Brooke Jenkins declared victory Wednesday morning for her position as San Francisco's district attorney. The announcement comes after she took an early lead in the race, according to unofficial election results released Tuesday night.
"We are at the point now where we believe we can declare victory in this race," Jenkins said Wednesday as she made an appearance in Chinatown alongside Mayor London Breed. "For me, it is certainly affirmation that the people of San Francisco are ready and interested in accountability and restoring the criminal justice system. They truly understand, I think, that we can have both," she said.
According to reports from all of the city's 514 precincts, Jenkins secured about 56% of the vote after multiple rounds of ranked-choice voting that eliminated competitors Maurice Chenier and Joe Alioto Veronese. She received about 48% of first-choice votes.
Trailing behind was John Hamasaki, who garnered roughly 34% of raw votes and 43.7% of ranked-choice votes.
There are still 104,000 ballots left to be counted in San Francisco, however.
In a statement, challenger and former police commissioner John Hamasaki said "declaring victory at this stage is disrespectful to the voters and our democracy system."
San Francisco Mayor London Breed appointed Jenkins as district attorney in June after her predecessor Chesa Boudin was recalled from office.
Alongside Breed, state Sen. Scott Wiener, State Treasurer Fiona Ma and supervisors Matt Dorsey, Rafael Mandelman and Ahsha Safai endorsed Jenkins.
Before her time as district attorney, Jenkins served as a prosecutor in the city's District Attorney's Office for seven years, bringing suit against hate crimes, sexual assault and homicide cases.
