UNITED STATES, — Editor's note: The above video is from July 22.
Kamala Harris (D) is the 49th vice president of the United States.
Harris announced her candidacy for the 2024 presidential election on July 21, 2024, following President Joe Biden's (D) withdrawal from the race. Harris received the Democratic nomination during a virtual roll call vote on August 2, 2024.
An Associated Press survey of Democratic delegates estimated Harris had reached the majority delegate threshold necessary to become the Democratic presidential nominee on July 22, 2024.
Harris has said key issues for her campaign include reducing child poverty, supporting labor unions, affordable healthcare, and paid family leave. Harris also said she supported the Freedom to Vote: John R. Lewis Act, supported red flag laws, universal background checks, and an assault weapons ban, and said "when Congress passes a law to restore reproductive freedoms, as president of the United States, I will sign it into law."
As vice president, Harris chose to work in the area of voting reforms at the start of her tenure. The Biden administration also tasked her with focusing on easing immigration at the U.S.-Mexico border and abortion access. As vice president, Harris has served as the chairwoman of the White House Task Force on Worker Organizing and Empowerment and the White House Task Force to Address Online Harassment and Abuse.
Harris was elected to the U.S. Senate in 2016, defeating Loretta Sanchez (D) 62% to 38%, and served in that role until 2021. Before serving in the Senate, Harris served as the attorney general of California from 2011 to 2017. She was first elected to the position in 2010, defeating Steve Cooley (R) 46% to 45.5%. From 2004 to 2011, Harris was San Francisco's district attorney.
Harris was born in Oakland, California, in 1964. Her mother, Shyamala Gopalan, is a biologist from India. Her father, Donald J. Harris, is an economist from Jamaica. From the age of twelve, Harris lived in Montreal, Quebec, with her mother and sister until she returned to the U.S. to attend Howard University in Washington, D.C. She earned a bachelor's degree in political science and economics from Howard in 1986. Harris attended law school at the University of California, Hastings, serving as president of the school's chapter of the Black Law Students Association. She graduated with a J.D. in 1989.
After graduating from law school, Harris joined the office of the Alameda County district attorney, where she worked for eight years as a prosecutor. Then-state assemblyman Willie Brown (D) appointed Harris to positions on the California Unemployment Insurance Appeals Board and the Medical Assistance Commission in 1994. In 1998, Harris was hired as managing attorney for the San Francisco District Attorney's Career Criminal Unit. She transferred to head the Division on Families and Children in 2000. In 2003, Harris was elected San Francisco District Attorney. She won re-election in 2007.
In 2010, was elected California attorney general. She was re-elected in 2014. In 2016, Harris was elected to the U.S. Senate seat formerly held by Barbara Boxer (D). Harris was the first South Asian American to serve in the U.S. Senate.
In 2009, Harris authored Smart on Crime: A Career Prosecutor's Plan to Make Us Safer, where she discussed potential changes to the criminal justice system. She wrote The Truths We Hold: An American Journey, a memoir, and Superheroes Are Everywhere, a picture book, in 2018.
SOURCE: Ballotpedia