harris beat L.A. District Attorney Steve Cooley in a come-from-behind win by about 70,000 votes of more than 9 million cast.

Cooley conceded last week. He had declared victory on election night – only to see his lead slip away as counties counted more than 2 million mail-in and provisional ballots in the weeks that followed.

Months before the election, many political analysts predicted that Cooley, a moderate Republican from L.A., would beat Harris, a liberal San Francisco Democrat.

But Harris campaigned hard in L.A., was boosted by a campaign visit by President Obama and rode a wave of Democratic victories to complete the party’s sweep of statewide offices in California.