OAKLAND — Nearly two weeks after Election Day, Alameda County District Attorney Pamela Price conceded defeat in the unprecedented bid to recall her from office less than two years into her first term.
“The voters have spoken, and while the outcome is not what we had hoped for, I respect their decision,” Price said in a statement issued ahead of a planned press conference Monday afternoon. She added that over the past two years, “Alameda County took a huge step forward toward a better criminal-legal system.”
Price, who took office at the start of 2023 as the first Black woman to serve as the county’s top prosecutor, now becomes the county’s first district attorney recalled from office. Her concession came a full week after the Associated Press called the election, which continued to show a vast majority of voters dissatisfied with her performance in office and desiring change.
The recall measure continued to lead by a nearly 2-to-1 margin when the most recent ballot count was posted online Friday evening, showing nearly 583,000 votes counted. With between 17,000 and 22,000 votes left to be counted, there’s no mathematical way for Price to overcome her 153,000-vote deficit and remain in office.
Prior to Monday, Price and her campaign had repeatedly declined to comment on the Nov. 5 election and issued a lone statement on Nov. 6 urging residents to be patient while the votes were counted.
Even before Monday’s concession, several former Alameda County prosecutors had begun publicly expressing interest in succeeding Price.
Among the people announcing plans to apply for the job are: Venus Johnson, the chief deputy and senior advisor to state Attorney General Rob Bonta; L.D. Louis, an Alameda County deputy county counsel; Amilcar “Butch” Ford, now a prosecutor with the San Francisco District Attorney’s Office.
Price is expected to remain in office until the election’s results are certified next month, at which point Chief Assistant District Attorney Royl Roberts would be expected to take over, county leaders have said. The five-member Board of Supervisors would then be tasked with appointing an interim district attorney, a scenario that’s never before happened in the county.
Price’s appointed replacement would serve until the next general election in 2026. The winner of that election would be expected to serve until the 2028 election, when Price’s first term was originally slated to end.
Check back for updates to this developing story.