(Luis Cornelio, Headline USA) Searches for “Willie Brown” surged on Google following Kamala Harris’s emergence as the presumptive front-runner for the Democratic presidential nomination, Headline USA has learned.
Brown is widely recognized as a key figure in Harris’s political rise, having appointed her to two California commissions in the early 1990s.
The two had an extramarital relationship while Brown was married to Blanche Vitero. Vitero and Brown were separated at the time.
In a 2019 op-ed for the San Francisco Chronicle, Brown acknowledged his influence on Harris’s career. “Sure, I dated Kamala Harris. So what?” he wrote in the headline.
“Yes, we dated. It was more than 20 years ago,” Brown wrote. “And I certainly helped with her first race for district attorney in San Francisco.”
Harris went on to become the San Francisco district attorney, California attorney general, U.S. senator and then vice president under the Biden-Harris administration.
On Google, searches for Brown reached “peak popularity” on Sunday after President Joe Biden stepped down from the race and endorsed Harris as his successor.
According to a Headline USA review of Google Trends, the term “Willie Brown” hit a value of 100, indicating peak popularity. Google clarified that a “value of 50 means that the term is half as popular. A score of 0 means there was not enough data for this term.”
A Google chart showed that Brown reached maximum trend by 3 p.m. EST.
The states where the searches were most popular included California, New Mexico, Maine, North Carolina and Tennessee.
The Google trend for “Willie Brown” was first noticed by the Twitter page “@ITGuy1959.”
This is a developing story. Please check back later for more updates.
