1964-present
Latest News: Kamala Harris Accepts Democratic Presidential Nomination
Vice President Kamala Harris officially accepted the Democratic presidential nomination at the Democratic National Convention on August 22, making history as the first Black woman and Asian American to lead a major party's presidential ticket. In her acceptance speech, Harris spoke about her background and asked voters to "chart a new way forward," drawing a sharp contrast between herself and Republican nominee former President Donald Trump.
"My entire career, I've only had one client: the people," she said. "And so, on behalf of the people, on behalf of every American regardless of party, race, gender or the language your grandmother speaks, on behalf of my mother and everyone who has ever set out on their own unlikely journey, on behalf of Americans like the people I grew up with, people who work hard, chase their dreams, and look out for one another, on behalf of everyone whose story could only be written in the greatest nation on earth, I accept your nomination to be president of the United States of America."
The 59-year-old's speech ended the DNC with a standing ovation.
Harris launched her campaign just one month ago, becoming the presumptive favorite for the nomination after President Joe Biden’s decision to end his reelection bid. Harris was officially nominated on August 5, having received the majority of delegate votes during a virtual roll call. The next day, she announced Minnesota Governor Tim Walz as her running mate on the Democratic ticket.
Her campaign has already raised upwards of $500 million and has received endorsements from an array of celebrities and political figures, including former presidents Barack Obama and Bill Clinton, former First Lady Michelle Obama, and performers Ariana Grande, Barbra Streisand, and Olivia Rodrigo. Additionally, Oprah Winfrey made her political convention debut to endorse Harris for president.
Harris’ parents divorced when she was 7 years old, and at age 12, she moved with her mother and sister to Montreal. During her time in the Canadian city, she learned to speak some French and demonstrated her burgeoning political instincts by organizing a protest against a building owner who wouldn’t allow neighborhood kids to play on the lawn.
Harris attended Westmount High School just outside of Montreal and founded a dance troupe with a friend. Returning to the States to attend Howard University in Washington, D.C., she was elected to the liberal arts student council and joined the debate team en route to a bachelor’s degree in political science and economics. Harris then enrolled at the University of California, Hastings College of the Law, where she earned her juris doctor in 1989.
Legal Career
After earning admittance to the State Bar of California in 1990, Harris began her career as a deputy district attorney in Alameda County. She became managing attorney of the Career Criminal Unit in the San Francisco District Attorney’s Office in 1998, and two years later, she was appointed chief of its Community and Neighborhood Division, during which time she established the state’s first Bureau of Children’s Justice.
San Francisco District Attorney
In 2003, Harris defeated incumbent Terence Hallinan, her former boss, to become San Francisco’s district attorney. While serving in the role, she launched the “Back on Track” initiative, which cut recidivism by offering job training and other educational programs for low-level offenders. However, Harris also drew criticism for adhering to a campaign pledge and refusing to seek the death penalty for a gang member convicted of the 2004 killing of police officer Isaac Espinoza.
California Attorney General
Harris continued her political ascent by narrowly beating Los Angeles County District Attorney Steve Cooley for California attorney general in November 2010. As the first African American and woman to hold the position, she quickly made an impact by pulling out of negotiations for a settlement from the country’s five largest financial institutions for improper mortgage practices. Eventually, in 2012, she scored a $20 million payout, five times the original proposed figure for her state.
The attorney general also made waves for her refusal to defend Proposition 8, a 2008 California ballot measure deemed unconstitutional by a federal court. After the U.S. Supreme Court dismissed an attempt to appeal the ruling in 2013, Harris officiated the first same-sex marriage in California since Prop 8 was initially enacted.
Elsewhere, Harris oversaw a successful lawsuit against the false advertising of the for-profit Corinthian Colleges chain and continued legal pursuit of the classified advertising service Backpage, which led to its CEO pleading guilty to facilitating prostitution and money laundering after she moved on to the U.S. Senate.
U.S. Senator
In November 2016, Harris handily defeated Congresswoman Loretta Sanchez for a U.S. Senate seat from California, becoming just the second Black woman and the first South Asian American to enter the chamber. She served on the Senate’s Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, the Select Committee on Intelligence, as well as the Judiciary and Budget committees.
Harris made a name for herself from her spot on the Judiciary Committee, particularly for her pointed questioning of Brett Kavanaugh, who was accused of sexual assault after being nominated for the Supreme Court in 2018, and of then-U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions during a 2017 hearing that delved into alleged collusion between the Trump team and Russian agents.
The senator supported a single-payer healthcare system and introduced legislation to increase access to outdoor recreation sites in urban areas and provide financial relief in the face of rising housing costs. She resigned from the Senate in January 2021, two days before taking office as U.S. vice president.
2020 Presidential Campaign
On January 21, 2019, during a Martin Luther King Jr. Day interview on Good Morning America, Harris announced she was running for president in 2020. One of the top Democratic candidates, the California senator joined a field that already included Massachusetts Senator Elizabeth Warren and New York Senator Kirsten Gillibrand in a bid to push President Donald Trump from the White House after one term.
One week after her GMA announcement, Harris formally kicked off her campaign before an estimated 20,000 supporters at Frank Ogawa Plaza in Oakland, California. She remained near the top of the Democratic polls over the following weeks, withstanding the brouhaha that ensued when she admitted to smoking marijuana in a February interview and another when an animal rights activist confronted her onstage at a political event in June.
Harris stood out as one of the top performers of the first Democratic primary debate in late June, garnering headlines for taking Joe Biden to task over his history of opposing federal busing for school integration. During the second debate the following month, she found herself a target of attacks, with Biden and the rest criticizing her healthcare plan and aspects of her record as California attorney general.
Her support in the polls slipping by the fall of 2019, Harris sought to thrust herself back into the top tier by calling for the impeachment of Trump over his dealings with Ukraine and a focus on women’s access to reproductive health care. Meanwhile, her campaign staff reportedly bickered over strategy and the chain of command, the dysfunction noted in a resignation letter from the state operations director that became public via The New York Times.
In early December 2019, Harris announced she was ending her once-promising presidential campaign. But months later, she had another chance to make it on the Democratic ticket.
First Female Vice President in U.S. History
In August 2020, 10 days before presidential hopeful Joe Biden accepted the Democratic nomination, he announced Harris, his former rival, as his running mate. “Back when Kamala was Attorney General, she worked closely with [my son] Beau,” Biden said. “I watched as they took on the big banks, lifted up working people, and protected women and kids from abuse. I was proud then, and I’m proud now to have her as my partner in this campaign.” Continuing to break barriers, Harris became the first Black woman and person of South Asian descent to be nominated for a national office by a major party. She was the fourth woman in history to compete on a major party’s presidential ticket.
On November 7, 2020, four days after election day, Biden was declared the 46th president-elect after winning Pennsylvania. This made Harris the first female vice president and the first Black person and Asian American to hold the position. That evening, a beaming Harris took the stage at a victory rally in Wilmington, Delaware, her suffragette white pantsuit a nod to the efforts of her predecessors. Harris thanked the voters, her running mate, and her family, giving special acknowledgment to her mother:
“When she came here from India at the age of 19, she maybe didn’t quite imagine this moment. But she believed so deeply in America where a moment like this is possible, and so I am thinking about her and about the generations of women—Black women, Asian, white, Latina, Native American women—who throughout our nation’s history have paved the way for this moment tonight, women who fought and sacrificed so much for equality and liberty and justice for all.”
Harris officially became U.S. vice president on January 20, 2021, after being sworn in by Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor. According to her White House profile, Harris has represented the United States on over a dozen foreign trips during her term and has met with more than 150 world leaders to help strengthen global alliances.
In her position as president of the Senate, Harris set a record in December 2023 by casting her 32nd and 33rd tiebreaking votes—breaking John C. Calhoun’s mark that stood for almost 200 years.
Since 2023, Harris has led the White House Office of Gun Violence Prevention. She has also focused on key issues such as immigration, voting, and reproductive rights. In Minnesota in March 2024, she became the first American president or vice president to tour a health center providing abortions.
2024 Presidential Campaign
With President Joe Biden, Harris began running for a second term in the 2024 presidential election. Their incumbent ticket faced few Democratic challengers and earned almost 3,900 delegates in primary races, all but assuring the Democratic nomination.
However, on July 21, 2024, Biden announced he was dropping out of the race and endorsed Harris as the preferred Democratic nominee to face former President Donald Trump for the White House this November. “I will do everything in my power to unite the Democratic Party—and unite our nation—to defeat Donald Trump,” Harris said ahead of the Democratic National Convention in late August.
Support for Harris’ candidacy built quickly, and on August 5, a majority of Democratic delegates approved her as the party’s nominee to face Trump in the general election. She is the first Black woman and Asian American to lead a major party’s ticket. On August 6, Harris selected Minnesota Governor Tim Walz as her running mate.
Books
Harris published two books in early 2019: The Truths We Hold: An American Journey, which reflects on her personal relationships and upbringing, and Superheroes Are Everywhere, another memoir rendered in picture-book form for kids.
She first became an author in 2009 with Smart on Crime: A Career Prosecutor’s Plan to Make Us Safer, which explores her philosophy and ideas for criminal justice reform.
Husband and Children
Harris married lawyer Doug Emhoff in Santa Barbara, California, on August 22, 2014. The couple initially met on a blind date a year prior. Emhoff became the first second gentleman in U.S. history after Harris took office as vice president in January 2021.
Harris is the stepmother of Emhoff’s two children, Ella and Cole, who affectionately call her “Momala.” Harris told Elle in 2019: “They are brilliant, talented, funny kids who have grown to be remarkable adults. I was already hooked on Doug, but I believe it was Cole and Ella who reeled me in.”
Cole, born in 1994 and named after saxophonist John Coltrane, is an actor and production assistant who has worked on movies like Minari (2020) and Father of the Bride (2022). Ella—born in 1999 and similarly named after a musician, jazz singer Ella Fitzgerald—is a model and fashion designer.
Net Worth
Harris’ net worth is estimated around $8 million as of July 2024, according to Celebrity Net Worth. Much of her wealth stems from income earned by her husband, Doug Emhoff. Forbes reported Harris earned a salary of $235,000 as vice president in 2023.
Quotes
- I grew up with a stroller’s-eye view of the civil rights movement, and often I joke that as a child I was surrounded by adults marching and shouting for this thing called justice.
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