Dubai: US Vice-President Kamala Harris has launched a bid for the Democratic presidential nomination after Joe Biden’s exit from the 2024 race, setting up a push that could make her the first Black woman and first Asian American to lead the ticket of a major political party.
Harris was in pole position as the party promised a “transparent and orderly process” to replace the 81-year-old Biden, who bowed Sunday to Democratic concerns over his age and capacity to beat Republican Donald Trump in November.
The announcement set off a scramble to confirm a new candidate at the Democratic convention in Chicago on August 19 — and perhaps weeks sooner.
Harris — who is Black and South Asian, and the only woman vice-president in US history — appeared to have no immediate rivals, and any challenger may have a very small window to pitch an alternative path forward.
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Who is Kamala Harris?
Born in Oakland, California, to two immigrant parents — an Indian-born mother and Jamaican-born father — her parents divorced when she was five and she was primarily raised by her Hindu single mother, Shyamala Gopalan Harris, a cancer researcher and civil rights activist.
She grew up engaged with her Indian heritage, joining her mother on visits to India, but Harris has said that her mother adopted Oakland’s black culture, immersing her two daughters — Kamala and her younger sister Maya — within it.
Her early years included a brief period in Canada. When Gopalan Harris took a job teaching at McGill University, Harris and her younger sister Maya went with her, attending school in Montreal for five years.
She attended Howard University in Washington, D.C., where she earned her undergraduate degree. She then pursued law at the University of California, Hastings College of the Law, where she earned her Juris Doctor (J.D.) degree.
Career: Harris began her career in the Alameda County District Attorney’s Office before becoming District Attorney of San Francisco in 2004. She was the first woman, the first African American, and the first South Asian American to hold the position.
In 2010, Harris was elected as the Attorney General of California, becoming the first woman and the first African American to hold the office. She was re-elected in 2014.
Harris was elected as a U.S. Senator from California in 2016, becoming the second African American woman and the first South Asian American senator in U.S. history.
In 2020, she became the Vice President of the United States, making history as the first woman, the first African American woman, and the first Asian American woman to hold the office.
Political views: Kamala Harris is known for her advocacy for civil rights, criminal justice reform, and immigration reform. She has also been a vocal supporter of healthcare reform, including expanding Medicare and protecting reproductive rights.
Personal life: Harris is married to Douglas Emhoff, who became the first Second Gentleman of the United States upon her inauguration as Vice President. She is stepmother to Emhoff’s two children from a previous marriage.
Legacy and influence: Kamala Harris’s political career has been marked by several historic firsts, making her a significant figure in American politics, especially for women and minorities.
She continues to be a prominent voice on issues of justice, equality, and opportunity.
Harris says she’s always been comfortable with her identity and simply describes herself as an “American”.
She told the Washington Post in 2019 that politicians should not have to fit into compartments because of their colour or background.
“My point was: I am who I am. I’m good with it. You might need to figure it out, but I’m fine with it,” she said.
After earning her law degree from the University of California, Hastings College of Law, she became a deputy district attorney for Alameda County.
Law enforcement
She later served in the San Francisco district attorney and city attorney offices.
In 2003, she was elected district attorney for San Francisco. Seven years later, she was elected California’s attorney general — the first woman, first Black person and first Asian American to hold the position.
Harris’s record in law enforcement would later become both a boon and a burden to her political campaigns for Senate and the White House.
Among her more controversial policies was a truancy programme she advocated, which allowed parents to be charged with misdemeanors if their children missed too many school days. Harris later said she regretted the “unintended consequences” of the programme.
Her family
In 2014, then-Senator Harris married lawyer Doug Emhoff and became stepmother to his two children.
She wrote an article for Elle magazine in 2019 about the experience of becoming a stepmother and unveiled the name that would then come to dominate many headlines that followed.
“When Doug and I got married, Cole, Ella, and I agreed that we didn’t like the term ‘stepmom’. Instead they came up with the name ‘Momala’.”
They were portrayed as the epitome of modern American “blended” family, an image the media took to and one that occupied many column inches about how we talk about female politicians, a BBC report said
In 2016, Harris won her bid to succeed outgoing California Senator Barbara Boxer, becoming the second Black woman to ever serve in the US Senate.
As a senator, Harris was known for her prosecutorial questioning style during hearings with Trump administration officials and nominees, including Attorney General Jeff Sessions and future Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh.
When Harris blasted Biden
Three years later, in January 2019, she entered the Democratic presidential primary. From the start, Harris acknowledged the historic nature of her campaign — she launched her bid on the federal holiday marking Martin Luther King Jr.’s birthday and held a news conference at Howard University, the historically Black college she graduated from in 1986.
Harris was one of more than a dozen Democrats, including Biden, who sought the 2020 party nomination. One of Biden’s worst debate moments of that cycle came when Harris blasted him over his opposition in the 1970s to court-ordered busing of students to desegregate schools. The dig from Harris, who was close friends with Biden’s son Beau before his death in 2015, came as a surprise to Biden and angered some his allies.
But her presidential aims were unsuccessful in 2020.
Her adept debate performances were not enough to compensate for poorly articulated policies.
Her campaign died in less than a year and it was Biden who returned the now 59-year-old to the national spotlight by putting her on his ticket.
After she dropped out, Harris became a prominent surrogate for Biden before being named his vice-presidential pick in August 2020.
“I’ve decided that Kamala Harris is the best person to help me take this fight to Trump and Mike Pence and then to lead this nation starting in January 2021,” Biden told supporters in an email.
How Harris’ national polling compares to Biden’s
In NBC News’ latest national poll, conducted more than a week after Biden’s dismal debate performance but before the assassination attempt on Trump, both the president and Harris trailed Trump by 2-point margins among registered voters, though the actual percentages for each candidate were slightly different. Trump led Biden 45%-43%, while he took 47% to Harris’ 45% in their matchup. Both ballot tests fell within the poll’s margin of error.
Similarly, a post-debate national Fox News poll found Trump ahead by 1 point against both Biden (Trump 49%, Biden 48%) and Harris (Trump 49%, Harris 48%) among registered voters.
But other polls have shown Harris slightly outperforming Biden by 1 or 2 points — though, critically, still trailing Trump at this point in some key matchups.
A national CBS News/YouGov poll of likely voters conducted after the assassination attempt found Trump leading Biden by 5 points among likely voters, 52% to 47%, while it showed Harris trailing by 3 points, 51% to 48%.
And in New York Times/Siena College battleground polls of Pennsylvania and Virginia, Harris performed 2 points better than Biden did among likely voters in these two states.
