POLITICS Everything You Need to Know About : Kamala Harris

Even though Kamala couldn’t take part in the race for becoming the 46th President of the United States of America, She had won millions of hearts by being chosen as the first everAfrican andAsianAmerican to run for a vice presidential nominee.

Senator Kamala Harris waves to crowd after announcing her candidacy for president.

Soon after former Vice President Joe Biden was chosen as the Democratic presidential nominee for the 2020 elections, there were many speculations on who he would choose to be his running mate in the upcoming elections.

After much wait, on August 11, Biden announced U.S.

Senator Kamala Harris as the Democratic vice presidential candidate. He referred to her as a fearless fighter for the little guy and one of the country’s exceptional public servants.

Biden received mixed reviews for his decision from political candidates, celebrities and citizens of the United

States of America. Months after her own presidential dreams had come to an end, Kamala Harris tweeted saying she was extremely honored to be chosen as the vice president candidate by Joe Biden and will do everything it takes to make him a good president.

In the year 2019, Kamala Harris started her own presidential campaign with an announcement on the popular talk show Good Morning America. She was one of the only seven candidates to get qualified for the

December debate. However, due to lack of sufficient funds and low polling numbers, she had to put an end to her presidential campaign.

Kamala Harris was born on October 20, 1964 in Oakland, California. Her father, Donald J. Harris, is a Jamaican American economist and professor at the prestigious Stanford University. He had gained immense recognition for applying post Keynesian ideas to the development of economics. Kamala’s mother, Shyamala Gopalan Harris, was an American biologist and a breast cancer researcher. Her work in isolating and characterizing the progesterone receptor gene bought about major advances in the field of breast biology and cancer. In 2009, Shyamala Gopalan Harris passed away from colon cancer. Kamala has a younger sister, Maya Lakshmi Harris. She is an American lawyer, television commentator and public policy advocate. Kamala and Maya embraced their Indian and Black identities by going to a Hindu temple and a Black Baptist church. When Kamala was seven years old, her parents parted ways. As a single parent, Shyamala Gopalan Harris raised both her lovely daughters. As a child, Kamala frequently visited India, and she was highly influenced by her grandfather, who fought for the Indian independence. She studied middle and high school in Montreal. Kamala graduated with a degree in political science and economics from Howard University, a highly regarded black college in Washington D.C. After graduating from Howard University, she studied law at the University of California, Hastings College of the Law. In 1990, after graduating with a law degree, she joined as an assistant district attorney at the Alameda County prosecutor’s office in Oakland. After working at the Alameda County prosecutor’s office, she was recruited to the San Francisco DistrictAttorney’s office and then to the San Francisco’s City Attorney office. In 2003, she was elected district attorney of San Francisco. Then

in 2010, she was elected attorney general of California and was re-elected in 2014. Harris referred to herself as a “progressive prosecutor.” She had sent many young men to prison. Inthesameyear,KamalaHarrismarriedDouglasEmhoff. He is a corporate lawyer in Los Angeles. In the year 2016, Kamala defeated her fellow democrat Loretta Sanchez in the race for U.S. Senate. During her service, she had made some remarkable propositions and worked tirelessly with the sole motive of doing good to the country and its citizens. She proposed some notable changes in healthcare, citizenship for undocumented immigrants, removal of cannabis from schedule I of the controlled Substances Act, progressive tax reforms, and a ban on assault weapons. She is also a supporter of the DREAM Act.

In 2003, Kamala won with majority votes against Terence Hallinan as the district attorney of San Francisco. While she served as a lawyer, San Francisco’s conviction rate had increased. Kamala supported one of the most controversial laws in the year 2010. According to this law, parents who failed to send their children to school were punished. As an attorney general, one of her biggest accomplishments was creating an open justice. Open justice is an online platform that gives access for the public to view criminal justice data. This online platform improved police accountability by gathering information on the number of injuries and deaths of people in police custody. While working at the San Francisco District Attorney’s office, she had been successful in changing the law enforcement approach to see girls as victims of sex trafficking rather than criminals. In her memoir The Truths We Hold, Harris wrote that as a district attorney, her role was to look out for people who needed help and to speak up for those whose voices aren’t being heard.

After Joe announced Kamala Harris as his running mate, she accompanied him to Delaware, where she made her first speech. Both Joe and Kamala spoke abouttheirsharedvalues.Kamalastartedoffherspeech by thanking Joe for choosing her as his running mate. Then she went on to point out how President Donald Trump’s mismanagement has plunged the nation into the worst health crisis ever. She believes that along with addressing one of the greatest pandemic ever in history, there is also a greater need to address racism and systemic injustice. Kamala Harris also resonates with and supports the idea of providing equal justice for all under law. She also shed light upon the fact that when Barack Obama was the president, America had experienced a similar health crisis: Ebola. However, at that time, both Obama and Biden did a terrific job of controlling the virus. This is what she calls demonstrating good leadership skills.

Kamala Harris campaigns in New Hampshire Kamala Harris with husband Douglas Emhoff

She finished off her speech by saying this election is not just about politics; rather, it’s about where we stand as a nation. She urges American citizens to vote for a better leader and to stand together in this fight for the betterment of our country. Kamala Harris makes history as the first woman and woman of color to become the Vice-President elect of the United States ofAmerica. She will assume office on January 20, 2021, alongside President-elect Joe Biden.