The California US Senator Kamala Harris made it to the side of Joe Biden as Vice President. You trust her to get further.
- Kamala Harris was born in California in 1964.
- Since January 20th is the earlier Senator the Vice President next to US President Joe Biden.
- She is the first black woman with Afro-Caribbean roots to hold this post.
Kamala Harris: aspiring hope for the US Democrats
Washington, DC – Kamala Harris was born on October 20, 1964 to an Indian Tamil woman and a Jamaican in Oakland, California. Until the Democratic Party presidential candidate, Joe Biden, officially in August 2020 as his “Running Mate” – his Vice presidential candidate – presented, she already had a remarkable political career behind her. And it was clearly shaped by hers origin. Now it does not seem impossible that Kamala Harris will reach for the highest office in the USA. She already made it to Vice President under Joe Biden after the US election in November 2020.
Kamala Harris: Origin and Family
Kamala Harris‘Mother, the breast cancer researcher Shyamala Gopalan, emigrated from India to America in 1960. Your father, the economics professor Donald J. Harris, came to the United States from Jamaica. In the 1960s, the years of student protests, the two of them pushed Kamala Harris across the Berkeley University campus in a stroller.
When she was seven years old, her parents separated. Kamala and her sister Maya Harris grew up with their mother, first in Montreal, Canada, where Shyamala Gopalan Harris had a research assignment. Oakland later became the center of life again family. The religious character of the two girls consisted of Baptist and Hindu elements.
Kamala Harris says that she owed her fighting spirit to her mother, who was active as a civil rights activist: “My mother made us strong women.” She taught her daughters: “Don’t just sit around and complain. Do something! “
Kamala Harris has been with the Jewish attorney since 2014 Douglas Emhoff married, he brought two children into the marriage. According to him, his wife’s professional success is based on her political commitment as well as on her multicultural background. This also makes her popular with the non-African American electorate.
Kamala Harris: Degree and first position as a public prosecutor
Kamala Harris studied political science and economics in Washington, then law in San Francisco. She was admitted to the bar in 1990 and began her career as a contentious public prosecutor.
In 2003, Harris, a member of the US Democratic Party, was elected San Francisco’s first female district attorney. In 2007 she was unanimously re-elected.
Her style was not always undisputed: in the election campaign, she had ruled out ever to seek the death penalty. When she was in the case of the cop-killer Isaac Espinzo If she kept doing so, she incurred the displeasure of the police unions.
At the same time, she turned the left in her own party against her. Her law-and-order policy was not well received in liberal California: Kamala Harris voted for parents of chronic truants to be punished with up to one year in prison.
Kamala Harris: Career as Attorney General
Candidate in 2010 Kamala Harris for the vacant position of the Attorney General from California and successfully prevailed against six applicants. On January 3, 2011, she was sworn in as Attorney General. In the USA, this office is a combination of attorney general and attorney general. Here, too, Kamala Harris took on the role of pioneer: She was not only the first female occupation of this position, but also the first person with an Indian and African American background.
In 2014, as Attorney General, she appealed against a verdict that ruled the death penalty unconstitutional. The party left in particular still blames them today for the fact that without this objection the death penalty in California would not have been abolished in March 2019, but in 2014. It is noteworthy that Kamala Harris is privately seen as an opponent of the death penalty.
In September 2014, Kamala Harris briefly became a possible successor to the US Attorney General Eric Holders acted. president Barack Obama however, opted for Loretta Lynch. Kamala Harris, on the other hand, was re-elected as Attorney General and began her second term in January 2015.
Kamala Harris: US Senator for the State of California
Quit in early 2015 Kamala Harris to run for the US Senate. It was supported by a broad base of the Democrats. Among other things, the then US President spoke Barack Obama – whom she had in turn supported in his presidential candidacy – and his vice-president Joe Biden for them as Senator out.
The primary elections in California decided the two Democrats Loretta Sanchezwho was assigned to the political center, and Kamala Harris as a representative of the progressive wing for herself. In the Senate election in November 2016, Kamala Harris was able to gather 62.6 percent of all voters behind him. As the second colored woman, she entered the US Senate in January 2017. At the time they were sworn in, there were exactly three African American US senators.
Analytical, razor-sharp, unyielding
Right at the start of her career as a Senator Kamala Harris resolutely took the lead in opposition to the president’s immigration policy Donald Trump. She also made a name for herself through her merciless and razor-sharp appearances at Senate hearings:
- At the hearing of the Minister of Justice Rod Rosenstein 2017 regarding the dismissal of FBI director James Comey Trump urged the Republicans to ask more politely.
- In 2018 she submitted to the controversial candidate for the Supreme Court favored by Trump, Brett Kavanaugh, a precise, almost inquisitorial questioning. With this interrogation she became known to a wide public.
- In 2019, Minister of Justice gave way William Barr your questions about the special investigator’s final report Robert Mueller in the context of the Russia affair. She then suggested that he resign from his position.
Kamala Harris: 2020 presidential candidacy
Always was Kamala Harris acted as a possible US presidential candidate for the Democrats. When she finally announced her candidacy in 2019, she was initially considered a favorite over her competitors Joe Biden, Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren. During the primary campaign, she clashed several times with Joe Biden, whom she accused, among other things, of making common cause with declared racists as a young senator. In May 2019, she described Joe Biden as a great “running mate” – she had him in mind as a running mate for her presidency.
But in the course of the year she lost support and gave up her candidacy in December 2019 due to poor survey results. In March 2020, she specifically spoke out in favor of Joe Biden as the US Democratic presidential candidate, who announced Kamala Harris as his runner-up in August 2020.
Kamala Harris: 2020 Vice Presidential Candidate
Joe Biden designated Kamala Harris when announcing his decision as a “fearless fighter”. She was trusted to be able to mobilize mainly African American voters – an important argument, especially against the background of the “Black Lives Matter” movement.
But not just because of her origin and Biden chose her sex. When imagining his Vice presidential candidate he also stressed that she was able to “do the job [der Präsidentin] to take over immediately. ”The calculation of the almost 78-year-old Biden: to motivate people to vote who do not necessarily want to see him as president, but rather speculate on Kamala Harris as a potential successor.
In the traditional TV duel between the vice presidential candidates, Kamala Harris and Mike Pence in October 2020 the questions of the moderator. Unlike the TV duel between the two presidential candidates Donald Trump and Joe Biden, which was largely chaotic and emotional, the two running mates tried to argue. Kamala Harris advocated more economic redistribution, more climate protection and more state regulation.
