An Insight on Kamala Harris

By O. Lotufo

With the conclusion of the 2020 U.S. Presidential Election, surely many are aware of the results and Joe Biden’s victory. With Trump stepping down in January of 2021, Biden will be replacing him as President of the United States along his chosen vice-president, Kamala Harris. With her election, she carries the title of the first woman and first black and Asian American, to be vice-president. In addition to that, she is currently the highest-ranking woman of colour in the history of the U.S. government. We all know her, and have seen her before various times, but who is she exactly?

Early Life
Harris was born in Oakland, California, to an Indian-born mother (Shyamala Gopalan) and Jamaican-born father (Donald Harris), both of which were immigrants. Her parents met at the University of California, Berkeley; Shyamala went on to make become a renowned breast-cancer researcher, whilst Donald was, and still is, an economics professor at Stanford. At seven years old, Kamala Harris’ parents divorced, and at 12 she moved, together with her sister and mother, to Montreal, Quebec, Canada for some time.
Harris’ education comprised of attending High School in Westmount (Quebec), studying economics and political science at Howard University, and later earning a law degree from UC Hastings College of the Law.

Career
Harris began her career working as a deputy district attorney in Alameda County (Oakland, California), from 1990 to 1998; this is where she earned a reputation for being tough for seeking cases of gang violence, drug trafficking, among others. Promoted by the past San Francisco district attorney, Terence Hallinan, Harris was appointed an assistant district attorney, leading her to become the chief of the Career Criminal Division. By 2000, she had taken a new job in San Francisco City Hall, running the Family and Children’s Services Division, which represented and dealt with child abuse, neglect cases, etc. In 2003, Harris became San Francisco district attorney, winning with 56 percent of the vote.
Her career faced various other changes, advancements and a huge progression; most notably, she was elected U.S. Senator. With this position, she joined many committees, which
included: The Senate’s Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, Select Committee on Intelligence, Committee on the Judiciary and Committee on the Budget.

2020 Presidential Election
Kamala Harris had set out to run for 2020 President of the United States, as she announced on January 21, 2019, during an interview. Her support began to rise throughout the following months, especially after an argumentative debate with Joe Biden, where she questioned him on numerous race-related topics amongst other subjects. However, after being criticised on her healthcare plan, and previous actions as California’s attorney general, her support didn’t last sufficiently long, and polls began dropping. In December of 2019, Harris announced she was dropping out of the presidential race.
But in August of 2020, Joe Biden announced his running mate would be no other than his former debate adversary, Kamala Harris. Following a particularly turbulent presidential election, she is now to be the vice-president of the United States.