Kamala Harris Now Seeking To Become The First Female Vice President Of The United States (File)
Kamala Harris, the choice of Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden to be her candidate in the November election, has been a trailblazer her entire life.
“My mom had a saying,” Harris, 55, likes to say. “She was like, ‘You might be the first to do a lot of things, but make sure you’re not the last.’ ‘
Harris was California’s first black attorney general, the first woman to hold that office, and the first woman of South Asian descent to be elected to the United States Senate.
She is now seeking to become the first female vice president of the United States.
And since the 77-year-old Biden would only have to serve one term if elected, Harris would be favored to win the Democratic presidential nomination in four years.
It could give her a chance to make more history – as the first female president of the United States.
“Senator Harris is a tenacious and pioneering leader who will make a great partner on the electoral track,” said Susan Rice, who served as a national security adviser under President Barack Obama and was also being considered to be vice president of Biden.
Since the end of his White House race and his support for Biden, Harris has stepped up his criticism of President Donald Trump on a host of issues – from his handling of the COVID-19 epidemic to the immigration race.
“Trump’s repeated racist rhetoric tries to blame his coronavirus failures on anyone but himself,” she recently tweeted.
“It is dangerous and it is wrong – and has real consequences for Asian Americans and Asian immigrants.”
Harris’s own parents were immigrants to the United States – his father from Jamaica, his mother from India – and their life and hers in some way embodied the American dream.
Near Beau Biden
Harris was born on October 20, 1964 in Oakland, California.
His father, Donald Harris, was an economics professor and his mother Shyamala Gopalan, a breast cancer researcher.
Her parents separated when Harris was around five, and she and her sister Maya were raised by her mother, who died in 2009.
Harris received his undergraduate degree from the historically black Howard University in Washington and is a proud member of “Alpha Kappa Alpha”, the oldest African-American sorority.
She received her law degree from the University of California, Hastings College of Law, became a prosecutor and served two terms as a district attorney in San Francisco.
She was elected attorney general of California in 2010 and re-elected in 2014, the same year she married Douglas Emhoff, a lawyer who had two children from a previous marriage.
As attorney general, Harris developed a working relationship with Biden’s late son Beau, who held the same position in the state of Delaware. Beau Biden died of cancer in 2015.
Her failure, however, to pass bold criminal justice reforms as the attorney general held her presidential campaign and did not suit many black voters during the primaries.
Harris was elected to the Senate in November 2016, becoming the second black senator in history.
As a senator, she called on strong questioning skills learned as a prosecutor, most notably during the Senate confirmation hearing of Supreme Court candidate Brett Kavanaugh.
‘That little girl was me’
Harris kicked off his campaign for the Democratic presidential nomination on Martin Luther King Jr.’s birthday in January 2019 at an event attended by 20,000 people in Oakland.
She clashed with Biden in the first Democratic debate, berating the former senator for his opposition to 1970s bus programs that forced the integration of segregated schools.
“There was a little girl in California who was in second class to go to her public school, and she was bused to school every day,” she said. “And that little girl was me.
It provided him with a breakout moment and a bump in the polls, but it was short-lived. Harris dropped out of the race in December 2019 and endorsed Biden in March.
Despite their disagreement, Biden made it clear that he had no hard feelings, describing Harris as a “top-notch intellect, top-notch candidate and true contender.”
Harris voted for Trump’s impeachment in his Senate trial and to defeat him she spoke of the need to rebuild the “Obama coalition” – African Americans, Hispanics, women, independents and millennials.
A tireless activist, Harris has a knack for personal relationships and a steely demeanor that can give way to a million-watt smile.
Along with his experience in the judicial, executive and legislative branches of government, Harris is expected to energize a White House campaign overshadowed by the coronavirus and the economic crisis.
(Except for the title, this story was not edited by GalacticGaming staff and is posted from a syndicated feed.)
