Kamala Harris' legal, political career kicked off with failed bar exam

Vice President Kamala Harris is placing her experience as a "top cop" front and center as she looks to "prosecute" her GOP opponent and press her case for why she should win the presidency in November – but the legal career she's leaning on is "devoid" of achievement, critics say, and she owes much of her success to networking.

Her nearly three-decade rise up the ranks has included numerous bumps along the way – including failing her bar exam on the first try in 1989.

Civil rights attorney Leo Terrell, who passed the California bar the same year on his first try, described Harris as a "political opportunist" who was in "the right position, the right place" at the right time. By making calculated moves, she was able to leap from district attorney to attorney general to senator to vice president – and perhaps beyond.

"Networking," Terrell said, is what catapulted Harris' career. "Let's face it, she got to her position not on academic achievement. She got to her position as San Francisco district attorney, California attorney general, U.S. senator and vice president, because of networking."

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Terrell added that the guidance of former San Francisco Mayor Willie Brown, who has openly discussed his extramarital relationship with Harris during the 1990s, also aided Harris' political rise. 

"She has no outstanding achievement as a lawyer, as a trial lawyer, her record is devoid," Terrell said. "… From my perspective, listening to her speak, listening to her approach to matters of public concerns… I don't think she's an academic heavyweight. I just don't see what's propelling her to this current political status. It's pure networking and politics and being in the right place, at the right time."

Harris has leaned on her experience as the Golden State’s "top cop" after announcing her candidacy for president in the aftermath of President Biden dropping out of the race.

"As a tough prosecutor, Kamala Harris dealt with men like Trump all the time: Rapists, con men, frauds, criminals – she's used to guys like Trump, used to putting them in their place," a narrator for a pro-Harris ad released this week states. 

Following Biden’s exit from the race, Democrats have begun to push the narrative that the election is now pitting a "Prosecutor vs. the Felon," referring to former President Trump, who was found guilty in a New York criminal case earlier this year. 

"The contrast in this race could not be clearer – a prosecutor versus a convicted felon. A champion for American’s fundamental freedoms versus a man who has tried to rip them away at every turn. Let’s get to work," Rep. Greg Stanton, D-Ariz., wrote on X. 

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"November 5: the Prosecutor vs. the Felon," Rep. Daniel Goldman, D-N.Y., also chimed in. 

Harris, who will turn 60 in October, spent 27 years in the legal world, which kicked off with her failing the bar exam.

Harris' failure made national news in 2020, when she was running on the Biden ticket for the White House while simultaneously juggling her Senate duties, most notably serving on the Senate Judiciary Committee. In that capacity, Harris questioned Supreme Court nominee Amy Coney Barrett, who was selected by Trump to fill the seat of the late Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg.

"Republicans are scrambling to confirm this nominee as fast as possible because they need one more Trump judge on the bench before Nov. 10 to win and strike down the entire Affordable Care Act," said Harris during the nomination hearing. "This is not hyperbole. This is not a hypothetical."

Harris’ questions and exchanges with Coney Barrett were not nearly as fiery as her demeanor during previous hearings, including the battle surrounding Brett Kavanaugh's nomination in 2018. As the 2020 election cycle loomed over the hearings, social media commenters pointed out that the then-vice presidential nominee had failed her bar exam, while Coney Barrett finished first in her class while attending Notre Dame Law School. 

"Kamala Harris failed the bar 1st time. Amy Coney Barrett 1st in her class," one social media post at the time read. "I rest."

The social media comments spurred outlets such as USA Today to publish fact checks that revealed Harris did in fact fail the bar exam on her first try, while Coney Barrett graduated top of her class. While the New York Times reported in a 2016 profile on Harris that she failed the exam, and had recently consoled a young law student who also failed the test, telling her: "It’s not a measure of your capacity."

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Harris ultimately passed one year later, with the bar admitting her in 1990, Fox News Digital found on the California Bar’s website. 

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Harris attended historically Black college Howard University as an undergraduate, and earned her law degree from the University of California, Hastings College of the Law, which Terrell noted is an excellent law school – making it "kind of odd" for a student to fail the bar exam on their first try. 

After passing the bar, she launched her career in the Alameda County District Attorney’s Office as a deputy DA in 1990. In the late 1990s, she moved over to the San Francisco District Attorney’s Office as assistant DA, then to the San Francisco city attorney’s office, before running in 2004 to become San Francisco’s top cop. She was elected as San Francisco DA and served in the role for about seven years, in that time building a friendship with then-Illinois Sen. Barack Obama and rubbing elbows with fellow Californian, Rep. Nancy Pelosi. 

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Her meteoric rise in politics only grew from there, clinching the California attorney general position in 2011, when Gov. Jerry Brown led the state, then winning her Senate run in 2016 after longtime Sen. Barbara Boxer announced her retirement from politics. 

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Days after Obama endorsed Biden for president in August 2020, Biden announced Harris would join him on the ticket. Harris, who has been called "the Female Obama," has had a long friendship with the 44th president, including being among the first elected Democrats in the nation to endorse his first run for president in the 2008 election – snubbing Hillary Clinton in favor of the then-Illinois senator. 

"We did it, Joe," Harris famously said in a phone call with Biden after polls showed the pair won the election. 

Harris is now the presumptive Democratic nominee for the 2024 election, after Biden bowed out of the race, which was shortly followed by him endorsing his veep. 

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"My very first decision as the party nominee in 2020 was to pick Kamala Harris as my Vice President. And it’s been the best decision I’ve made," Biden said in an X post following his withdrawal from the race. "Today I want to offer my full support and endorsement for Kamala to be the nominee of our party this year. Democrats – it’s time to come together and beat Trump. Let’s do this."

The 46th president had faced mounting pressure from his Democrat allies and legacy media outlets to bow out of the race since June 27, when he delivered a botched debate performance against Trump that was riddled with garbled remarks and where the president lost his train of thought and appeared more subdued than during other recent public events. 

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The debate reignited concern among conservatives and critics that Biden's mental acuity had slipped, while it marked the beginning of a pressure campaign among Democrats to oust Biden. 

Get the latest updates from the 2024 campaign trail, exclusive interviews and more at our Fox News Digital election hub.

Fox News Digital's Jamie Joseph contributed to this report.