Recalled Alameda County District Attorney Pamela Price says she running to get her job back

By Andrea Nakano

Just a year after Alameda County District Attorney Pamela Price was recalled by nearly 63% of the voters, she’s running again to get her job back. 

Price made the announcement on Thursday, vowing to protect the people of Alameda County from gun violence and Trump administration policies.

“We are standing here before you today in love,” Price said. “Out of our love for our community. Our love for our families. A love for justice.”

Brenda Grisham, a victims’ advocate, led the recall campaign. She says she was surprised by the announcement and doesn’t believe things will be any different the second time around.

“We’ve been watching her over the year and I don’t see any change,” Grisham said. “You can say what you’re going to do, which is what you should’ve done in the first place. If you come into that office, the victims are a very, very important part of the district attorney’s office. To have a communication line with the victims is key and that was never there.”

Price vowed to tackle gun violence and Trump administration policies. She says she was compelled to get her old job back after seeing U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement raids in communities across the county.

“I would say to ICE and any other federal agency who violate state law, f around and find out,” Price said. “No one is above the law and I will stand for firmness in every case and fairness. Real justice applies to everyone. Just cannot be bought by billionaires.”

But Grisham, who lost her son to gun violence in 2010, feels victims didn’t get the justice they deserved under Price’s term. 

Criticism for taking too soft a stance on crime fueled much of the momentum behind Price’s recall. 

“I was there for the Kevin Nishita case, I was there for Eliyanah,” said Grisham. “There were no special circumstances. I mean, they killed that little 5-year-old girl in front of her family. There were no special circumstances. There was nothing.”

Price feels the political climate has changed since the recall. She says since President Trump has taken office, the political pendulum has swung to the left with voters looking to elect progressive district attorneys.

“In 2024 in Alameda County, we saw the same carnage,” Price said. “The destabilization of our justice system by a billionaire. A single billionaire and his want-to-be-wealthy friends who spent millions of dollars on a recall campaign to destabilize the justice system.”

During Price’s term, Oakland saw the highest number of murders in the past decade, with 114 in 2023. Many other violent crime categories saw significant increases as well. Grisham says Price still refuses to acknowledge that the people of Alameda County wanted a district attorney that would help make communities safer.

“The whole time she’s been bypassing the fact that everyday citizens felt they needed change and she ignored them,” Grisham said. “She’s still ignoring them because she’s just going with the billionaires, this and that. That’s not it. You got to sit down and look at the mirror and say it might’ve been me.”