Kristin Braun Connelly
Democracy's Guardian · Contra Costa's First Freely Elected Clerk-Recorder · Attorney, CEO & Public Servant
"Identifying the right thing to do and having the courage to do it."
Democracy's Guardian · Contra Costa's First Freely Elected Clerk-Recorder · Attorney, CEO & Public Servant
"Identifying the right thing to do and having the courage to do it."
Kristin Braun Connelly is a native daughter of Contra Costa County — shaped by dinner-table conversations about the news of the day, inspired by history unfolding close to home, and propelled forward by the extraordinary generosity of strangers who believed in her.
Kristin grew up in Martinez, California, in a household where civic engagement was simply part of daily life. "We always had lively conversations at the dinner table as a family," she has recalled. "We talked about the news of the day, and it was common to discuss world events. It was a positive household growing up, and there were high expectations for all three of us — my two brothers and me. My childhood memories are really wonderful." That culture of curiosity and expectation set the foundation for everything that followed.
She attended College Park High School in Pleasant Hill, where she served as Associated Student Body President — a role that put her at the center of student governance at an early age and revealed both her organizational instincts and her gift for bringing people together across competing interests. It was in Pleasant Hill that she first learned, in practice rather than theory, that leadership is about service.
From College Park High, Kristin earned a Frank H. Buck Scholarship — a prestigious award from a private family foundation based in Vacaville — which helped fund her undergraduate education. The gesture meant far more than financial support. "This has always meant a great deal to me because of the extraordinary opportunities the scholarship provided," she has said. "The generosity of this family foundation further inspired me to excel, and fueled my interest in a career in public service." She went on to earn a Bachelor of Science in Political Science from UCLA, a Master's in Public Policy from Georgetown University, and a Juris Doctor from Fordham University School of Law, where she practiced employment law at the prestigious firm of Sidley Austin LLP in New York City.
In the summer of 1984, a young girl in the East Bay sat in front of a television and watched Geraldine Ferraro become the first woman ever nominated by a major U.S. political party as its Vice-Presidential candidate. The Democratic National Convention was being held in San Francisco — close to home, close enough to feel personal. For Kristin, it was a defining moment: proof that history could be made by women, that progress was possible, and that proximity to power was something to aspire to, not admire from a distance. That image stayed with her for forty years. It is part of why she runs.
After nine exhilarating years in New York City — absorbing the breadth of American ambition and inequity in equal measure — Kristin had always known she would come home. "It took 18 years after finishing high school to return full-time to the Bay Area, but it was my goal," she has said. When she finally did, she brought with her three graduate degrees, a sharpened understanding of how policy shapes lives, and an unshakeable conviction that Contra Costa County deserved the best.
Kristin's path from scholarship student to chief election officer of one of California's largest counties was anything but accidental — it was the product of 25 years of deliberate choices, each one building on the last.
In December 2000, while at Fordham Law School, Kristin watched the Supreme Court's decision in Bush v. Gore reshape American democracy in real time. Rather than watching passively, she dove deep — studying election law, understanding the mechanics of voting, and recognizing that the rules governing elections were not abstract legal theory but lived civic reality. She organized law students as nonpartisan poll monitors. A lifelong calling had found its name.
By 2008, Kristin had trained lawyers to handle Election Day calls from voters facing problems at the polls. She was personally responsible for overseeing the most challenging calls coming in from the state of Missouri — navigating the "shenanigans that can be put in voters' way to prevent them from voting," as she would later describe it. It was hands-on, high-stakes democratic work, and it confirmed everything she believed about why election integrity matters.
Upon returning to the Bay Area, Kristin joined California Forward and the California Forward Action Fund, working on electoral and initiative reform. She then served as Chief of Staff to Contra Costa County Supervisor Karen Mitchoff — an apprenticeship in county government that gave her an intimate understanding of how the county's administrative machinery actually worked. These years built the policy credibility and institutional knowledge that would later distinguish her candidacy.
As President and CEO of the East Bay Leadership Council and Executive Director of the Contra Costa Economic Partnership for more than eight years, Kristin led an organization representing some of the region's most significant employers — Shell, Wells Fargo, Kaiser Permanente, Chevron, John Muir Health — while simultaneously serving on the Acalanes Union High School District Governing Board and chairing it as Board President in 2022. She was building the managerial track record and civic breadth that the Clerk-Recorder's office demanded.
In 2022, for the first time in Contra Costa County's modern history, the Clerk-Recorder seat was genuinely open — no incumbent, no heir apparent, just four candidates making their case to the voters. Kristin had been watching that office for years, building toward this moment. She ran on integrity, expertise, and bipartisan credibility, earned the endorsement of the East Bay Times editorial board, and won the November general election with 53.47% of the vote. On January 3, 2023, she took office.
From a scholarship girl watching history on television in the East Bay to the chief guardian of Contra Costa's elections — Kristin Braun Connelly's arc spans 25 years of deliberate civic investment, three graduate degrees, and an unbroken thread of belief that democracy only works when someone trustworthy is watching over it.
Sitting in the East Bay, Kristin watched Geraldine Ferraro accept the Democratic Vice-Presidential nomination at the San Francisco convention — the first woman ever on a major party's national ticket. The moment was close to home in every sense, and it crystallized something in her: that women could hold the highest offices, and that progress happened when people had the courage to reach for it. She has carried that image for four decades.
As Associated Student Body President at College Park High School, Kristin led student government for the entire campus — her first experience managing a diverse constituency, navigating competing priorities, and building consensus among people who didn't always agree. Her classmates recognized in her both the seriousness of purpose and the warmth of connection that would define her public career. It was the earliest proof that leadership, for Kristin, was always about service.
Funded in part by the Frank H. Buck Scholarship from a Vacaville family foundation, Kristin earned a BA in Political Science at UCLA, a Master's in Public Policy at Georgetown University, and a JD at Fordham University School of Law — where she practiced employment law at Sidley Austin LLP in New York City. The scholarship, she has said, "further inspired me to excel, and fueled my interest in a career in public service" — a gift from strangers she would spend her life paying forward.
The Supreme Court's December 2000 decision in Bush v. Gore sparked Kristin's deep dive into election administration and law. She organized law students as nonpartisan poll monitors and, by 2008, was training lawyers to handle Election Day voter-assistance calls — personally overseeing the most challenging calls from the state of Missouri. The experience taught her first-hand about the "shenanigans that can be put in voters' way to prevent them from voting," and transformed election integrity from an interest into a vocation.
Returning to the Bay Area after nearly a decade in New York, Kristin joined California Forward and served as Executive Director of the California Forward Action Fund, working on electoral and initiative reform. She then became Chief of Staff to Contra Costa County Supervisor Karen Mitchoff — an immersive apprenticeship in county governance that gave her an inside understanding of budget processes, departmental management, and the real mechanics of public administration that would prove invaluable in her own leadership.
For more than eight years, Kristin led the East Bay Leadership Council (EBLC) and the Contra Costa Economic Partnership — a private-sector-driven advocacy organization with over 250 members including Shell, Wells Fargo, Kaiser Permanente, Chevron, and John Muir Health. She served as a founding Executive Committee member of the Ensuring Opportunity Campaign to end poverty in Contra Costa County, was named to Diablo Magazine's "40 Under 40" list, and built the managerial and policy credentials that would distinguish her from every other candidate in the 2022 Clerk-Recorder race.
Elected to the Acalanes Union High School District Governing Board in 2018 and re-elected in 2020, Kristin served as Board President in 2022 — overseeing the educational institutions of the community where she was raising her own two children. For a woman whose life was launched by a scholarship, bringing that commitment back to public education was both personal and purposeful. She brought the same managerial rigor and consensus-building skill to school governance that she applied everywhere else.
On January 3, 2023, Kristin Braun Connelly took office as Contra Costa County Clerk-Recorder and Registrar of Voters — the first candidate to win the seat in a true open election since the Clerk and Recorder positions were merged in 1957. Running with the endorsement of the East Bay Times editorial board and a campaign of bipartisan credibility, she won 53.47% of the vote. She now oversees 72 employees, a $26.5 million budget, and two divisions handling elections, property records, vital records, civil marriages, and more.
As Commissioner of Civil Marriages, Kristin has officiated wedding ceremonies at the summit of Mount Diablo and at the COBRA Experience Museum as part of the office's popular Destination Weddings program — bringing one of the office's most beloved functions to spectacular new settings. It is a signature example of her philosophy: government that is transparent, accessible, and, wherever possible, a source of joy. She has spent her first years in office fighting misinformation about elections, expanding voter access, and promoting the vital work of the Clerk-Recorder Division.
Kristin's contributions span election integrity, civic institution-building, economic leadership, and public education — a record built across every arena she has entered.
As Contra Costa's first freely elected Clerk-Recorder-Registrar of Voters in the county's modern history, Kristin oversees every election, every ballot, every property deed, every birth and death certificate, and every marriage license in one of California's most populous counties. She took office explicitly to restore integrity and expand access after a predecessor's corruption scandal, and has spent every day since making the case — through transparency, education, and relentless voter outreach — that elections are trustworthy and democracy works.
In an era of unprecedented attacks on election credibility, Kristin has made fighting misinformation about voting one of her office's central missions. Drawing on more than two decades of experience in election law — beginning with her post-Bush v. Gore work organizing poll monitors and training election-day lawyers — she has brought both professional expertise and personal conviction to the task of ensuring that Contra Costa voters trust the process. Her approach: radical transparency, paper trails for every ballot, and direct community engagement.
As President and CEO of the East Bay Leadership Council for more than eight years, Kristin built and led a regional powerhouse representing over 250 member organizations including Contra Costa County's largest private employers. She launched STEM-focused workforce development initiatives, co-founded the Ensuring Opportunity Campaign to end poverty in the county, and drove public-private collaboration on housing, transportation, healthcare, and education — demonstrating that the same analytical mind that excels in law and policy can also build economic opportunity at regional scale.
Kristin's educational journey was launched by the Frank H. Buck Scholarship — a gift from strangers that she has never forgotten. As AUHSD Board President and as a civic leader who has consistently elevated education policy in every role she has held, she has spent her career ensuring that the next generation of Contra Costa students has the same extraordinary opportunities she was given. The arc from scholarship recipient to school board president to county official is deliberate, personal, and deeply rooted in the belief that public investment in young people is the highest form of civic leadership.
Kristin's impact radiates outward through the institutions she has strengthened, the leaders she has supported, and the voters she has empowered — in a county she has loved her entire life.
By winning the first truly open Clerk-Recorder race in county history — running as an outsider against a broken status quo — Kristin established a new benchmark for what the office should look like: professionally managed, politically neutral, and transparently accountable to every voter in the county regardless of party.
Kristin's service as Chief of Staff to Supervisor Karen Mitchoff was formative for both women — a mentorship relationship that gave Kristin the county government experience she needed and gave Karen a trusted lieutenant at a critical moment in her tenure. It is a direct link in the chain of women leaders this project celebrates, each one enabling the next.
Under Kristin's leadership, the Contra Costa Clerk-Recorder's office has featured the Mapping Prejudice Project — an initiative that makes visible the history of racially restrictive covenants in property records, connecting the office's core function of recording history to the lived legacy of housing discrimination. It is exactly the kind of civic imagination the office can project when led by someone with a policy mind and a justice instinct.
By expanding the Destination Weddings program to include ceremonies at the summit of Mount Diablo, Kristin has made the Clerk-Recorder's office a source of joy and wonder in the community — demonstrating that good governance need not be joyless, and that even an office best known for managing records can be a place where people mark the most important days of their lives.
A College Park High ASB President who grew up to run the county's elections. A scholarship recipient who served on the school board that oversees the schools her children attend. A woman who watched Geraldine Ferraro on television as a child and grew up to hold elected office herself. For every young woman in Contra Costa County who wonders whether the path from here to there is real — Kristin Braun Connelly is proof that it is.
Kristin's connection to the Contra Costa women's political network runs through Sunne Wright McPeak and Karen Mitchoff — two of the women this project celebrates who helped build the civic infrastructure that made it possible for a woman like Kristin to imagine running for, and winning, a county-wide office. The HerStory continues.
"There's no question that our democracy is under threat, and I'm very interested in taking the decades of experience I have and applying it to what we need to do in Contra Costa. Transparency about the elections process and battling misinformation about voting will be critically important to maintaining confidence in our elections — because misinformation to suppress the vote is a threat to your right to cast a free vote in a fair election."