Kamala Harris

Kamala Harris
Official portrait, 2021
49th Vice President of the United States
Incumbent
Assumed office January 20, 2021
President	Joe Biden
Preceded by	Mike Pence
United States Senator from California
In office January 3, 2017 – January 18, 2021
Preceded by	Barbara Boxer
Succeeded by	Alex Padilla
32nd Attorney General of California
In office January 3, 2011 – January 3, 2017
Governor	Jerry Brown
Preceded by	Jerry Brown
Succeeded by	Xavier Becerra
27th District Attorney of San Francisco
In office January 8, 2004 – January 3, 2011
Preceded by	Terence Hallinan
Succeeded by	George Gascón
Personal details
Born	Kamala Devi Harris (1964-10-20) October 20, 1964 Oakland, California, U.S.
Political party	Democratic
Spouse	Doug Emhoff ​ (m. 2014)​
Parents	Donald J. Harris Shyamala Gopalan
Relatives	Family of Kamala Harris
Residence	Number One Observatory Circle
Education	Howard University (BA) University of California, Hastings (JD)
Occupation	Politician lawyer author
Signature
Website	Campaign website White House website

Kamala Devi Harris (/ˈkɑːmələ ˈdeɪvi/ KAH-mə-lə DAY-vee; born October 20, 1964) is an American politician and attorney who is the 49th and current vice president of the United States since 2021, under President Joe Biden. She is the first female vice president and the highest-ranking female official in U.S. history, as well as the first African American and first South Asian American vice president. A member of the Democratic Party, she served as a U.S. senator from California from 2017 to 2021 and the attorney general of California from 2011 to 2017. Harris has been described as the presumptive nominee of the Democratic Party in the 2024 presidential election.

Born in Oakland, California, Harris graduated from Howard University and the University of California, Hastings College of the Law. She began her law career in the office of the district attorney (DA) of Alameda County, before being recruited to the San Francisco DA's Office and later the city attorney of San Francisco's office. In 2003, she was elected DA of San Francisco. She was elected attorney general of California in 2010 and re-elected in 2014. Harris served as the junior U.S. senator from California from 2017 to 2021; she defeated Loretta Sanchez in the 2016 Senate election to become the second African-American woman and the first South Asian American to serve in the U.S. Senate.

As a senator, Harris advocated for strict gun control laws, the DREAM Act, and federal legalization of cannabis, as well as healthcare and taxation reform. She gained a national profile for her pointed questioning of Trump administration officials during Senate hearings, including Trump's second Supreme Court nominee, Brett Kavanaugh.

Harris sought the 2020 Democratic presidential nomination, but withdrew from the race before the primaries. Biden selected her to be his running mate, and their ticket went on to defeat the incumbent president and vice president, Donald Trump and Mike Pence, in the 2020 election. Harris and Biden were inaugurated on January 20, 2021. Presiding over an evenly split Senate upon entering office, Harris played a crucial role as president of the Senate with her power to cast tie-breaking votes, helping pass bills such as the American Rescue Plan Act of 2021 stimulus package and the Inflation Reduction Act. After Biden's withdrawal from the 2024 presidential election, Harris launched her own presidential campaign with Biden's endorsement. On July 22, 2024, Harris secured enough non-binding support from delegates to become the presumptive nominee of the Democratic Party.

Early life and education

See also: Family of Kamala Harris

Kamala Devi Harris was born in Oakland, California, on October 20, 1964. Her mother, Shyamala Gopalan, was a biologist whose work on the progesterone receptor gene stimulated advances in breast cancer research. Shyamala had moved to the United States from India as a 19-year-old graduate student in 1958. After studying nutrition and endocrinology at the University of California, Berkeley, she received her PhD in 1964. Kamala Harris's father, Donald J. Harris, is a Stanford University professor of economics (emeritus) who arrived in the United States from Jamaica in 1961, for graduate study at UC Berkeley, and received a PhD in economics in 1966. Donald Harris and Shyamala Gopalan met in 1962 and were married in 1963.

Harris's childhood home on Bancroft Way in Berkeley

In 1966, the Harris family moved to Champaign, Illinois (where Kamala's younger sister Maya was born), when her parents took positions at the University of Illinois. The family moved around the Midwest, with both parents working at multiple universities in succession over a brief period. Kamala, along with her mother and sister, moved back to California in 1970, while her father remained in the Midwest. They stayed briefly on Milvia Street in central Berkeley, then at a duplex on Bancroft Way in West Berkeley, an area often called the "flatlands" with a significant black population. When Harris began kindergarten, she was bused as part of Berkeley's comprehensive desegregation program to Thousand Oaks Elementary School, a public school in a more prosperous neighborhood in northern Berkeley which previously had been 95 percent white, and after the desegregation plan went into effect became 40 percent black. Harris's parents divorced when she was seven.

African-American intellectuals and rights advocates constituted Harris's formative surroundings; Mary Lewis, who helped start the field of African-American studies at San Francisco State University, and taught there for many years, was one of Shyamala Gopalan's most trusted friends. When Shyamala worked late at her lab, Kamala was cared for by Regina Shelton, a black woman whose day-care center in the apartment below was decorated with pictures of Harriet Tubman and Sojourner Truth. Harris has written that Shyamala “knew that her adopted homeland would see Maya and me as black girls, and she was determined to make sure we would grow into confident, proud black women.” Although the two Harris sisters spent summers with their father in Palo Alto and now and then traveled to Jamaica with him, their "experience and relationship with blackness," according to Maya Harris's daughter, Meena Harris, " is through being raised in these communities in Berkeley and Oakland, and not through the lens of being Caribbean." A neighbor regularly took the Harris girls to an African American church in Oakland where they sang in the children's choir, and the girls and their mother also frequently visited a nearby African American cultural center. Their mother introduced them to Hinduism and took them to a nearby Hindu temple, where Shyamala occasionally sang. As children, she and her sister visited their mother's family in Madras (now Chennai) several times. She says she has been strongly influenced by her maternal grandfather P. V. Gopalan, a retired Indian civil servant whose progressive views on democracy and women's rights impressed her. Harris has remained in touch with her Indian aunts and uncles throughout her adult life. Harris has also visited her father's family in Jamaica.

When she was twelve, Harris and her sister moved with their mother to Montreal, Quebec, where Shyamala had accepted a research and teaching position at the McGill University-affiliated Jewish General Hospital. Harris attended a French-speaking primary school, Notre-Dame-des-Neiges, then F.A.C.E. School, and finally Westmount High School in Westmount, Quebec, graduating in 1981. There, a friend confided to Harris that she had been sexually abused in her home. Hearing of her schoolmate's experience helped form Harris's later commitment as a prosecutor to protect women and children. During her period in Montreal Harris has stated she learned “some” French.

After high school, Harris attended Vanier College in Montreal in 1981–1982. She then attended Howard University, a historically black university in Washington, D.C., living initially in a dorm room at Eton Tower near Thomas Circle. While at Howard, she interned as a mailroom clerk for California senator Alan Cranston, chaired the economics society, led the debate team, and joined Alpha Kappa Alpha sorority. She also completed a summer internship at the Federal Trade Commission, worked as a tour guide at the Bureau of Engraving and Printing, and participated in anti-apartheid protests at the South African embassy and National Mall. Harris graduated in 1986 with a degree in political science and economics.

Harris then returned to California to attend the University of California, Hastings College of the Law (now University of California College of the Law, San Francisco) through its Legal Education Opportunity Program (LEOP). While at UC Hastings, she served as president of its chapter of the Black Law Students Association. She graduated with a Juris Doctor in 1989 and was admitted to the California Bar in June 1990.

Early career (1990–2004)

In 1990, Harris was hired as a deputy district attorney in Alameda County, California, where she was described as "an able prosecutor on the way up". In 1994, Speaker of the California Assembly Willie Brown, who was then dating Harris, appointed her to the state Unemployment Insurance Appeals Board and later to the California Medical Assistance Commission. Harris took a six-month leave of absence in 1994 from her duties, then afterward resumed working as prosecutor during the years she sat on the boards. Harris's connection to Brown was noted in media reportage as part of a pattern of California political leaders appointing "friends and loyal political soldiers" to lucrative positions on the commissions. Harris has defended her work.

In February 1998, San Francisco district attorney Terence Hallinan recruited Harris as an assistant district attorney. There she became the chief of the Career Criminal Division, supervising five other attorneys, where she prosecuted homicide, burglary, robbery, and sexual assault cases – particularly three-strikes cases. In 2000, Harris reportedly clashed with Hallinan's assistant, Darrell Salomon, over Proposition 21, which granted prosecutors the option of trying juvenile defendants in Superior Court rather than juvenile courts. Harris campaigned against the measure, which passed. Salomon opposed directing media inquiries about Prop 21 to Harris and reassigned her, a de facto demotion. Harris filed a complaint against Salomon and quit.

In August 2000, Harris took a job at San Francisco City Hall, working for city attorney Louise Renne. Harris ran the Family and Children's Services Division representing child abuse and neglect cases. Renne endorsed Harris during her D.A. campaign.

District Attorney of San Francisco (2004–2011)

See also: Electoral history of Kamala Harris

Harris with California representative Nancy Pelosi in 2004

In 2002, Harris prepared to run for District Attorney of San Francisco against Hallinan (the incumbent) and Bill Fazio. Harris was the least-known of the three candidates but persuaded the Central Committee to withhold its endorsement from Hallinan. Harris and Hallinan advanced to the general election runoff with 33 and 37 percent of the vote, respectively.

In the runoff, Harris pledged never to seek the death penalty and to prosecute three-strike offenders only in cases of violent felonies. Harris ran a "forceful" campaign, assisted by former mayor Willie Brown, Senator Dianne Feinstein, writer and cartoonist Aaron McGruder, and comedians Eddie Griffin and Chris Rock. Harris differentiated herself from Hallinan by attacking his performance. She argued that she left his office because it was technologically inept, emphasizing his 52-percent conviction rate for serious crimes despite an 83-percent average conviction rate statewide. Harris charged that his office was not doing enough to stem the city's gun violence, particularly in poor neighborhoods like Bayview and the Tenderloin, and attacked his willingness to accept plea bargains in cases of domestic violence. Harris won with 56 percent of the vote, becoming the first person of color elected as district attorney of San Francisco.

Harris ran unopposed for a second term in November 2007.

Public safety

Non-violent crimes

Harris as San Francisco district attorney

In the summer of 2005, Harris created an environmental crimes unit.

In 2007, Harris and city attorney Dennis Herrera investigated San Francisco supervisor Ed Jew for violating residency requirements necessary to hold his supervisor position; Harris charged Jew with nine felonies, alleging that he had lied under oath and falsified documents to make it appear he resided in a Sunset District home, necessary so he could run for supervisor in the 4th district. Jew pleaded guilty in October 2008 to unrelated federal corruption charges (mail fraud, soliciting a bribe, and extortion) and pleaded guilty the following month in state court to a charge of perjury for lying about his address on nomination forms, as part of a plea agreement in which the other state charges were dropped and Jew agreed to never again hold elected office in California. Harris described the case as "about protecting the integrity of our political process, which is part of the core of our democracy". For his federal offenses, Jew was sentenced to 64 months in federal prison and a $10,000 fine; for the state perjury conviction, Jew was sentenced to one year in county jail, three years' probation, and about $2,000 in fines.

Under Harris, the D.A.'s office obtained more than 1,900 convictions for marijuana offenses, including persons simultaneously convicted of marijuana offenses and more serious crimes. The rate at which Harris's office prosecuted marijuana crimes was higher than the rate under Hallinan, but the number of defendants sentenced to state prison for such offenses was substantially lower. Prosecutions for low-level marijuana offenses were rare under Harris, and her office had a policy of not pursuing jail time for marijuana possession offenses. Harris's successor as D.A., George Gascón, expunged all San Francisco marijuana offenses going back to 1975.

Harris has expressed support for San Francisco's sanctuary city policy of not inquiring about immigration status in the process of a criminal investigation.

Violent crimes

In the early 2000s, the San Francisco murder rate per capita outpaced the national average. Within the first six months of taking office, Harris cleared 27 of 74 backlogged homicide cases by settling 14 by plea bargain and taking 11 to trial; of those trials, nine ended with convictions and two with hung juries. She took 49 violent crime cases to trial and secured 36 convictions. From 2004 to 2006, Harris achieved an 87-percent conviction rate for homicides and a 90-percent conviction rate for all felony gun violations.

Harris also pushed for higher bail for criminal defendants involved in gun-related crimes, arguing that historically low bail encouraged outsiders to commit crimes in San Francisco. SFPD officers credited Harris with tightening the loopholes defendants had used in the past. In addition to creating a gun crime unit, Harris opposed releasing defendants on their own recognizance if they were arrested on gun crimes, sought minimum 90-day sentences for possession of concealed or loaded weapons, and charged all assault weapons possession cases as felonies, adding that she would seek prison terms for criminals who possessed or used assault weapons and would seek maximum penalties on gun-related crimes.

Harris created a Hate Crimes Unit, focusing on hate crimes against LGBT children and teens in schools. In early 2006, Gwen Araujo, a 17-year-old American Latina transgender teenager, was murdered by two men who later used the "gay panic defense" before being convicted of second-degree murder. Harris, alongside Araujo's mother Sylvia Guerrero, convened a two-day conference of at least 200 prosecutors and law enforcement officials nationwide to discuss strategies to counter such legal defenses. Harris subsequently supported A.B. 1160, the Gwen Araujo Justice for Victims Act, advocating that California's penal code include jury instructions to ignore bias, sympathy, prejudice, or public opinion in making their decision, also making mandatory for district attorney's offices in California to educate prosecutors about panic strategies and how to prevent bias from affecting trial outcomes. In September 2006, California governor Arnold Schwarzenegger signed A.B. 1160 into law; the law put California on record as declaring it contrary to public policy for defendants to be acquitted or convicted of a lesser included offense on the basis of appeals to "societal bias".

In August 2007, state assemblyman Mark Leno introduced legislation to ban gun shows at the Cow Palace, joined by Harris, police chief Heather Fong, and mayor Gavin Newsom. City leaders contended the shows were directly contributing to the proliferation of illegal guns and spiking homicide rates in San Francisco. (Earlier that month Newsom had signed into law local legislation banning gun shows on city and county property.) Leno alleged that merchants drove through the public housing developments nearby and illegally sold weapons to residents. While the bill would stall, local opposition to the shows continued until the Cow Palace Board of Directors in 2019 voted to approve a statement banning all future gun shows.

Reform efforts

Death penalty

During her campaign, Harris pledged never to seek the death penalty. After a San Francisco Police Department officer, Isaac Espinoza, was shot and killed in 2004, U.S. senator (and former San Francisco mayor) Dianne Feinstein, U.S. senator Barbara Boxer, Oakland mayor Jerry Brown, and the San Francisco Police Officers Association pressured Harris to reverse that position, but she did not. (Polls found that seventy percent of voters supported Harris's decision.) When Edwin Ramos, an illegal immigrant and alleged MS-13 gang member, was accused of murdering a man and his two sons in 2009, Harris sought a sentence of life in prison without parole, a decision Mayor Gavin Newsom backed.

Recidivism and re-entry initiative

In 2004, Harris recruited civil rights activist Lateefah Simon to create the San Francisco Reentry Division. The flagship program was the Back on Track initiative, a first-of-its-kind reentry program for first-time nonviolent offenders aged 18–30. Initiative participants whose crimes were not weapon- or gang-related would plead guilty in exchange for a deferral of sentencing and regular appearances before a judge over a twelve- to eighteen-month period. The program maintained rigorous graduation requirements, mandating completion of up to 220 hours of community service, obtaining a high-school-equivalency diploma, maintaining steady employment, taking parenting classes, and passing drug tests. At graduation, the court would dismiss the case and expunge the graduate's record.

Over six years, the 200 people graduated from the program had a recidivism rate of less than ten percent, compared to the 53 percent of California's drug offenders who returned to prison within two years of release. Back on Track earned recognition from the U.S. Department of Justice as a model for reentry programs. The DOJ found that the cost to the taxpayers per participant was markedly lower ($5,000) than the cost of adjudicating a case ($10,000) and housing a low-level offender ($50,000). In 2009, a state law (the Back on Track Reentry Act, A.B. 750) was enacted, encouraging other California counties to start similar programs. Adopted by the National District Attorneys Association as a model, prosecutor offices in Baltimore, Philadelphia, and Atlanta have used Back on Track as a template for their own programs.

Truancy initiative

In 2006, as part of an initiative to reduce the city's skyrocketing homicide rate, Harris led a city-wide effort to combat truancy for at-risk elementary school youth in San Francisco. Declaring chronic truancy a matter of public safety and pointing out that the majority of prison inmates and homicide victims are dropouts or habitual truants, Harris's office met with thousands of parents at high-risk schools and sent out letters warning all families of the legal consequences of truancy at the beginning of the fall semester, adding she would prosecute the parents of chronically truant elementary students; penalties included a $2,500 fine and up to a year in jail. The program was controversial when introduced.

In 2008, Harris issued citations against six parents whose children missed at least fifty days of school, the first time San Francisco prosecuted adults for student truancy. San Francisco's school chief, Carlos Garcia, said the path from truancy to prosecution was lengthy, and that the school district usually spends months encouraging parents through phone calls, reminder letters, private meetings, hearings before the School Attendance Review Board, and offers of help from city agencies and social services; two of the six parents entered no plea but said they would work with the D.A.'s office and social service agencies to create "parental responsibility plans" to help them start sending their children to school regularly. By April 2009, 1,330 elementary school students were habitual or chronic truants, down 23 percent from 1,730 in 2008, and down from 2,517 in 2007 and from 2,856 in 2006. Harris's office prosecuted seven parents in three years, with none jailed.

Attorney General of California (2011–2017)

Main article: Kamala Harris's tenure as Attorney General of California

Harris speaking at a Democratic rally at the University of Southern California in October 2010

Harris's official Attorney General portrait

In the 2010 general election, she faced Republican Los Angeles County district attorney Steve Cooley. Harris was sworn in on January 3, 2011; she was the first woman, the first African American, and the first South Asian American to hold the office of Attorney General in the state's history. Harris announced her intention to run for re-election in February 2014. On November 4, 2014, Harris was re-elected against Republican Ronald Gold, winning 57.5 percent of the vote to 42.5 percent.

In 2011, Harris obtained two of the largest recoveries in the history of California's False Claims Act over excess state Medi-Cal and federal Medicare payments. In 2012, Harris leveraged California's economic clout to obtain better terms in the National Mortgage Settlement against the nation's five largest mortgage servicers. Harris worked with Assembly speaker John Pérez and Senate president pro tem Darrell Steinberg in 2013 to introduce the Homeowner Bill of Rights, considered one of the strongest protections nationwide against aggressive foreclosure tactics. In 2013, Harris declined to authorize a civil complaint against OneWest Bank, owned by an investment group headed by Steven Mnuchin (then a private citizen); Harris was later criticized for accepting a donation from Mnuchin. In 2015, Harris obtained a $1.2 billion judgment against for-profit Corinthian Colleges for false advertising and deceptive marketing targeting vulnerable, low-income students and misrepresenting job placement rates to students, investors, and accreditation agencies.

Harris opposed California's ban on affirmative action. She asked the Supreme Court to "reaffirm its decision that public colleges and universities may consider race as one factor in admissions decisions."

In February 2012, Harris announced an agreement with Apple, Amazon, Google, Hewlett-Packard, Microsoft, Research in Motion, and Facebook to mandate that apps sold in their stores display prominent privacy policies informing users of what private information they were sharing, and with whom. In 2015, Harris secured two settlements with Comcast totaling $59 million over allegations that it posted online the names, phone numbers and addresses of tens of thousands of customers, and discarded paper records without first omitting or redacting private customer information.

In November 2013, Harris launched the California Department of Justice's Division of Recidivism Reduction and Re-Entry. Harris's record on wrongful conviction cases as attorney general has engendered criticism from academics and activists. After the 2011 United States Supreme Court decision in Brown v. Plata declared California's prisons so overcrowded they inflicted cruel and unusual punishment, Harris fought federal supervision, explaining "I have a client, and I don't get to choose my client." In September 2014, Harris's office argued unsuccessfully in a court filing against the early release of prisoners, citing the need for inmate firefighting labor.

After being elected, Harris declared her office would not defend Prop 8, a state constitutional amendment providing that only marriages "between a man and a woman" are valid, and in February 2013 she filed an amicus curiae brief arguing Prop 8 was unconstitutional. In 2014, Attorney General Kamala Harris co-sponsored legislation to ban the gay and trans panic defense in court, which passed. Harris appealed a federal ruling in favor of an imprisoned transgender woman's request for gender-affirming surgery to the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals, arguing that psychotherapy and feminizing hormone therapy were sufficient medical treatment, although she said she ultimately pushed the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation to change their policy. In 2019, Harris stated that she took "full responsibility" for briefs her office filed in this case and others involving access to gender-affirming surgery for trans inmates.

Harris visiting Peterson Middle School (Santa Clara Unified School District) in 2010

In 2011, Harris urged criminal penalties for parents of truant children, allowing the court to defer judgment if the parent agreed to a mediation period to get their child back in school. Critics charged that local prosecutors implementing her directives were overzealous in their enforcement and Harris's policy adversely affected families.

Harris prioritized environmental protection as attorney general, first securing a $44 million settlement to resolve all damages and costs associated with the Cosco Busan oil spill. In the aftermath of the 2015 Refugio oil spill, Harris toured the coastline and directed her office's resources and attorneys to investigate possible criminal violations. From 2015 to 2016, Harris secured multiple multi-million-dollar settlements with fuel service companies Chevron, BP, ARCO, Phillips 66, and ConocoPhillips to resolve allegations they failed to properly monitor the hazardous materials in their underground gasoline storage tanks. In summer 2016, automaker Volkswagen AG agreed to pay up to $14.7 billion to settle a raft of claims related to so-called Defeat Devices used to cheat emissions standards on its diesel cars.

From left to right: LAPD chief Charlie Beck, Harris, and civil rights lawyer Constance L. Rice celebrate the 50th anniversary of the signing of the Civil Rights Act of 1964.

In 2012, Harris announced that the California Department of Justice had improved its DNA testing capabilities, clearing California's DNA backlog for the first time. In 2015, Harris conducted a 90-day review of implicit bias in policing and police use of deadly force. In April 2015, Harris introduced the first of its kind "Principled Policing: Procedural Justice and Implicit Bias" training, to help law enforcement officers overcome barriers to neutral policing and rebuild trust between law enforcement and the community. The same year, Harris's California Department of Justice became the first statewide agency in the country to require all its police officers to wear body cameras. In 2016, Harris announced a patterns and practices investigation into purported civil rights violations and use of excessive force by the two largest law enforcement agencies in Kern County, California.

In 2016, Harris's office seized videos and other information from the apartment of an antiabortion activist who had made secret recordings and then accused Planned Parenthood doctors of illegally selling fetal tissue.

In 2011, Harris created the eCrime Unit within the California Department of Justice, a 20-attorney unit targeting technology crimes. In 2015, several purveyors of so-called revenge porn sites based in California were arrested, charged with felonies, and sentenced to lengthy prison terms. In 2016, Harris announced the arrest of Backpage CEO Carl Ferrer on felony charges of pimping a minor, pimping, and conspiracy to commit pimping, alleging that 99 percent of Backpage's revenue was directly attributable to prostitution-related ads, many of which involved victims of sex trafficking, including children under the age of 18.

AG Harris announces the arrest of 101 gang members in Los Banos, California.

During her term as attorney general, Harris's office oversaw major investigations and prosecutions targeting transnational criminal organizations for their involvement in violent crime, fraud schemes, drug trafficking, and smuggling. In summer 2012, Harris signed an accord with the Attorney General of Mexico, Marisela Morales, to improve coordination of law enforcement resources targeting transnational gangs engaging in the sale and trafficking of human beings across the San Ysidro border crossing.

U.S. Senate (2017–2021)

Election

Main article: 2016 United States Senate election in California

Senate campaign logo, 2016

Harris's official Senate portrait

After more than 20 years as a U.S. Senator from California, Senator Barbara Boxer announced on January 13, 2015, that she would not run for reelection in 2016. Harris announced her candidacy for the Senate seat the following week. Harris was a top contender from the beginning of her campaign.

The 2016 California Senate election used California's new top-two primary format where the top two candidates in the primary would advance to the general election regardless of party. On February 27, 2016, Harris won 78% of the California Democratic Party vote at the party convention, allowing Harris's campaign to receive financial support from the party. Three months later, Governor Jerry Brown endorsed her. In the June 7 primary, Harris came in first with 40% of the vote and won with pluralities in most counties. Harris faced representative and fellow Democrat Loretta Sanchez in the general election. It was the first time a Republican did not appear in a general election for the Senate since California began directly electing senators in 1914.

On July 19, President Barack Obama and Vice President Joe Biden endorsed Harris. In the November 2016 election, Harris defeated Sanchez, capturing over 60% of the vote, carrying all but four counties. Following her victory, she promised to protect immigrants from the policies of President-elect Donald Trump and announced her intention to remain Attorney General through the end of 2016.

Tenure and political positions

See also: Political positions of Kamala Harris

2017

Meeting with DREAMers in December 2017

On January 28, after Trump signed Executive Order 13769, barring citizens from several Muslim-majority countries from entering the U.S. for ninety days, she condemned the order and was one of many to describe it as a "Muslim ban". She called White House Chief of Staff John F. Kelly at home to gather information and push back against the executive order.

In February, Harris spoke in opposition to Trump's cabinet picks Betsy DeVos for Secretary of Education and Jeff Sessions for United States Attorney General. In early March, she called on Sessions to resign, after it was reported that Sessions, who had previously stated he "did not have communications with the Russians", spoke twice with Russian Ambassador to the United States Sergey Kislyak.

Harris was sworn into the Senate by the vice president, Joe Biden, on January 3, 2017.

In April, Harris voted against the confirmation of Neil Gorsuch to the U.S. Supreme Court. Later that month, Harris took her first foreign trip to the Middle East, visiting California troops stationed in Iraq and the Zaatari refugee camp in Jordan, the largest camp for Syrian refugees.

In June, Harris garnered media attention for her questioning of Rod Rosenstein, the deputy attorney general, over the role he played in the May 2017 firing of James Comey, the director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation. The prosecutorial nature of her questioning caused Senator John McCain, an ex officio member of the Intelligence Committee, and Senator Richard Burr, the committee chairman, to interrupt her and request that she be more respectful of the witness. A week later, she questioned Jeff Sessions, the attorney general, on the same topic. Sessions said her questioning "makes me nervous". Burr's singling out of Harris sparked suggestions in the news media that his behavior was sexist, with commentators arguing that Burr would not treat a male Senate colleague in a similar manner.

In December, Harris called for the resignation of Senator Al Franken, asserting on Twitter, "Sexual harassment and misconduct should not be allowed by anyone and should not occur anywhere."

2018

In January, Harris was appointed to the Senate Judiciary Committee after the resignation of Al Franken. Later that month, Harris questioned Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen for favoring Norwegian immigrants over others and for claiming to be unaware that Norway is a predominantly white country.

In May, Harris heatedly questioned Secretary Nielsen about the Trump administration family separation policy, under which children were separated from their families when the parents were taken into custody for illegally entering the U.S. In June, after visiting one of the detention facilities near the border in San Diego, Harris became the first senator to demand Nielsen's resignation.

Harris (center) at the 2018 commemorations of Bloody Sunday in Selma, where she was invited to speak by John Lewis (right)

In the September and October Brett Kavanaugh Supreme Court confirmation hearings, Harris questioned Brett Kavanaugh about a meeting he may have had regarding the Mueller Investigation with a member of Kasowitz Benson Torres, the law firm founded by the President's personal attorney Marc Kasowitz. Kavanaugh was unable to answer and repeatedly deflected. Harris also participated in questioning the FBI director's limited scope of the investigation on Kavanaugh regarding allegations of sexual assault. She voted against his confirmation.

Harris was a target of the October 2018 United States mail bombing attempts.

In December, the Senate passed the Justice for Victims of Lynching Act (S. 3178), sponsored by Harris. The bill, which died in the House, would have made lynching a federal hate crime.

2019

Harris at SF Pride Parade 2019

In 2019, the nonpartisan GovTrack organization ranked Harris as the "most politically left" United States senator, as well as the least likely senator among Democrats to join bipartisan bills.

Harris supported busing for desegregation of public schools, saying that "the schools of America are as segregated, if not more segregated, today than when I was in elementary school." She viewed busing as an option to be considered by school districts, rather than the responsibility of the federal government.

In March 2019, after Special Counsel Robert Mueller submitted his report on Russian interference in the 2016 election, Harris called for U.S. Attorney General William Barr to testify before Congress in the interests of transparency. Two days later, Barr released a four-page "summary" of the redacted Mueller Report, which was criticized as a deliberate mischaracterization of its conclusions. Later that month, Harris was one of twelve Democratic senators to sign a letter led by Mazie Hirono questioning Barr's decision to offer "his own conclusion that the President's conduct did not amount to obstruction of justice" and called for an investigation into whether Barr's summary of the Mueller Report and his statements at a news conference were misleading.

On May 1, 2019, Barr testified before the Senate Judiciary Committee. During the hearing, Barr remained defiant about the misrepresentations in the four-page summary he had released ahead of the full report. When asked by Harris if he had reviewed the underlying evidence before deciding not to charge the President with obstruction of justice, Barr admitted that neither he, Rod Rosenstein, nor anyone in his office reviewed the evidence supporting the report before making the charging decision. Harris later called for Barr to resign, and accused him of refusing to answer her questions because he could open himself up to perjury, and stating his responses disqualified him from serving as U.S. attorney general. Two days later, Harris demanded again that the Department of Justice inspector general Michael E. Horowitz investigate whether Attorney General Barr acceded to pressure from the White House to investigate Trump's political enemies.

On May 5, 2019, Harris said "voter suppression" prevented Democrats Stacey Abrams and Andrew Gillum from winning the 2018 gubernatorial elections in Georgia and Florida; Abrams lost by 55,000 votes and Gillum lost by 32,000 votes. According to election law expert Richard L. Hasen, "I have seen no good evidence that the suppressive effects of strict voting and registration laws affected the outcome of the governor's races in Georgia and Florida."

In July, Harris teamed with Kirsten Gillibrand to urge the Trump administration to investigate the persecution of Uyghurs in China by the Chinese Communist Party; in this question she was joined by colleague Marco Rubio.

In November, Harris called for an investigation into the death of Roxsana Hernández, a transgender woman and immigrant who died in ICE custody.

In December, Harris led a group of Democratic senators and civil rights organizations in demanding the removal of White House senior adviser Stephen Miller after emails published by the Southern Poverty Law Center revealed frequent promotion of white nationalist literature to Breitbart website editors.

2020

Harris with Congressional Black Caucus women

Before the opening of the impeachment trial of Donald Trump on January 16, 2020, Harris delivered remarks on the floor of the Senate, stating her views on the integrity of the American justice system and the principle that nobody, including an incumbent president, is above the law. Harris later asked Senate Judiciary chairman Lindsey Graham to halt all judicial nominations during the impeachment trial, to which Graham acquiesced. Harris voted to convict the president on charges of abuse of power and obstruction of Congress.

Harris has worked on bipartisan bills with Republican co-sponsors, including a bail reform bill with Senator Rand Paul, an election security bill with Senator James Lankford, and a workplace harassment bill with Senator Lisa Murkowski.

2021

Following her election as Vice President of the United States, Harris resigned from her seat on January 18, 2021, prior to taking office on January 20, 2021, and was replaced by California Secretary of State Alex Padilla.

Committee assignments

While in the Senate, Harris was a member of the following committees:

• Committee on the Budget
• Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs
  • Subcommittee on Federal Spending Oversight and Emergency Management
  • Subcommittee on Regulatory Affairs and Federal Management
• Select Committee on Intelligence
• Committee on the Judiciary
  • Subcommittee on the Constitution
  • Subcommittee on Oversight, Agency Action, Federal Rights and Federal Courts
  • Subcommittee on Privacy, Technology and the Law

Caucus memberships

• Congressional Asian Pacific American Caucus
• Congressional Black Caucus
• Congressional Caucus for Women's Issues

2020 presidential election (2019–2020)

Presidential campaign

Main article: Kamala Harris 2020 presidential campaign

Harris formally announced her run for the Democratic nomination for president on January 27, 2019.

Harris had been considered a top contender and potential frontrunner for the 2020 Democratic nomination for president. In June 2018, she was quoted as "not ruling it out". In July 2018, it was announced that she would publish a memoir, a sign of a possible run. On January 21, 2019, Harris officially announced her candidacy for president of the United States in the 2020 presidential election. In the first 24 hours after her candidacy announcement, she tied a record set by Bernie Sanders in 2016 for the most donations raised in the day following an announcement. More than 20,000 people attended her formal campaign launch event in her hometown of Oakland, California, on January 27, according to a police estimate.

During the first Democratic presidential debate in June 2019, Harris scolded former vice president Joe Biden for "hurtful" remarks he made, speaking fondly of senators who opposed integration efforts in the 1970s and working with them to oppose mandatory school bussing. Harris's support rose by between six and nine points in polls following that debate. In the second debate in August, Harris was confronted by Biden and Representative Tulsi Gabbard over her record as attorney general. The San Jose Mercury News assessed that some of Gabbard's and Biden's accusations were on point, such as blocking the DNA testing of a death row inmate, while others did not stand up to scrutiny. In the immediate aftermath of the debate, Harris fell in the polls. Over the next few months her poll numbers fell to the low single digits. Harris faced criticism from reformers for tough-on-crime policies she pursued while she was California's attorney general. In 2014, she defended California's death penalty in court.

Prior to and during her presidential campaign an online informal organization using the hashtag #KHive formed to support her candidacy and defend her from racist and sexist attacks. According to the Daily Dot, Joy Reid first used the term in an August 2017 tweet saying "@DrJasonJohnson @ZerlinaMaxwell and I had a meeting and decided it's called the K-Hive."

On December 3, 2019, Harris withdrew from seeking the 2020 Democratic nomination, citing a shortage of funds. In March 2020, Harris endorsed Joe Biden for president.

Vice presidential campaign

Main articles: Joe Biden 2020 presidential campaign and 2020 Democratic Party vice presidential candidate selection

Campaign logo for the Biden–Harris ticket

In May 2019, senior members of the Congressional Black Caucus endorsed the idea of a Biden–Harris ticket. In late February, Biden won a landslide victory in the 2020 South Carolina Democratic primary with the endorsement of House whip Jim Clyburn, with more victories on Super Tuesday. In early March, Clyburn suggested Biden choose a black woman as a running mate, commenting that "African American women needed to be rewarded for their loyalty". In March, Biden committed to choosing a woman for his running mate.

On April 17, 2020, Harris responded to media speculation and said she "would be honored" to be Biden's running mate. In late May, in relation to the murder of George Floyd and ensuing protests and demonstrations, Biden faced renewed calls to select a black woman to be his running mate, highlighting the law enforcement credentials of Harris and Val Demings.

On June 12, The New York Times reported that Harris was emerging as the frontrunner to be Biden's running mate, as she was the only African American woman with the political experience typical of vice presidents. On June 26, CNN reported that more than a dozen people close to the Biden search process considered Harris one of Biden's top four contenders, along with Elizabeth Warren, Val Demings, and Keisha Lance Bottoms.

On August 11, 2020, Biden announced he had chosen Harris, who appealed to a younger generation. She was the first African American, the first Indian American, and the third woman after Geraldine Ferraro and Sarah Palin to be picked as the vice-presidential nominee for a major party ticket. Harris is also the first resident of the Western United States to appear on the Democratic Party's national ticket.

Harris became the vice president–elect following the Biden-Harris ticket's victory in the 2020 presidential election. After the major networks called the election for Biden and Harris, Harris was recorded calling Biden, saying, "We did it! We did it, Joe. You're going to be the next President of the United States." The video became one of the ten most-liked tweets of 2020.

Vice presidency (2021–present)

See also: Presidency of Joe Biden

Following the election of Joe Biden as U.S. president in the 2020 election, Harris assumed office as vice president of the United States on January 20, 2021. She is the United States' first female vice president, the highest-ranking female elected official in U.S. history, and the first African-American and first Asian-American vice president. She is also the second person of color to hold the post, preceded by Charles Curtis, a Native American and member of the Kaw Nation, who served under Herbert Hoover from 1929 to 1933. Harris is the third person with acknowledged non-European ancestry to reach one of the highest offices in the executive branch, after Curtis and former president Barack Obama.

Inauguration

See also: Inauguration of Joe Biden

Harris was sworn-in as vice president on January 20, 2021, on two Bibles held by her husband, one belonging to Regina Shelton, a person important to her and her sister Maya Harris, and another belonging to former U.S. Supreme Court Associate Justice Thurgood Marshall.

Associate Justice Sonia Sotomayor administered the oath of office to Harris at 11:40 a.m., with 20 minutes remaining in the term of preceding vice president Mike Pence. Sotomayor became the first woman to administer an inaugural oath twice after she administered Biden's at his 2013 swearing-in. Harris recited the following:

I, Kamala Devi Harris, do solemnly swear that I will support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic; that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same; that I take this obligation freely, without any mental reservation or purpose of evasion; and that I will well and faithfully discharge the duties of the office on which I am about to enter. [So help me God.]

Her first act as vice president was swearing in her replacement Alex Padilla and Georgia senators Raphael Warnock and Jon Ossoff, who were elected in the 2021 Georgia runoff elections.

Tenure

Harris arriving in Guatemala during her first foreign trip as vice president, June 2021

Upon taking office on January 20, 2021, the 117th Congress's Senate was divided 50–50 between Republicans and Democrats; this meant that Harris had to be frequently called upon to exercise her power to cast tie-breaking votes as president of the Senate. Harris cast her first two tie-breaking votes on February 5, 2021. In February and March, Harris's tie-breaking votes were crucial in passing the American Rescue Plan Act of 2021 stimulus package proposed by Biden, since no Republicans in the Senate voted for the package. On July 20, 2021, Harris broke Mike Pence's record for tie-breaking votes in the first year of a vice presidency when she cast the seventh tie-breaking vote in her first six months and cast 13 tie-breaking votes during her first year in office, the most tie-breaking votes in a single year in U.S. history, surpassing John Adams who cast 12 votes in 1790. On December 5, 2023, Harris broke the record for the most tie-breaking votes cast by a vice president casting her 32nd vote, exceeding John C. Calhoun, who cast 31 votes during his nearly eight years as vice president, in less than half the time. On November 19, 2021, Harris served as acting president from 10:10 to 11:35 am EST, while President Biden underwent a colonoscopy. She became the first woman, and the third person overall, to assume the powers and duties of the U.S. presidency under Section 3 of the Twenty-fifth Amendment.

As early as December 2021, Harris was identified as playing a pivotal role in the Biden Administration, owing to her tiebreaking vote in the evenly divided Senate as well as her being the presumed frontrunner in 2024 if Biden was not to seek reelection.

Immigration

Harris and German chancellor Angela Merkel, July 2021

On March 24, 2021, Biden named Harris to work with Mexico and Northern Triangle nations to curb the current flow of migrants to the U.S.-Mexico border and develop a long-term solution. Harris conducted her first international trip as vice president in June 2021, visiting Guatemala and Mexico in an attempt to address the root causes of an increase in migration from Central America to the United States. During her visit, in a joint press conference with Guatemalan president Alejandro Giammattei, Harris issued an appeal to potential migrants, stating "I want to be clear to folks in the region who are thinking about making that dangerous trek to the United States-Mexico border: Do not come. Do not come." Her work in Central America led to creation of task forces on corruption and human trafficking; a women's empowerment program, and an investment fund for housing and businesses. Axios in 2021 inaccurately described Harris as a "border czar," suggesting she would be responsible for security along the U.S.-Mexico border; Axios corrected the story in July 2024, though Republicans continued to use the moniker.

Foreign policy

Harris met with French president Emmanuel Macron in November 2021 to strengthen ties after the contentious cancellation of a submarine program. A subsequent meeting was held in November 2022 during Macron's visit to the U.S., resulting in an agreement to strengthen U.S.-France space cooperation across civil, commercial, and national security sectors.

Harris and Indian prime minister Narendra Modi, June 2023

In April 2021, Harris indicated that she was the last person in the room before Biden decided to remove all U.S. troops from Afghanistan, commenting that the president has "an extraordinary amount of courage" and "make(s) decisions based on what he truly believes ... is the right thing to do." National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan said that Biden "insists she be in every core decision-making meeting. She weighs in during those meetings, often providing unique perspectives."

Harris assumed a "key diplomatic role" within the Biden Administration, particularly following the Russian invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, after which she was dispatched to Germany and Poland to rally support for arming Ukraine and imposing sanctions on Russia.

Harris meeting Yoon Suk Yeol in Goddard Space Flight Center, in 2023

In April 2023, Harris visited Goddard Space Flight Center in Maryland with South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol and agreed to work to strengthen the space alliance between the United States and South Korea. “We renew our commitment to strengthen our cooperation in the next frontier of our expanding alliance, and of course that is space,” Harris said at a joint news conference with Yoon.

In November 2023, Harris pledged that the Biden administration would place no conditions on U.S. aid to Israel in its war with Hamas in Gaza. In March 2024, Harris criticized Israel's actions during the Israel–Hamas war, saying, "Given the immense scale of suffering in Gaza, there must be an immediate ceasefire for at least the next six weeks...This will get the hostages out and get a significant amount of aid in."

Speeches and speaking engagements

In May 2021, Harris became the first female commencement speaker at the United States Naval Academy. In May 2023, she became the first woman to give a commencement address for West Point.

Public image

Harris' term in office has seen high staff turnovers that included the departures of her chief of staff, deputy chief of staff, press secretary, deputy press secretary, communications director, and chief speechwriter. An anonymous source said that they resigned because they and other staffers "often feel mistreated" by senior staffers. "Symone Sanders, senior advisor and chief spokesperson for Harris, pushed back against the complaints" and defended their management style, especially for giving opportunities to black women. Sanders herself resigned from her position in December 2021. Critics allege that the high rate of resignations reflects "dysfunction" and demoralization caused by Harris' "abrasive management style" and was characteristic of her tenure as California attorney general; citing unnamed individuals "close to the vice president's operation", Axios reported that at least some of the turnover was due to exhaustion from a demanding transition into the new administration, as well as financial and personal considerations.

Harris quips, "You think you just fell out of a coconut tree?" during a speech on May 10, 2023.

During her tenure, Harris has had one of the lowest approval ratings of any vice president. According to a RealClear Politics polling average, as of April 2024, 39% of registered voters had a favorable opinion of Harris and 55% had an unfavorable opinion.

In 2024, a video clip from 2023 went viral of Harris saying "You think you just fell out of a coconut tree? You exist in the context of all in which you live and what came before you" while swearing in the President’s Advisory Commission on Advancing Educational Equity, Excellence, and Economic Opportunity for Hispanics. The full context of the quote refers to a personal anecdote that was told near the end of the speech, which concerned the importance of addressing the needs of parents, grandparents, and communities as part of educational equity. Harris' shift in tone from light to serious, and the unusualness of the quote out of context, garnered a variety of reactions, and has since been used both derisively and as a show of support.

2024 presidential campaign

Main article: Kamala Harris 2024 presidential campaign

On July 21, 2024, incumbent president and presumptive Democratic nominee Joe Biden suspended his campaign for re-election in 2024 with Harris and endorsed her as the Democratic presidential nominee. Harris also received endorsements from Bill and Hillary Clinton, the Congressional Black Caucus, and many others. If elected, Harris would become the first female and first Asian-American president of the United States, and the second African-American president after Barack Obama. On July 22, 2024, Harris secured enough nonbinding delegates for the presidential nomination.

Political positions

Main article: Political positions of Kamala Harris

Awards and honors

Harris at Howard University in 2017

In 2005, the National Black Prosecutors Association awarded Harris the Thurgood Marshall Award. That year, she was included in a Newsweek report profiling "20 of America's Most Powerful Women". A 2008 New York Times article also identified her as a woman with potential to become president of the United States, highlighting her reputation as a "tough fighter".

In 2013, 2020, and 2021, Time included Harris on the Time 100, Time's annual list of the 100 most influential people in the world. In 2016, the 20/20 Bipartisan Justice Center awarded Harris the Bipartisan Justice Award along with Senator Tim Scott. Biden and Harris were jointly named Time Person of the Year for 2020.

Harris was selected for the inaugural 2021 Forbes 50 Over 50, which is a list of entrepreneurs, leaders, scientists and creators who are over the age of 50.

On May 15, 2015, Harris received a Doctor of Laws from the University of Southern California. On May 13, 2017, she received a Doctor of Humane Letters from Howard University, where she gave a commencement address.

Personal life

Vice presidential office portrait of Harris and her husband, Second Gentleman Doug Emhoff, in 2021

In the 1990s, Harris dated Speaker of the California Assembly Willie Brown. In 2001, Harris had a brief dating relationship with talk show host Montel Williams.

Harris met her future husband, attorney Doug Emhoff, through a mutual friend who set up Harris and Emhoff on a blind date in 2013. Emhoff, who was born in a Jewish family, was an entertainment lawyer who became partner-in-charge at Venable LLP's Los Angeles office. Harris and Emhoff were married on August 22, 2014, in Santa Barbara, California. Harris is stepmother to Emhoff's two children, Cole and Ella, from his previous marriage to the film producer Kerstin Emhoff. As of August 2019, Harris and her husband had an estimated net worth of $5.8 million.

Harris is a Baptist, holding membership of the Third Baptist Church of San Francisco, a congregation of the American Baptist Churches USA. She is a member of The Links, an invitation-only social and service organization of prominent Black American women.

Harris's sister, Maya, is a lawyer and MSNBC political analyst; her brother-in-law, Tony West, is general counsel of Uber and a former United States Department of Justice senior official. Her niece, Meena, is the founder of the Phenomenal Women Action Campaign and former head of strategy and leadership at Uber.

Publications

Harris has written two nonfiction books and one children's book.

• Harris, Kamala; O'C. Hamilton, Joan (2009). Smart on Crime: A Career Prosecutor's Plan to Make Us Safer. San Francisco: Chronicle Books. ISBN 978-0-8118-6528-9.
• Harris, Kamala (January 8, 2019). The Truths We Hold: An American Journey. London: Penguin. ISBN 978-1-984886-22-4.
• Harris, Kamala (January 8, 2019). Superheroes Are Everywhere. London: Penguin Young Readers Group. ISBN 978-1-984837-49-3.

See also

• Black women in American politics
• List of African-American United States Cabinet members
• List of African-American United States senators
• List of female state attorneys general in the United States
• List of female United States Cabinet members
• List of female United States presidential and vice presidential candidates
• List of United States politicians of Indian descent
• List of United States senators from California
• Women in the United States Senate

External links

Official

• Vice President Kamala Harris official website
• Official campaign website
• Senator Kamala D. Harris (2017–2021)

Other

• Appearances on C-SPAN
• Kamala Harris at On the Issues