Joe Biden and Kamala Harris: who is the senator who makes history by becoming the first vice president of the United States
Californian Kamala Harris has just achieved a historic milestone: being the first woman to win the election to become Vice President of the United States.
With the victory of Joe Biden in the elections on November 3, Harris will be number two in the US government from next January.
A 55-year-old senator, her years as California attorney general made her an emerging figure in the Democratic Party.
Now, in addition to being the first woman to hold this role, Harris is the first black and Asian-descent vice president.
Who is Kamala Harris?
The Democratic politician was born in Oakland, California, into an immigrant family: a mother originally from India and a father born in Jamaica.
Following her parents' divorce, Harris was raised primarily by her Hindu mother who was a researcher specializing in breast cancer and a civil rights activist.
Harris grew up closely tied to her South Asian heritage, accompanying her mother on her visits to India.
However, the Californian stressed that her mother adopted the African-American culture of Oakland, immersing her two daughters, Kamala and her younger sister, Maya.
"My mother always understood very well that she was raising two black daughters," Harris wrote in her autobiography The Truths We Hold.
"She knew that her adopted country would view Maya and me as black girls and she was determined to make sure that we would become proud and confident black women."
Harris studied at Howard University, one of the nation's prominent and historic African-American centers of higher learning, something she described as among the most formative experiences of her life.
The prominent politician ensures that she has always been comfortable with her identity and describes herself as "American."
Kamala Devi Harris
- She was born on October 10, 1964 in Oakland, California.
- Current residence: between Los Angeles and Washington.
- Her mother, Shyamala Gopalan, was a breast cancer scientist who emigrated from India in the 1960s to pursue a Ph.D. in Endocrinology at the University of California Berkeley. She died in 2009.
- Her father, Donald Harris, was born in Jamaica and was a professor at Stanford University. She retired in 1998.
- She has a sister: Maya Harris, who worked for the Hillary Clinton campaign.
- Kamala married in 2014 to Douglas Emhoff, a partner at DLA Piper who is a lawyer in the media and entertainment industry.
- She has two stepchildren: Cole and Ella Emhoff.
In 2019, she considered in statements to The Washington Post that politicians should not be compartmentalized according to their color or their history.
"My point was: I am who I am. And I feel good about that. You may have to figure me out, but that's okay with me."
Law and order
After four years at Howard, Harris transferred to the University of California-Hastings to pursue a law degree and begin her career with the Alameda County District Attorney's Office.
She became a San Francisco district attorney - the top job in that area - in 2003, before becoming the first woman and the first black woman to win the position of California attorney general, chief attorney and compliance officer. of the law in the most populous state in the country.
In her nearly two terms in office, Harris earned a reputation as a rising star in the Democratic Party, prompting her to become a senator for California in 2017.
Incisive and rigorous in questioning
Harris officially announced the launch of her Senate campaign in January 2015, in which she faced and defeated in the firsts a Party heavyweight: former Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa.
In the November 2016 elections, she won her seat with an overwhelming majority. After her victory, she promised to protect immigrants from the policies of then-president-elect Donald Trump and to do so she remained in the position of attorney general until the end of 2016.
Since her arrival in the Senate, the former attorney general has won the support of progressives for her rigorous and incisive way of questioning the president's nominees for different positions, especially during the hearings for the confirmation of Brett Kavanaugh as a justice of the Supreme Court or William Barr as attorney general of the United States.
Not surprisingly, Harris is considered one of the most relentless interrogators in Congress.
A reputation that came back to life during Justice Amy Coney Barrett's recent confirmation process for the Supreme Court.
Aspirations to the White House
When she launched her bid for the presidency to more than 20,000 supporters in Oakland last year, she immediately became a favorite.
But as she entered the race, Harris failed to articulate a solid foundation for her campaign, offering confusing answers on crucial issues like the healthcare system.
She also took advantage of the great strength of her candidacy: her great ability in debates, despite demonstrating her experience as a former prosecutor, often putting Biden on the ropes.
The toughest confrontation between the two came in the first debate of the primaries, in which Harris reproached Biden for some past positions on racial issues.
The California Democrat tried to stay on the fine line between the progressive and moderate wing of the party, but ended up without attracting the attention of either side, ending her candidacy in December, even before the first votes.
In March, Harris offered her support to former Vice President Biden, assuring that she would do "everything in her power to help her become the next president of the United States."
The fact that Biden chose her as a running mate showed that those initial clashes were left behind.
"Police"
Her brief run for president put the spotlight on her record as California's top prosecutor.
Despite his more left leanings on issues like same-sex marriage or capital punishment, Harris faced repeated attacks for not being progressive enough, and was the target of a devastating opinion piece by the University of San Francisco Law Professor. Francisco Lara Bazelon.
Written early in Harris's campaign, the professor felt that the candidate had largely avoided progressive battles that were related to issues like police reform, drugs, or wrongful convictions.
Harris, who described herself as "the progressive prosecutor," tried to emphasize the more forward-looking parts of her legacy, such as requiring some special agents from the California Department of Justice to wear body cameras - the first state to use them. - or launch a database that offered the public access to crime statistics.
But her efforts did not get the expected support.
"Kamala is the police" became a common phrase in the Democratic primary, which became an obstacle in her attempts to win over the more liberal rank and file of the party.
With the current racial tensions in the country, in addition, scrutiny has grown on cases of alleged police brutality and Harris has taken a leading role, using her platform to amplify the most progressive voices.
In television appearances, Harris has called for changes in police practices across the United States; On Twitter, she has advocated for the arrest of the officers who killed Breonna Taylor, a 26-year-old African-American woman from Kentucky; and she often speaks frequently of the need to dismantle systemic racism in the country.
Regarding the controversial bid to "withdraw funding" from the police to divert funds to social programs - an approach that Biden opposes - Harris often evasively responds, asking instead to "reinvent" the concept of public safety. .
Harris has often felt that her identity places her in a unique position to represent those on the margins of society.
When you get to the White House, you will have a chance to prove it.
