Support truly
independent journalism
Kamala Harris now looks certain to become the Democratic presidential nominee to take on Donald Trump at the polls in November.
Her lengthy career as a state prosecutor and US Senator, combined with her marriage to a successful lawyer means that Kamala Harris’ net worth is significant, though still less than that of her Republican rival.
Her campaign – recently rebranded as Harris For President – reportedly pulled in $84m within the first 24 hours of her candidacy being endorsed by Joe Biden.
While this money does not go to Harris directly, her current federal government salary as vice president sits at $218,000.
Her net worth is currently estimated at around $8m, according to Forbes, which is due in part to a multi-million dollar home in California that her husband Doug Emhoff bought in 2012.
The home’s value has surged from about $1m in 2021 to an estimated $4.4m in 2024, according to Forbes.
Harris rose to prominence as a prosecutor in California, beginning her legal career at the Alameda County district attorney’s office, before becoming the San Francisco District Attorney, in 2004.
In that post, she made $140,000 a year, a salary that increased to more than $200,000 in 2010.
Harris took a pay cut in 2010 when she was elected Attorney General of California, which paid her a salary of $159,000, which she took home for the next three years.
Harris and Emhoff married in 2014, at which time he was also a prominent attorney with clients including Walmart and healthcare company Abbott Labs.
According to financial documents reviewed by ABC News, at this time he earned more than $1m per year and held dozens of investments and stocks in companies such as Home Depot, Comcast, and American Express.
When Harris joined the US Senate in 2017, she began earning $174,000 a year.
A year later, a report filed by Harris revealed she received an advance of more than $300,000 for her memoir, The Truths We Hold, and she and Emhoff reported a gross joint income of $1,889,156 that year, according to tax returns viewed by ABC News.
When she ran for President in the Democratic primary in the 2020 election, Harris’s net worth was estimated to be $6m, boosted by her husband, according to Forbes. At the time she released 15 years of her personal tax returns, the most of any 2020 presidential candidate.
In December 2020, Emhoff announced he would leave his law firm, later joining Georgetown University’s law school as a member of the faculty, earning nearly $200,000 per year.
As a result of the move, the couple’s income dropped significantly, though Forbes estimates that with their real estate assets and pension, the couple’s net worth is around $8m, up from $7m in 2021.
Harris is in pole position to take on Donald Trump for the presidency, a man who has long fought to keep his tax records private.
Despite his multiple hefty legal bills, thought to be around $540m, Forbes estimates Trump’s net worth to be $5.9bn, as a result of his real estate properties, clubs and resorts, as well as the value of his share of Truth Social’s parent company.
His net worth reportedly jumped up by $1bn following the attempted assassination in Butler, Pennsylvania, according to Forbes.