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Photo: Sergio Flores / Bloomberg |
A year ago, his own presidential ambitions came to a halt. Today, however, Kamala Harris goes down in history as the first woman to be elected Vice President of the United States.
Harris, 55, will rule the country with Joe Biden at a critical moment in national history, trying to unite him after a few bitter months and tackle the wave of coronavirus cases that have gripped parts of the United States.
He will also be the first black man and the first Asian-American vice president.
The BBC talks about Kamala Harris’ path to work in the White House.
Harris was born in Oakland, California, to two immigrant parents, an Indian-born mother and a Jamaican-born father. After her parents divorced, Harris was raised primarily by her single Hindu mother, Shamala Gopalan Harris, a cancer treatment researcher and civil rights activist.
She grew up committed to her Indian heritage and visited India with her mother, but said her mother embraced Auckland’s black culture, immersing her two daughters, Kamala and her younger sister Maya, in it.
“My mother understood very well that she was raising two black daughters,” she wrote in her autobiography, The Truths We Hold. “She knew her new homeland would see Maya and me as black girls, and she was determined to make us proud and confident black women.”
Harris’s early years included a brief stint in Canada. When Gopalan Harris began teaching at McGill University, Harris and her younger sister Maya went with her to school in Montreal for five years.
She attended college in the United States and spent four years at Howard University, one of the most famous historic “black” universities and colleges in the country, which she describes as one of the most formative experiences of her life.
Harris says she has always felt good about her identity and simply describes herself as “American.”
In 2019, he told the Washington Post that politicians shouldn’t fit into certain categories based on their color or background. “My idea was: I am who I am. I’m fine. You may have to think about it, but I’m fine,” he said.
In 2014, Harris married attorney Doug Emhoff and became a stepmother to their two children.
The way up
After four years at Howard, Harris continued his education and received a law degree from the University of California, Hastings, after which he began his career as an Alameda County Attorney.
She became a San Francisco County Attorney in 2003 before being elected California’s first woman and California’s first black attorney general.
In his nearly two terms as attorney general, Harris has earned a reputation as one of the rising stars of the Democratic Party, using that momentum to accelerate his election as a senator in California in 2017.
After entering the Senate, the former prosecutor won the favor of progressives by his fierce questioning of Supreme Court candidate Brett Cavanaugh and Attorney General William Barr in key Senate hearings.
Aspirations for the White House
When he launched his bid for the presidency early last year in front of a crowd of more than 20,000 supporters in Oakland, California, Harris was met with initial enthusiasm. However, he was unable to formulate a clear justification for his campaign and gave confusing answers to questions in key policy areas such as health. Nor did he take advantage of his candidacy: debates that show his fiscal gifts.
A California Democrat with a resume in the law enforcement sector, Harris tried to follow the fine line between the progressive and moderate wings of his party, but in the end it didn’t attract either. He completed his candidacy in December before the first Democratic election within the party in Iowa in early 2020.
In March, Harris endorsed former Vice President Joe Biden, saying he would do “everything in my power to help him get elected the next president of the United States.”
She introduced herself strongly against Mike Pence in the vice presidential debate in October, where the candidates exchanged furious comments on a number of topics. Her reminders to Pence, “Mr. Vice President, I’m talking”, after he repeatedly interrupted her, were noted as a marked effort by the first black woman in vice presidential debatethat were heard.
Career in law enforcement
His participation in the election campaign brought his accomplishments as California Attorney General to the fore.
It has come under repeated attacks from progressive ranks that are not progressive enough. She is accused of largely avoiding progressive battles, including issues like police reform, anti-drug reforms and unfair sentencing.
“Kamala is a cop” became a common refrain during the election campaign, hampering their attempts to win a more liberal democratic base during the primary elections. But these same factors can be helpful in general elections when Democrats need to win more moderate and independent voters.
And today, as the United States is shaken by racial issues and tightens its grip on police arbitrariness, Harris sits in the front row and is highly influential in bolstering progressive voices.
In several broadcasts, he called for changes in police practices in the United States. On Twitter, he called for the arrest of the police officers who killed Breona Taylor, a 26-year-old African American from Kentucky, and often spoke of the need to end systemic racism.
As for the contested progressive pressure to cut police budgets and redirect some of their resources to social programs, an idea Biden disapproves of, Harris seeks the balance, calling instead for a “rethink” of public safety.
Kamala Harris has often said that her identity makes her uniquely suited to represent people on the periphery. Now you have the opportunity to do so from the White House.
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