Kamala Harris

Kamala Harris Biography

Kamala Devi Harris (October 20, 1964) American lawyer and politician. The first woman of Jamaican and Indian descent to lead the San Francisco District Attorney’s office and the California Department of Justice, and become the Vice President of the United States of America. She is currently a United States Senator from California. She also serves on the National Security Committee, the Judiciary Committee, and the Select Committee on Intelligence. She started her career with the Alameda County Attorney’s Office and has a law degree. In 2019 she published the book The Truths We Hold: An American Journey.

Early life

She was born in Oakland, California, the daughter of Indian-American immigrant Shyamala Gopalan and Jamaican Donald J. Harris. Her mother is a breast cancer activist and researcher and her father is an economics professor. When she was very young, she experienced the struggle for civil rights, a fact that marked her. When her parents divorced, she and her sister (Maya) moved with her mother to Montreal, Canada. She studied high school there and then returned to the United States to start her law studies. She graduated in political science from Howard University in Washington and studied law at the Hastings College of Law at the University of California.

Career

Harris would begin her career working at the Alameda County Attorney’s Office. She then specialized in child abuse cases and in 1998, she joined the San Francisco Attorney General’s Office, where she headed the Career Criminals Unit and headed the Division for Children and Families. She was later elected San Francisco District Attorney (2003-11), a position she held for two terms, after being reelected in 2007. Among her achievements as a prosecutor, is the creation of the program Retomar el Camino, which provides study and employment opportunities to people who have committed a crime for the first time. Her excellent performance (not without criticism), augured a good political future for her.

San Francisco District Attorney’s Office

At the end of her second term in San Francisco, Harris was elected Attorney General of California (2011), being the first African-American woman of Jamaican and Indian descent to hold the position.

After that, she worked tirelessly on behalf of minorities, women, and workers. Harris stood up to corporations, supported California’s landmark climate change law, she also defended mortgaged homeowners by winning a $ 25 billion settlement and upheld the Affordable Care Act. Besides, she helped achieve marriage equality for Californians and wiped out gangs that trafficked guns, drugs, and people.

Harris served on the District Attorney’s Office until she was named a California Senator in January 2017.

Senator

As a Senator, Harris has continued to fight for communities, equality, women, and children. She is a strong defender of rights and recognizes herself as an African American, a descendant of slaves (on her father’s side). In recent years, she has fought for a wage increase for workers and promoted several projects to reform the criminal justice system. She is known for winning a lawsuit on behalf of veterans and their families and her promotion of education, as a key point in reintegration.

In addition to being a senator, Harris is a member of the Homeland Security and Government Affairs committees, the Judiciary Committee, the Select Committee on Intelligence, and the Budget Committee. In 2019 she ran as a pre-candidate for the presidency by the Democrats, however, she ended up withdrawing her campaign in December of the same year.

Vicepresident of the United States of America

Harris emerged as the perfect vice presidential candidate for Democratic candidate Joe Biden. Following a hectic election campaign, she made history on November 7, 2020, by becoming the first woman ever to be elected as the US vice president, according to major media projections. In her first speech as Vice President-elect, she left a clear message: