● Who is Kamala Harris?

Joe Biden, in his recent tweet, announced Kamala Harris as his pick for vice-president. The 55 years old first-time senator from California, Harris is mixed Black and Indian heritage and the First Indian and Asian American descent to run for Vice-President. Harris is also the first African American and the third woman to run the office of a major party, after Democrat Geraldine Ferraro and Republican Sarah Palin.

●Family Background

Shyamala Gopalan was a cancer researcher and, the mother of Kamala and Maya Harris. Kamala Harris was born on 20 October 1964 in Oakland, California and raised by her mother as a single parent. After the early separation of her mother from her father Donald Harris, who was the professor of economics at Stanford University and had come from Jamaica to US. Gopalan passed away by giving responsibilities to Kamala, for her younger sister back in 2009. According to her website, Kamala has spent her entire life fighting for justice, as a “passion that was first inspired by her mother, Shyamala, an Indian-American immigrant, activist, and breast cancer researcher.”

Harris, in her autobiography written in 2010, “The Truth We hold: An American journey” addressed her mixed heritage and a keen awareness and appreciation for India culture. My mother understood very well that she was raising two black daughters. She also mentioned that “My mother understood very well that she was raising two black daughters. She knew that her adopted homeland would see Maya and me as black girls, and she was determined to make sure we would grow into confident, proud black women.”

● Educational Backgrounds

Kamala graduated in 1981 from Westmount High School in Westmount, Quebec. After completing her high school, she went to Howard University in Washington, DC where she was interned as a mailroom clerk for Senator of California, Alan Cranston and, led the debate team by joining Alpha Kappa Alpha sorority. Harris graduated with a double-major Bachelor of Arts Degree in Political Science and Economics from Howard in 1986. Then, she attended Hastings College of Law, University of California and served as the Black Law Students Association. In 1989, she graduated with a Juris Doctor and passed the bar examination in June 1990.

● Political Background

– Early Career (1990-2004)

Harris was hired as Deputy District Attorney in Alameda County, California in 1990 and, noted as “an able prosecutor on the way up”. In 1994, she was appointed as the State Unemployment Insurance Appeals Board and then, the California Medical Assistance Commission to serve these positions she took a leave of absence from her prosecutor job. She was recruited as an assistant district attorney in San Francisco District Attorney, Terence Hallinan in 1998. She took a new job at San Francisco City Hall, working for City Attorney Louise Renne in August 2000. In 2002, she ran a successful campaign that disrupted negative stereotypes of black women against Hallinan, and Defense Attorney, Bill Fazio. She becomes California’s first American District Attorney of Color in 2003.

– District Attorney of San Francisco (2004-2011)

In 2004, Harris made a statement, “If you carry an illegal gun in the city of San Francisco and your case is brought to my office, you are going to spend time in jail. Period.” for criminals who possessed or used assault weapons. She prosecuted Charles Rothenberg, a.k.a. Charley Charles, under three strikes law of California for illegal possession of a firearm in April 2005. A particular Hate Crimes Unit was formed by Harris in 2006, focusing on hate crimes against LGBT children and teens in school. In 2007, Harris and City Attorney Dennis

Herrera investigated San Francisco supervisor ED Jew for holding his supervisor position by violating necessary residency requirements. Harris also joined Police Chief Heather Fong and Mayor Gavin Newsom to ban gun shows at Cow Palace. She was re-elected in 2007, and from then she has carried out significant events in non-violent crimes, violent crimes, reform efforts, truancy initiative, and death penalties till 2011.

– Attorney General of California (2011-2017)

In January 2011 Harris became the first African American and South Asian American woman to serve as Attorney General of California, She issued a report titled ‘In School + On Track’ in 2013 founding more than 250,000 elementary school students were ‘chronically absent’ in the state and the truancy rate in the school year 2012-2013 was about 30% which cost nearly about $1.4 billion to school districts. In 2015, Harris’s California Department of Justice was the first statewide agency to wear body cameras for all the police officers.

– US Senate, 2017

In 2017, Harris become the Senator from California serving the Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, the Committee on the Judiciary, the Select Committee on Intelligence and the Committee on the Budget. She was the First South Asian-American Senator and the second African-American woman of US.

● Harris as Joe Biden’s Presidential Mate

Biden in his tweet wrote, “I have the great honour 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 knows the importance of the Vice Presidency, and he is confident that Harris will be the best partner for getting their country back on track. “Kamala will be ready to tackle the work that is needed to heal our country on Day One of the Biden-Harris Administration,” further added in the statement. Harris’s win in November will make her the First Female Vice-President of the United States and will set her up for the Presidency in 2024 at the end of Joe’s first term, 2028.