Kamala Harris
Vice President of the United States from 2021 to 2025 From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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Kamala Devi Harris (KAH-mə-lə; born October 20, 1964)[2][3] is an American politician and attorney who served as the 49th vice president of the United States under Joe Biden from 2021 to 2025. She was the first female vice president and the highest-ranking female official in U.S. history. She was also the first African-American and the first South Asian vice president. Before becoming vice president, she represented California in the U.S. Senate from 2017 to 2021 and was the 32nd attorney general of California from 2011 to 2017.[4][5]
Harris was the Democratic presidential candidate in the 2024 presidential election.[6] She was a candidate for president in the 2020 election. She suspended her campaign in December 2019 after raising low campaign funds. After Joe Biden won the nomination, he picked Harris as his running mate for vice president.[7] In July 2024, after Biden ended his campaign for president, Harris started her own presidential campaign.[8] In November 2024, she lost the election to then-former President Donald Trump.[9][10]
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Biography
Early life and education
Kamala Devi Harris was born on October 20, 1964 at Kaiser Permanente Oakland Medical Center in Oakland, California.[11][12][13] She is Tamil Indian American and Jamaican American. Her parents are Shyamala Gopalan Harris and Donald J. Harris. Both Shyamala and Donald Harris studied at the University of California, Berkeley. Harris' parents divorced in 1971. In 1976, Harris moved to Canada with her mother and sister, Maya. Harris went to college at Howard University in 1986 and got a degree in political science.
Law career
In 1989, Harris became a lawyer after studying at Hastings College of Law at the University of California. She worked in the office of the district attorney of Alameda in 1990.
In 1998, Harris left to work for the District Attorney’s office in San Francisco. In 2003, Harris became the District Attorney of San Francisco. She became the California attorney general in 2011 and served in this role until 2017 when she became the U.S. senator for California.[14]
U.S. Senate
At the start of 2016, Harris said that she would attempt to become senator of California after Barbara Boxer said that she would not work as a senator for the next term. Harris won the position in 2016 and became a senator on January 3, 2017.[15]
2020 presidential campaign
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On January 21, 2019, she officially announced her campaign for president in the 2020 presidential election.[16] After months of falling polling numbers and low campaign money raised, she ended her campaign on December 3, 2019.[17]
On August 11, 2020, Biden picked Harris as his running mate. On November 7, the Biden-Harris ticket beat the Trump-Pence ticket making her the vice president-elect.[18][19][20]
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Vice presidency (2021–2025)
Harris was sworn-in by Associate Justice Sonia Sotomayor as the 49th vice president of the United States on January 20, 2021.[21] She is the first female vice president in the United States, the highest-ranking female elected official in U.S. history, and the first Indian Asian-American vice president.[22][23] She is also the second person of color to hold the post. The first was Charles Curtis, who was a Native American and member of the Kaw Nation.[24] Harris cast her first of two tie-breaking votes on February 5, 2021. In February and March, Harris' tie-breaking votes in her role as President of the Senate were needed to pass the American Rescue Plan Act of 2021 stimulus package proposed by President Biden because no Republicans in the Senate voted for the package.[25][26] In April 2021, Harris said that she was the last person in the room before President Biden decided to remove all U.S. troops from Afghanistan and commented that the president was brave for making this "difficult decision".[27]
Biden put Harris in charge of immigration. Harris visited Guatemala and Mexico to see why there was an increase in immigration, mainly from Central America to the United States.[28] During her visit, she said "I want to be clear to folks in the region who are thinking about making that dangerous trek to the United States-Mexico border: Do not come. Do not come".[29]
On September 24, 2021, Republican United States Representative Lauren Boebert introduced a resolution to impeach Harris over her support for the withdrawal of U.S. troops from Afghanistan.[30] On November 19, 2021, Harris served as acting president from 10:10 am to 11:35 am while President Biden underwent a "routine colonoscopy".[31] Harris became the third vice president as well as the first female vice president to serve as acting president.[32][33]
On June 12, 2023, Republican Representative Andy Ogles introduced a resolution to impeach Harris for the Biden administration's handling of security at the United States–Mexico border. It is co-sponsored by Republicans Lauren Boebert and Mary Miller.[34]
In December 2023, Harris broke the record for the most tie-breaking votes cast by a vice president casting her 32nd vote, passing John C. Calhoun, who cast 31 votes during his nearly eight years as vice president, in less than half the time.[35][36]
On July 23, 2024, Republican Representative Andy Ogles introduced a second resolution to impeach Harris for the betrayal of the public trust for not removing Joe Biden from office and failing in her duties as “border czar.”[37][38] On January 6, 2025, in one of her last duties as vice president, Harris oversaw the official certification of Trump's election win.[39]
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2024 presidential campaign
Originally, President Biden was running to be elected President for a second time with Harris as vice president once again. However, on July 21, 2024, President Biden ended his campaign for reelection in 2024 and supported Harris for president.[40] Harris was also supported by Jimmy Carter, Bill and Hillary Clinton, Barack and Michelle Obama, and many other politicians and celebrities such as Beyoncé.[41][42][43][44]
In the first 24 hours of her candidacy, her campaign raised $81 million in small-dollar donations, the highest single-day total of any presidential candidate in history.[45] Her campaign was largely centered around opposing Trump and his policies. Harris supported left-wing policies such as abortion rights, LGBT rights, gun control, immigration, and a two-state solution to the conflict between Israel and Palestine. By August 5, she had officially won the nomination and the next day, she announced Minnesota Governor Tim Walz as her vice presidential running mate.[46]
On September 10, Harris and Trump had a debate on television. It was widely considered by the media that Harris won the debate, partly due to Trump making numerous factually incorrect statements.[47][48][49] Trump declined another debate with Harris. Her campaign utilized the media in several ways, such as television appearances of Harris (including an appearance on Saturday Night Live) and the use of TikTok, with an account titled "Kamala HQ", which engaged in various internet trends such as the "brat" trend, which was started by singer Charli XCX's album of the same name.[50][51][52]
On November 5, Harris and Walz lost the general election to the Trump-Vance ticket.[53][54] With around 75 million votes, Harris received the third-highest amount of votes of any presidential nominee in US history, as well as the most votes of any losing candidate. She gave a speech to her supporters the day after her loss.
Major reasons for her loss have been said to include: the fact she entered the race late (only after the withdrawal of Biden) and the fact that she did not convince voters that she would provide different leadership than Biden.[55][56] If elected, she would have been the first female and first Asian-American president of the United States, and first Jamaican-American.[57]
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Post-vice presidency (2025–present)
Harris' term as vice president ended on January 20, 2025, when she was replaced by JD Vance as vice president. It is currently unclear what Harris will do next, but it is speculated that she may run for president again in 2028 or run for California governor in 2026.[58]
Personal life
In 2014, Harris married lawyer Doug Emhoff. Emhoff and Harris have homes in Los Angeles, San Francisco, and Washington, D.C.[59]
Awards and honors
In 2020, both Harris and Biden were named Time Person of the Year.[60]
Records
Kamala Harris has broken several records in her career.
- First female, first African American, and first Asian American to serve as Vice President of the United States. This makes her the highest-ranking woman in US political history.
- Second female, second African American, and first Asian American to be a major contender in a United States presidential election.
- The most tie-breaking votes ever cast by a US Vice President (32).
- The shortest US presidential election campaign by a major contender, with 107 days.
- The third-highest amount of votes received by a US presidential nominee (as well as the most votes of a female nominee and a losing nominee). Only Joe Biden in 2020 and Donald Trump in 2024 received more votes than Harris.
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Notes
- Harris was originally named Kamala Iyer Harris by her parents, who two weeks later filed an affidavit by which her middle name was changed to Devi.[1]
References
Other websites
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