Kamala Harris is on the brink of making history as the first female, black, and Indian-American vice president.
A trailblazer throughout her career, Democratic candidate Joe Biden’s running mate is one of the party’s most prominent figures and launched her own bid to become president last year.
READ MORE: US Election 2020 LIVE results: Joe Biden on brink of US presidency
But the early promise of Ms Harris’s campaign faded and she pulled out of the race for the White House, instead endorsing her former rival Mr Biden.
He named the California senator as his running mate in the summer, making history by selecting the first black woman to compete on a major party’s presidential ticket.
(Carolyn Kaster/AP)
Born in 1964 in Oakland, California, to a Jamaican-born father and Indian-born mother, Ms Harris said she was inspired to fight injustice by her mother, who was an activist and researcher.
After studying at Howard University and then for a law degree at the University of California, she began her career in the Alameda County District Attorney’s Office.
She won her first election in 2003 when she became San Francisco’s district attorney and, when elected California’s attorney general in 2010, she was the first woman and black person to hold the job.
After being elected to the Senate in 2016, she quickly gained attention for her assertive questioning of Trump administration officials during congressional hearings.
I have the great honor to announce that I’ve picked @KamalaHarris — a fearless fighter for the little guy, and one of the country’s finest public servants — as my running mate.
— Joe Biden (@JoeBiden) August 11, 2020
The 56-year-old launched her presidential campaign in early 2019 with the slogan “Kamala Harris For the People,” a reference to her courtroom work.
She was one of the highest-profile contenders in a crowded Democratic primary and attracted 20,000 people to her first campaign rally in Oakland.
Facing fundraising problems, Ms Harris abruptly withdrew from the race in December 2019, two months before the first votes of the primary were cast.
READ MORE: US election: Joe Biden says ‘we’re going to win the US election’ but does not declare victory
After choosing Ms Harris as his running mate in August this year, Mr Biden praised her as “smart, she’s tough, she’s experienced, she’s a proven fighter for the backbone of this country”.
Very happy for our friend and Senator and future Vice-President, @KamalaHarris, and very much looking forward to voting for the Biden-Harris ticket to begin the difficult work of recovering from this nightmare presidency and building an even better future.
— John Legend (@johnlegend) August 11, 2020
“Kamala knows how to govern. She knows how to make the hard calls. She’s ready to do this job on day one,” he said.
Singer-songwriter John Legend was among the famous faces to praise the former vice president for his decision.
Ms Harris lives in Los Angeles with her husband, entertainment lawyer Doug Emhoff, who has frequently joined her on the campaign trail, and is stepmother to his children Ella and Cole.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereLast Updated:
Report this comment Cancel