– A Fearless Champion – VG

If the Democrats win the election, she will be America’s first vice president of color. But at first he had no great political ambitions, his friends tell VG.

It’s been over 25 years now, but Libby Schaaf still has the incident clearly in mind. She had just started working in a public school volunteer program in Oakland, a city east of San Francisco, when she was contacted by a young attorney.

The woman’s name was Kamala Harris, and she had set out to create a mentoring program for children in vulnerable areas of the city.

– She came to see me if I could help her with her vision, and to be honest … Schaaf tells VG, before she starts laughing.

– She was so organized, so I don’t think I was of any particular help.

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Kamala Harris succeeded in establishing the mentoring program at a high school in an area charged with crimes. And she, who was the principal of the school at the time, was in one of the front ranks when Harris launched his presidential campaign many years later.

– This story is a good example of who he is and who he has always been, long before he was the center of public attention. She was a fearless champion of our most vulnerable, says Schaaf.

Influenced by parents

The story was also the beginning of a long friendship between the two. Libby Schaaf is now Mayor of Oakland, where Kamala Harris was born. Harris himself speaks often of his roots in the city, which is one of the most multicultural in the United States.

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His parents met closely when they were students at the University of Berkeley. Father Donald Harris came from Jamaica, mother Shyamala Gopalan was the daughter of an Indian diplomat who had fought for the independence of India.

They divorced shortly after Harris started school.

In her first speech after being elected as vice president, Harris spoke about how her mother raised her and her sister Maya to become politically engaged.

– She told us: «Don’t just sit there. Do something! “, Said.

His mother died of cancer in 2009, a year before Harris was named California attorney general.

– I was with her that night and I remember how sad it was that her mother couldn’t be there to see that moment, says Libby Schaaf.

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Debbie Mesloh, another friend of the vice presidential nominee, who has also been his adviser, says her mother has had a great influence on Harris.

– One of the things I have learned from Kamala is not to let others define you. His mother talked about it all the time, Mesloh says.

Harris herself has repeatedly said how she was affected by her parents’ past as a civil rights activist.

“We joked that we grew up surrounded by a group of adults who marched and shouted about something they called justice,” he told the Washington Post last summer.

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– It will make a difference

But ambitions to become a top politician weren’t there from the start, according to the two friends VG has spoken with.

– He wants to make the world a better place. “I think it’s natural that her talent and values ​​led her into politics, but I never got the impression that this is where she started,” says Libby Schaaf.

– I think she has always wanted to make a difference. His ambitions developed as he moved from office to office, says Debbie Mesloh.

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He started out as a prosecutor, before becoming a state attorney in San Francisco and then a state attorney in California. In 2016, she was elected to the Senate.

This background is not without controversy. Descriptions like “tough police chief” have followed her since she ran for president last year, and when VG met with voters in Oakland earlier this fall, several found her difficult to trust.

One reason for the skepticism is that it criminalized parents of children who were too truant, according to the Washington Post.

On the contrary, Libby Schaaf believes that this policy illustrates the analytical skills of the vice presidential candidate.

– She went straight to the heart of the problem to prevent crime, rather than punish criminals after the injury had already occurred, she says.

– And it is this analytical way of thinking that he wants to take with him to solve the country’s biggest problems.

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Modern and fun

In private, Kamala Harris describes herself as warm and caring. He likes to cook, and then preferably a combination of Indian and Jamaican dishes. At the same time, he is agile, with a wonderful sense of humor, according to his friends.

– She is also very modern, says Debbie Mesloh and laughs.

– I think now everyone has seen it in Converse and Timberlands.

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The contrasts to how some of her political opponents describe her are great. Republicans portray her as a radical communist, and in an interview with Fox television, Donald Trump called Harris “a monster.”

Debbie Meslow is not surprised by the features. She believes it shows what women have to endure at this level in politics.

– For me, as a friend, it has been difficult to see all the nicknames and insults, but she will never let something like that get in her way, she says.

– It has a laser focus. When she is treated like this, she works twice as hard to prove what is possible. And she has always done that.

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