She’s the first female; first Black and first Asian American vice president-elect of the United States. Here are things to know about Kamala Harris.
Kamala Devi Harris was born in Oakland, California on October 20, 1964, the eldest of two children born to Shyamala Gopalan, a cancer researcher from India, and Donald Harris, an economist from Jamaica.
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Her parents met at UC Berkeley while pursuing graduate degrees, and bonded over a shared passion for the civil rights movement, which was active on campus. After she was born, they took young Kamala along to protests in a stroller.
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Harris’ parents divorced when she was 7, and her mother raised her and her sister, Maya, on the top floor of a yellow duplex in Berkeley.
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She visited India as a child and was heavily influenced by her grandfather, a high-ranking government official who fought for Indian independence, and grandmother, an activist who travelled the countryside teaching impoverished women about birth control.
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In Montreal, where she lived with her mum, a 13-year-old Harris and her younger sister, Maya, led a successful demonstration in front of their apartment building in protest of a policy that banned children from playing on the lawn.
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After being recruited to the San Francisco District Attorney’s office by a former colleague in Alameda, Harris cracked down on teenage prostitution in the city, reorienting law enforcement’s approach to focus on the girls as victims rather than as criminals selling sex.
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Her family was initially skeptical of her carrier choice.
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In 2003, she ran for district attorney in San Francisco against incumbent Terence Hallinan, her former boss. Her message, a top strategist on that campaign told POLITICO, was: “We’re progressive, like Terence Hallinan, but we’re competent like Terence Hallinan is not.”
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She’s the first Black woman in California to be elected district attorney.
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She Was the First Woman and First Black Attorney General of California.
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As Attorney General Harris created Open Justice, an online platform that makes criminal justice data available to the public at large. The database has helped improve police accountability by tabulating the number of deaths and injuries of those in police custody.
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She met the love of her life, Douglas Emhoff, a corporate lawyer in Los Angeles, at 49, and got married at 50 in 2014 at a private ceremony officiated by her sister. Emhoff has two children from his previous marriage; they call Harris “Momala.”
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She won her U.S. Senate race in 2016, defeating fellow Democrat Loretta Sanchez, a moderate congresswoman with 20 years of experience.
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She went viral in 2017 for her sharp questioning of then-Attorney General Jeff Sessions on the Russia investigation. After 3½ minutes of persistent questioning, Sessions said, “I’m not able to be rushed this fast! It makes me nervous.”
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She implemented a similar strategy of questioning during Brett Kavanaugh’s Supreme Court confirmation hearings in 2018, when she grilled him about whether he’d discussed the Mueller investigation with anyone.
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Biden and Harris Butted Heads During the Democratic Primary Before Teaming Up in 2020.
Harris announced she was running for president in January 2019. One high points came during the first Democratic debate when Harris confronted her future running mate over his position on cross-district busing in the 1970s and delivered a stirring anecdote ending with the line, “And that little girl was me,” which became an immediate viral sensation. The resulting surge in poll numbers, however, did not last. Harris shut her campaign down in December, and endorsed Biden in March 2020. He announced Harris as his VP pick in August saying, “Back when Kamala was Attorney General, she worked closely with (my son) Beau. I watched as they took on the big banks, lifted up working people, and protected women and kids from abuse. I was proud then, and I’m proud now to have her as my partner in this campaign.”
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She’s an enthusiastic cook who bookmarks recipes from the New York Times’ cooking section and has tried almost all the recipes from Alice Waters’ The Art of Simple Food. Her go-to dinner entree is a simple roast chicken.
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She collects Converse Chuck Taylor sneakers, which are her go-to travel shoes.
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Her favorite books include Native Son by Richard Wright, The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini, The Joy Luck Club by Amy Tan, Song of Solomon by Toni Morrison, and The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe by C.S. Lewis.
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She typically wakes up around 6 a.m. and works out for half an hour on the elliptical or SoulCycle. She’ll start the day with a bowl of Raisin Bran with almond milk and tea with honey and lemon before leaving for work.
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She describes herself as a “tough” boss—although mostly on herself.
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Her motto comes from her mom: “You may be the first, but make sure you’re not the last.”
Sources: Los Angeles Times, San Francisco Chronicle, POLITICO, The New Yorker, The Atlantic, NPR, USA Today, The Washington Post, The New York Times, GovTrack, The Guardian, Vox, The Intercept, Smart Voter, Book Riot, SF Gate, Mercury News, The Cut, The Truths We Hold by Kamala Harris.
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