Biden’s presidential endorsement: What to know about Vice President Kamala Harris
Now endorsed to be the Democrats’ next presidential candidate by President Joe Biden, Kamala Harris has again stepped into the spotlight of another presidential race. Here’s what to know about the barrier-breaking current vice president.
Harris, 59, became the first woman, Black person and person of South Asian descent to serve as vice president when she took office in 2021. If she secures the party nomination, she’ll set another slate of firsts at the top of the ticket.
On Sunday, Harris said she is “honored to have the President’s endorsement and my intention is to earn and win this nomination.”
Harris briefly ran against Biden in the Democratic 2020 presidential primary, citing a lack of funding in her decision to drop out in December 2019.
Through her short campaign, Harris found moments to stand out in primary debates, leaning on her background as a prosecutor, and touted a “3 a.m. agenda” highlighting “issues that keep you up at night.” Her stance on healthcare drew critics among progressives and moderates, stopping just short of a “Medicare for All” universal healthcare proposal.
The vice president broke many more barriers throughout her political career, also becoming the first woman and first Black attorney general and U.S. senator for California.
Originally from Oakland, California, Harris was born on Oct. 20, 1964 to immigrant parents active in civil rights activism. Her father is from Jamaica, while her mother moved from southern India. The former prosecutor has spoken about the active role of social justice and advocacy and things like being bused to school in her childhood.
She attended college at Howard University in Washington, DC before returning to the San Francisco area for law school.
Harris became a prosecutor, citing a desire to change the system from the inside, and ran for San Francisco district attorney in 2003. She campaigned for Barack Obama’s presidential campaign in 2008, and the former president endorsed her successful bid for California attorney general in 2010.
As attorney general, Harris pledged to uphold the death penalty despite her moral opposition to it and refused to defend Proposition 8, which was passed by voters in 2008 and banned same-sex marriage. Her actions in response to police killings of Black men garnered attention, as she implemented measures like tracking racial data in police stops, but didn’t seek more aggressive oversight.
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Harris married entertainment lawyer Douglas Emhoff in 2014 and is stepmother to Emhoff’s two children.
In 2016, Harris launched a campaign for the Senate, when California Sen. Barbara Boxer retired the seat. Throughout her Senate tenure, Harris gained attention for her forceful questioning taking on an array of Trump nominees and administration officials.
On recent poll from the AP-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research found about 6 in 10 Democrats believe Harris would do well in presidential slot, about 2 in 10 don’t believe she would, and 2 in 10 don’t know. The poll found about 4 in 10 adults in the U.S. have a favorable opinion of the vice president.