FROMCOURTROOM TOWHITEHOUSE
Kamala D Harris is
theVicePresidentof the United States Shealwaysfightsforthepeople – from her barrier-breaking timeasDistrictAttorneyofSan FranciscoandAttorneyGeneral ofCalifornia,toproudlyserving asaUnitedStatesSenatorand theVicePresident.
OnJanuary20,2021,Kamala Harris was sworn in as Vice President–thefirstwoman,the first Black American, and the first South Asian American to beelectedtothisposition.
As Vice President, she has worked to bring people
together to advance opportunity, deliver for
families, and protect fundamental freedoms across thecountryShehasledthefight for the freedom of women to makedecisionsabouttheirown bodies, the freedom to live safe from gun violence, the freedom tovote,andthefreedomtodrink clean water and breathe clean air. While making history at home, she is also representing
thenationabroad–embarking on more than a dozen foreign trips,travelingtomorethan19 countries, and meeting with morethan150worldleadersto strengthen critical global alliances
TheVicePresidenthasbeen a trusted partner to President JoeBidenastheyworktogether to deliver monumental achievements that are life
changing for millions of Americans.Together,theyhave invested in the economy to createarecordnumberofjobs and keep unemployment low Their work has led to more small business creation in a two-year period than any previousadministration
They capped the cost of insulin at $35 a month for seniors,cutprescriptionprices, and improved maternal health by expanding postpartum care throughMedicaid.Theypassed the first meaningful gun safety lawinthreedecades Forminga bipartisan coalition, they enacteda$1trillioninvestment in the country's infrastructure to remove every lead pipe in America and make the most significantinvestmentinpublic transit, repairing bridges, and high-speedInternetinhistory.
As President of the Senate, VicePresidentHarrissetanew record for the most tiebreaking votes cast by a Vice President in history –surpassing a record that had stoodfornearly200years.And
her votes have been consequential. This includes casting the
decisive
vote to
s e c u r e passage of t h e landmark
Inflation Reduction
Act, the
largest investment
ever in
tackling the climate crisis She
a l s o
presided
over the unprecede nted vote to confirm
the first
B l a c k
woman,
J u s t i c e
I've been guided by the words I spoke from the first time I stood in a courtroom: Kamala Harris, For the People.” - Kamala Harris, August 19, 2020
Fighting for the people is nothingnewforVicePresident KamalaHarris.
questionedtwoSupremeCourt nomineeswhileservingonthe Judiciary Committee She also worked to keep the American peoplesafefromforeignthreats and crafted bipartisan legislation to assist in securing American elections while serving on the Senate Select CommitteeonIntelligence.
Ketanji BrownJackson,totheSupreme Court while working alongside President Biden to achieve historic representation of women and people of color amongnomineesatalllevelsof thefederalgovernment.
““At every step of the way,
In2017,shewassworninto theUnitedStatesSenatewhere she championed legislation to fighthunger,providerentrelief, improve maternal health care, expand access to capital for small businesses, revitalize America's infrastructure, and combat the climate crisis She
In 2010, V i c e President Harris was elected
Attorney General of California where she oversaw the largest statejustice departmen
t in the
country Shetookon those who w e r e preying on t h e American people, winning a $20 billion settlement f o r
Californians whose homes had been foreclosed on and a $11 billion settlement for students and veterans who were taken advantage of by a for-profit education company. She also defended the Affordable Care Act in court and enforced environmentallaws.
In 2004, Vice President Harris was elected District Attorney of San Francisco where she was a national leader in the movement for LGBTQ+ rights, officiating the first same-sex wedding after Proposition 8 was overturned Shealsoestablishedtheoffice's environmental justice unit and created a ground-breaking program to provide first-time drug offenders with the opportunity to earn a high school degree and find employment, which the U.S.
Department of Justice designatedasanationalmodel of innovation for law enforcement Andyearsearlier, in 1990, she joined the Alameda County District Attorney's Office where she specializedinprosecutingchild sexualassaultcases.
Vice President Harris was
born in Oakland, California. As thedaughterofimmigrants,she grew up surrounded by a diverse community and a lovingextendedfamily Sheand her sister, Maya, were inspired by their mother, Shyamala Gopalan, a breast cancer scientist and pioneer in her own right who came to the UnitedStatesfromIndiaatthe ageof19andthenreceivedher doctorate the same year that Kamalawasborn.
Both of the Vice President's parentswereactiveinthecivil rights movement, and instilled in her a commitment to build strong coalitions that fight for the rights and freedoms of all people. They brought her to civilrightsmarchesinastroller and taught her about heroes like Supreme Court Justice Thurgood Marshall and civil
rights leader Constance Baker Motley.
Vice President Harris went on to graduate from Howard UniversityandtheUniversityof California Hastings College of Law In 2014, she married DouglasEmhoff,alawyer They havealargeblendedfamilythat includestheirchildren,Ellaand Cole.
As a trailblazer throughout her entire career, the Vice President is committed to fulfilling her mother's advice: “Kamala,youmaybethefirstto domanythings,butmakesure youarenotthelast”
KAMALA HARRIS
THE VICE PRESIDENT
Fighting for the People and Delivering for America.
Show, don 't tell:
KamalaHarrisletsher potential to make historyspeakforitself.
Unlike Hillary Clinton eight years ago, Vice President Kamala Harris does not talk much about the potential to electthefirstfemalepresident.
Actor Eva Longoria led the crowd in a chant of "she se puede" and other speakers touted the chance to put a womanintheWhiteHouse,but Harris never acknowledged that she would be the first female president in American history during her acceptance speech to the just concluded Democratic National Convention.
A n d t h e w o r d “representation” was barely uttered from the stage during all four nights of the convention
Eight years after Hillary Clintonmade“I'mwithher”her slogan and framed her
campaign around “shattering the highest, hardest glass ceiling,” Harris has let the history-makingpotentialofher candidacy speak for itself, following a golden rule of storytelling:Show,don'ttell
“I don't think she has to remind people she's a Black woman, ” said former
Democratic National Committee Chairman Tom Perez,whoisnowatopofficial in President Joe Biden's White House.
One look at Harris is all it takes to know she would be a breakfrom235yearsofwhite menintheWhiteHouse,party strategists say, so playing up that fact is unnecessary at a time when former President DonaldTrumpandhisalliesdo plenty of that themselves by labelingHarrisa“DEIhire”who hasnotearnedherplaceonthe ballot
Harris becoming the first female president “brings tears tomyeyes,butnotvotestothe
ballot box,” former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said during an event with former ObamastrategistDavidAxelrod attheUniversityofChicagothis week
“It'sicingonthecake Itain't thecake,”Pelosiadded
Harris is hardly hiding her genderorraceandspeaksoften aboutbeingawoman—oneof herfirstmovesafterbecoming the party's presumptive nominee was to address her Blacksorority—andtheneed to“kickthatf---ingdoordown” when it is not opened for womenandpeopleofcolor
But she does not speak about what it would mean to haveaBlackwomanpresident inherspeechesorTVads.
During the convention, the mostdirectemphasisonHarris' history-making potential came from Clinton herself, the first womanevernominatedtolead amajorparty
On Monday, wearing
suffragette white, Clinton placedHarrisandherselfinthe nation's long struggle for genderequity.
“We'veputalotofcracksin the highest, hardest glass ceiling. And tonight [we're] so closetobreakingthroughonce andforall,”Clintonsaid.“Onthe othersideofthatglassceilingis KamalaHarrisraisingherhand andtakingtheoathofofficeas our 47th president of the UnitedStates.”
Inaway,Harris'approachis actually a return to Clinton's during her first presidential campaign in 2008, when she
did not call attention to her gender (until her campaign startedtosputter)
Her strategy was to portray herself as tough in order to quellvoters'latentbiasagainst womeninexecutiveoffice.
When Clinton ran again in 2016, she changed course by emphasizing her gender and saying it was time to put a womanintheWhiteHouse
ABORTION RIGHTS
MelaniaTrumpsaysDonald Trump knew her stance on abortionsincetheymet.
For Harris, toughness has
also been a major theme, with the campaign foregrounding her record as a “warrior” former prosecutor who is “tough as they come,” as her husband,DougEmhoff,putit.
Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, who has herself cultivated an image as nononsense “Big Gretch,” called Harris “ a leader who's tough, testedandatotalbadass”
Clinton's2016losstoTrump wasacrushingdefeatformany women,butitalsohelpedspark the #MeToo movement, the Women'sMarchandawaveof womenrunningforoffice.
It helped close the imagination gap for female presidential candidates becauseClintonwonamajority of the popular vote Harris hasn'tfacedthesamequestions as Clinton did about whether Americans will vote for a womantobepresidentbecause nearly 66 million Americans alreadydid.
And 82 million Americans voted to make Harris the vice presidentin2020
Women have also been growing their ranks in other elective offices almost every election, with 25 women currentlyservingintheSenate, 125 in the House and 99 in
statewide executive offices, according to the Center for AmericanWomenandPolitics
T h e y ' r e s t i l l
underrepresented in the halls of power, compared to their proportion of the overall population, but women in powerarenolongeranovelty.
Moreover,theelectoratehas shifted, thanks to Clinton, Trump and the fall of Roe v Wade
For instance, Trump won whitewomeninboth2016and 2020,butpollscurrentlyshow a historic gender gap between the parties since the Supreme Court's Roe v. Wade decision, with Harris favored to win
womeninNovember.
Much of the polling bump Harris has enjoyed over Biden has come from women, who didnotneedhertospellouther potential "first" to rally behind her
After the 2016 election, the Democratic National Committee conducted extensive focus-group and polling research to try to understand what happened. One key finding was that women did not really believe Democrats' claims that Trump would be bad for women and trytooverturnRoe,dismissing itasTrumpianhotair.
“The women who said that wasjustblusternowknowthat wasnotbluster,”Perezsaid.
Americans will head
to the polls in November to elect thenextUSpresident.Thevote willbecloselywatchedaround theworld.
Theywillalsobevotingfor members of Congress, who playakeypartinpassinglaws thatcanhaveaprofoundeffect onAmericanlife.
W h e n i s t h e U S presidential election?
The 2024 election is on Tuesday, 5 November 2024. Thewinnerwillserveatermof fouryearsintheWhiteHouse, startinginJanuary2025.
The president has the
power to pass some laws on theirownbutmostlyheorshe must work with Congress to passlegislation.
On the world stage, the US leader has considerable freedom to represent the countryabroadandtoconduct foreignpolicy.
Who are the candidates a n d h o w a r e t h e y nominated?
The two main parties nominate a presidential candidate by holding a series ofvotescalledstateprimaries and caucuses, where people choosewhotheywanttolead thepartyinageneralelection
In the Republican Party, former president Donald Trump won his party’s support with a massive lead overhisrivals Hebecamethe officialRepublicannomineeat a party convention in Milwaukee,Wisconsin.
Trump chose Ohio Senator JD Vance to be his vice presidentialrunningmate.
For the Democrat VicePresident Kamala Harris joinedtheraceafterPresident JoeBidendroppedoutandno otherDemocratsstoodagainst her. Her running mate is Minnesota Governor Tim Walz.
There are also some independent candidates runningforpresident
Oneofthemostprominent was Robert F Kennedy Jr, nephew to former president John F Kennedy, but he suspended his campaign in late August and has endorsed Trump
What do Democrats and Republicans stand for?
The Democrats are the liberal political party, with an agenda defined largely by its push for civil rights, a broad socialsafetynetandmeasures toaddressclimatechange.
The Republicans are the conservative political party in theUS.AlsoknownastheGOP, or the Grand Old Party, it has stood for lower taxes, shrinking the size of the government, gun rights and tighter restrictions on immigrationandabortion
H o w d o e s t h e U S presidential election work?
The winner is not the person who gets the most votes across the country Instead, both candidates compete to win contests held acrossthe50states.
Each state has a certain number of so-called electoral college votes partly based on population Thereareatotalof 538 up for grabs, and the winner is the candidate that wins270ormore
All but two states have a winner-takes-all rule, so whichevercandidatewinsthe highest number of votes is awarded all of the state's electoralcollegevotes.
Most states lean heavily towardsonepartyortheother, so the focus is usually on a dozen or so states where either of them could win. These are known as the battlegroundorswingstates
Itispossibleforacandidate to win the most votes nationally-likeHillaryClinton did in 2016 - but still be defeated by the electoral college.
Who can vote in the US presidential election?
Most US citizens who are aged18oroverareeligibleto vote in the presidential election.
Every state except North Dakota requires people to registerbeforetheycanvote.
Eachstatehasitsownvoter registration process and deadline.
UScitizenswholiveabroad can register to vote and request an absentee postal ballot by completing the Federal Post Card Application (FCPA).
Who else is being elected in November?
All of the attention will be
on who wins the presidency, but voters will also be choosing new members of Congress - where laws are passed-whentheyfillintheir ballots.
Congress consists of the House of Representatives, whereall435seatsareupfor election,andtheSenate,where 34seatsarebeingcontested.
Republicans currently control the House, which initiates spending plans. Democratsareinchargeofthe Senate, which votes on key appointmentsingovernment.
These two chambers pass lawsandcanactasacheckon White House plans if the controlling party in either chamber disagrees with the president
When will we know who has won the election?
Usually the winner is declared on the night of the election,butin2020ittooka fewdaystocountallthevotes.
The period after the election is know as the transition, if there is a change ofpresident
This gives the new administrationtimetoappoint cabinet ministers and make plansforthenewterm.
The president is officially swornintoofficeinJanuaryin a ceremony known as the inauguration,heldonthesteps of the Capitol building in WashingtonDC
