Biden’s VP Choice: Who’s the Forerunner Kamala Harris?

Months after her own presidential dreams stopped, Kamala Harris could still get a shot at the Democratic ticket.

A year ago, the California senator had run in front of a full field of candidates on the back of a series of strong debates – and a scathing critique of her rival Joe Biden over race. By the end of 2019, however, her campaign was dead.

Now, with Mr Biden nominated as the presumptive Democrat, the 55-year-old is widely regarded as the front-runner for the election of the vice presidency.

Here’s a look at Kamala Harris as she sees a different kind of run for the White House.

Who is Kamala Harris?

The California Democrat was born in Oakland, California, to two immigrant parents: an Indian mother and a Jamaican-born father.

After her parents divorced, Ms Harris was raised primarily by her Hindu single mother, a cancer researcher and civil rights activist. Growing up doing her Indian heritage, she visited her mother on visits to India, but Ms Harris said her mother adopted the African-American culture of Oakland, immersing her two daughters – Kamala and her younger sister Maya.

“My mother understood very well that she was raising two black daughters,” she wrote in her autobiography The Truths We Hold. “She knew her adopted homeland Maya and I would look like black girls and she was determined to make sure we would grow into self-confident, proud black women.”

She attended Howard University, one of the nation’s leading historical black colleges and universities, which she described as one of the most formative experiences of her life.

Mrs. Harris says she has always been comfortable with her identity and simply describes herself as “an American.”

In 2019, she told the Washington Post that politicians do not have to fit into compartments because of their color as a background. “My point was: I’m who I am. I’m fine with it. You may have to figure it out, but I’m fine with it,” she said.

Climb on the law and order ranks

After four years with Howard, Ms. Harris earned her law degree from the University of California, Hastings, and began her career in the Alameda County District Attorney’s Office.

She became the district attorney – the top attorney – for San Francisco in 2003, before being elected the first woman and the first African-American to serve as California’s attorney general, the attorney general and law enforcement officer in the United States. most populous state of America.

In her nearly two terms as attorney general, Ms. Harris gained a reputation as one of the rising stars of the Democratic Party, and used this momentum to support her election as California’s junior U.S. senator in 2017. .

Since her election to the U.S. Senate, the former prosecutor has been favored among progressives for her acrobatic questioning of then-Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh and Attorney General William Barr at important House hearings.

White House aspirations

When she launched her candidacy for president to a crowd of more than 20,000 in Oakland, California at the beginning of last year, her 2020 bid was met with initial enthusiasm. But the senator failed to articulate a clear reason for her campaign, giving muddy answers to questions in key policy areas such as health care.

• When Harris was able to pull a crowd of 20,000
• Where did it go wrong for Kamala Harris?

She also failed to capitalize on the clear culmination of her candidacy: debates that demonstrated her procedural skills, often placing Mr Biden on the offensive line.

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A California Democrat with a resume with legislation, Ms Harris tried to draw the fine line between the progressive and moderate wings of her party, but neither ended, and ended her candidacy in December for the first Democratic race in Iowa in early 2020.

In March, Ms. Harris signed the former vice president, saying she “would do anything in my power to help him elect the next president of the United States.”

Her record on crime and policeman

Mins Harris’ run of 2020 put her record as top procedures in California under the spotlight.

Despite leaning to the left over issues such as gay marriage and the death penalty, she stood for repeated attacks by progressives for not being progressive enough, and was the subject of a stray op-ed by Professor prof. Lara Bazelon of the University of San Francisco.

Baselon wrote at the beginning of Ms Harris’ campaign, writing that Ms Harris had for the most part engaged in progressive fighting with issues such as police reform, drug reform and misconceptions.

The self-described “progressive prosecutor” sought to underline more parts of her legacy – body cameras needed by some special agents at the California Department of Justice, the first state agency to hire her, and launched a database that provided public access to crime statistics – but they have not yet succeeded in gaining traction.

“Kamala is a cop” became a general refrain on the campaign track, trying to win over the earlier Democratic base during the primaries. But such same legislative evidence could be beneficial in the general election as Democrats have to win over modern voters and independents.

And now that the U.S. is continuing with a persistent racial reckoning and there is control over police brutality, Ms. Harris has set a front, using her large microphone to amplify progressive voices.

• Majority of Americans support ‘the police’ not to expel

On talk shows, she calls for changes in police practices in the US, on Twitter she asks about the arrests of the police officers who murdered Breonna Taylor, a 26-year-old African-American woman from Kentucky, and she often talks about the need to systematically removing racism.

When it comes to the disputed progressive pressure to ‘defend’ the police – the call to smash the budgets of police departments and funds diverted to social programs – opposed by Mr Biden, Ms Harris asks , instead of a “reimagining” of public safety.

Ms. Harris has often said that her identity makes her uniquely suited to represent those on the margins. If he counts her as vice president, Mr Biden could give her a chance to do just that from the White House.