Kamala Harris, the 49th Vice President of the US

1 Kamala Harris Born on October 20th 1964 in Oakland California, Kamala Harris’ rise to the highest echelon of American politics has been remarkable. She is renowned American attorney and politician, and currently serves as the 49th vice president of the United States. With her appointment to this position, she has accomplished many firsts; she is the first female vicepresident of the US, and the first African American and Asian American to hold the office. She was inaugurated to this post in January 2021 after winning the 2020 election alongside President Joe Biden. Prior to becoming the Vice President of the US, Kamala’s other political positions were; the US Senate from 2017 to 2021, and the attorney general of California from 2011 to 2017.

Early Life and Education Kamala Harris comes from a family of scholars. Her father, a Jamaican, arrived in the US from British Jamaica in 1961 for graduate studies at the University of California, Berkley and earned a PhD in economics in 1966. He is currently professor at Stanford University. Her mother arrived in the US from India in 1958 for graduate studies in nutrition and endocrinology at UC Berkeley (Maupin, 2020). She is a biologist whose research has contributed significantly to the study of breast cancer.

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2 Her sister is a public policy advocate. Harris spent her early life in Berkley, California where she attended the predominantly white Thousand Oaks School which was undergoing a desegregation which was happening at the time. Harris and her sister lived with her mother after their parent’s divorce when she was seven years old. On weekends, they visited their father in Palo Alto, where racism was still very rife.

At the age of twelve, her mother accepted a research and teaching job in Montreal, Quebec, where she lived until 1981 when she was ready to attend college. In Montreal, she attended two primary schools, followed by Westmount High School. After high school, she attended Howard University in 1982, where she graduated in 1986 with a B.A. in political science and economics. Her leadership abilities became evident at Howard. She was the chair of the economics society and the debate team. She was also a member of the Alpha Kappa Alpha sorority and was an intern for the then California senator, Alan Cranston. After graduating from Howard in 1986, she attended the UC Hastings College of the Law, graduating in 1989 with a law degree. At UC Hastings her leadership potential continued when she served as the president of the Black Law Students Association (Harris, 2020). She was admitted to the California Bar in 1990.

Career Harris career has broken many barriers in the course of her career, and just like in her studies, she has had a successful career journey. Her first role after her admission to the Bar was the deputy district attorney of Alameda County, California. In 1994, she was appointed to the Unemployment Insurance Appeals Board and then to the California Medical Assistance Commission. This period of her career has attracted controversy from some quarters since she was awarded the position by the then Speaker of the California Assembly, who was a close

3 friend. In 1998, Harris was appointed as an assistant district attorney in San Francisco. In this position, her career took off, and she was promoted to the post of the chief of the Career Criminal Division. She prosecuted several criminal cases of homicide, sexual assault, drug trafficking and burglary. In 2000, Harris clashed with the district attorney’s assistant over a Proposition 21. This was a motion which sought to try juveniles defendants in Superior Court instead of juvenile court. She was opposed to it, and the DA’s assistant reassigned her to a different case to prevent her from talking to the media. She quit and moved to the San Francisco City Hall where she took on a new role as the head of the Family and Children’s Services Division. In 2002, she ran for the position of District Attorney of San Francisco and won with a 56 percent margin. She won the seat again 2007, thus holding the seat from 2002 to 2011. From 2011 to 2017, she held the position of the Attorney General of California. From 2017 to 2021, she was appointed to the US Senate, after gaining over 60% of the vote. In this position, she attracted media attention for her brilliant performance. In 2019, she sought the Democratic presidential nomination and was viewed as one of the leading contenders (Grimes, 2020).

However, she later pulled out of the race and was appointed by Joe Biden as his vice presidential running mate.

Personal Life Kamala Harris is married to Doug Emhoff, an attorney whom she met in 2013 on a blind date set up by a mutual friend. They got married in 2014. Through her marriage to Emhoff, she is the step mother to his two children. She has only one sibling, her sister, a brother-in-law and a niece.

4 References Grimes, N. (2020). Kamala Harris: Rooted in Justice. Simon and Shuster.

Harris, K. (2020). The Truths We Hold: An American Journey. Penguin Publishing Group.

Maupin, C.T. (2020). Kamala Harris & The Future of America: An Essay in Three Parts.

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