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WASHINGTON: Kamala Harris made history Saturday with her election as Vice President of Joe Biden, becoming the first woman, the first African American and the first Asian American to win the second highest office in the United States.
Harris, 56, is widely seen as an obvious candidate for the Democratic Party nomination in 2024 if Biden, who will turn 78 at his inauguration on January 20, decides not to seek a second term. She has not publicly intervened on such speculation.
Edison Research and major US television networks projected their victory on Saturday, based on unofficial final results, even though incumbent President Donald Trump promised to continue fighting in court.
Harris, a US Senator from California, has a history of breaking glass ceilings. She served as San Francisco’s first female district attorney and was the first California woman of color to be elected attorney general.
His criminal justice background could help the Biden administration address issues of racial equality and policing after the country was hit by protests this year. She is expected to be one of the top judicial nomination advisers.
Harris, whose mother and father emigrated from India and Jamaica respectively, had her sights set on becoming the first female president of the United States when she competed against Biden and others for her party’s nomination in 2020.
He retired from the race last December after a campaign plagued by his wavering views on health care and indecision about accepting his past as a prosecutor.
Biden looked past some of the harsh words Harris spoke to him in that campaign to name her his running mate in August.
She has proven to be a valuable and polished understudy, especially appealing to women, progressives, and voters of color, all critical of the party’s electoral hopes.
Harris, who developed a deep fundraising network during his Senate and White House runs, has been instrumental in Biden raising record sums of money in the final months of the campaign.
His selection sparked an explosion of enthusiasm among the Democratic base and among party donors.
“Harris always made the most sense as Biden’s running mate because she had the ability to help him unify the Democratic coalition across racial and generational lines and was able to build up grassroots enthusiasm,” said Joel Payne, a Democratic strategist who worked for Hillary. . Clinton’s presidential campaign in 2016.
A team player
Accusations by progressives that Harris did not do enough to investigate police shootings and wrongful convictions when he was California attorney general helped to convict his own presidential run, but they came up little during her time as Biden’s running mate.
Harris has often defended his record, saying as he did at a city hall event last year that he had worked his entire career “to reform the criminal justice system with the understanding that it is deeply flawed and in need of repair.”
Trump and his re-election campaign had sought to paint Harris instead as a tool of the Democratic left that would exert power and influence behind the scenes in a Biden presidency.
Prior to her selection, several Biden advisers say Harris was able to allay the concerns of some on the former vice president’s side that she would be too ambitious personally to be a reliable partner.
Harris has proven to be a team player, taking on a lower-profile role and holding virtual and in-person political events that sometimes drew little news coverage, while often speaking in terms of what Biden would do for the country if he were chosen and winning. a passionate case against Trump.
“Joe and I were raised in a very similar way,” Harris said of Biden in his October debate against Vice President Mike Pence.
“We were educated with values that have to do with hard work, the value and dignity of public service and the importance of fighting for the dignity of all people.”
Double duty
Harris juggled her running mate duties with her day job in the Senate. As befits her experience as a prosecutor, she was a skilled cross-examiner for US Supreme Court Justice Amy Coney Barrett at the Barrett Senate confirmation hearing in October, incorporating Biden’s campaign message on healthcare and climate change in his line of questioning.
As the only black woman in the Senate, Harris emerged this year as a leading voice in racial justice and police reform after Minneapolis police killed African-American man George Floyd in May.
He marched with the protesters in the streets of Washington and won over some liberal skeptics.
When asked on “60 Minutes” last month why, given Biden’s age, he believed Harris would be ready to take office if something happened to him, the presidential candidate was quick to answer five reasons.
“Number one, its values. Number two, he’s smart as a devil, and number three, he has a backbone like a ramrod. Number four, she really has principles.
And number five, she has had significant experience in the largest state in the Union running a justice department that is only second in size after the United States Department of Justice. And obviously, I hope that never becomes a question, “he said.
Harris is married to attorney Douglas Emhoff, who has been a fixture in the election campaign. Her two children from a previous marriage refer to her stepmother as “Momala”.
