Kamala Harris: Breaking barriers as America’s first female vice president

Everybody knows Kamala Harris. She’s the current Democratic candidate for president, the first Black and South Asian vice president and the former attorney general of California. It’s an undoubtedly impressive resume, and even more so when you take into account how rare these achievements are for a woman of color in the historically white — and male-dominated halls of American government.

But unless you’ve studied up on her life and career, there’s probably still a lot more you don’t know about Kamala Harris. Ready to get to know the woman behind the headlines?

Kamala Harris’ education and early life

Future Senator Kamala Devi Harris was born in 1964 in Oakland, California. She and her younger sister, Maya, were raised by their Indian mother and Jamaican father, both immigrants. Harris’s mother, Shyamala Gopalan, had arrived in the United States from India at just 19, working her way to a doctoral degree and a thriving career as a breast cancer scientist.

The parents would eventually divorce, leaving Harris more distant from her father, the former Stanford University economics professor Donald J. Harris. Perhaps inspired by her parents’ scholarly pursuits, Harris earned her undergraduate degree from Howard University and then a law degree from the University of California, Hastings. Once her education was complete, Kamala Harris began her career at the Alameda County District Attorney’s Office.

Personal life and background

Growing up in California in the 1960s, the young Kamala Harris experienced the civil rights movement firsthand. Her parents were young graduate students at Berkeley, likely to hold progressive ideals, and they no doubt taught Kamala the value of hard work as a self-made immigrant family.

The Harris family moved several times while Donald pursued a string of teaching jobs at various colleges. But their familial bliss was shattered by the couple’s separation in 1969 when Kamala was just five years old. The experience deeply affected Shyamala, who had never had a serious relationship before Donald. It also led to a custody battle over the children, which put an end to Donald’s close relationship with Kamala and her sister.

While growing up as the daughter of an economist and a scientist must’ve had its advantages, it was the early obstacles in Kamala and her mother’s lives that most strongly influenced her future career.

Kamala Harris’ legal career: District attorney and attorney general

As mentioned earlier, Kamala Harris’ legal career began with her working as a prosecutor in Alameda County – a section of California that includes Berkeley, Oakland and Fremont – in 1990. While there, Harris specialized in prosecuting child sexual assault cases, using her legal expertise to protect some of the most vulnerable members of society.

In 2003, Harris was elected District Attorney of the City and County of San Francisco, a more high-profile role than anything she had tackled yet. Harris would go on to serve two terms as the District Attorney of San Francisco.

During that time, she served as a national leader in the LGBTQ+ rights movement, even officiating the first same-sex wedding in the county after the overturning of Proposition 8. Harris’ other priorities included establishing the office’s first environmental justice unit and pioneering a program to divert first-time drug offenders into education and employment rather than incarceration. The U.S. Department of Justice praised the program for being a national model of innovation in law enforcement.

Kamala Harris as attorney general of California

After two trailblazing terms as the District Attorney of San Francisco, Kamala Harris would face her greatest challenge yet serving as the Attorney General of California. Her election in 2010 made her the first Black American and the first woman to hold the post.

Harris made the most of her time leading the largest state justice department in the country. Her top priorities were protecting Californians from corporate greed, continuing to defend LGBTQ+ rights and enforcing environmental laws. For example, Harris won a twenty-billion-dollar settlement for victims of unfair foreclosures on their home, as well as a billion-dollar settlement for students and veterans who had been fleeced by a for-profit education company. She also defended Obama’s historic Affordable Care Act in court.

After two terms and six years of service as California’s AG, Kamala Harris resigned. Ambitious as always, Harris was ready to seek out her next challenge in the halls of Congress.

Her time in Congress

Kamala Harris was elected United States Senator for California in 2016, another history-making achievement for the lawyer turned politician. When Harris was sworn in early in 2017, she became the second Black American woman and the first South Asian-American Senator in the history of the United States Congress.

Of course, Harris would continue to pursue her trademark progressive policies in her new role as a senator. To further these aims, she served on the Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, the Select Committee on Intelligence, the Committee on the Judiciary and the Committee on the Budget. There, she would do her best to preserve the rights of American citizens to affordable healthcare and a clean, livable environment.

Kamala Harris’ major legislative contributions as U.S. senator

During her time in the Senate, legislation was Kamala Harris’ primary weapon against the forces she deemed dangerous to the American populace, and especially Californians. She made the most of it, supporting legislation to relieve hunger, lower the burdens of rent, ease access to capital for small businesses and reinforce American infrastructure, like roads and bridges.

On the foreign policy front, Harris used her place on the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence to uplift bipartisan legislation meant to shore up the security of American elections. She also made headlines for her hard-line approach to questioning Supreme Court nominees Jeff Sessions and Brett Kavanaugh as part of the Judiciary Committee, calling back to her extensive experience as a prosecutor.

Health care reform and affordable care

As would be expected from someone who had once defended Obama’s Affordable Care Act in court, Kamala Harris took many opportunities to advocate for accessible healthcare during her term as senator.

She was particularly interested in improving maternal healthcare. This may have been a response to the rising rates of maternal mortality–death during pregnancy or immediately post-termination in the United States, which continue to be well above those reported by countries with similar incomes. As you might guess, the risk of death related to pregnancy is highest for would-be mothers who are Black rather than white or Hispanic.

Climate change and environmental justice

Similarly, Kamala Harris used her time in the Senate to continue her work protecting the environment from corporate overreach. Most notably, she was one of the earliest sponsors of the Green New Deal, U.S. Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s blueprint to transition the American economy to 100% clean energy in less than ten years.

Unfortunately, the ambitious bill met its end in the Senate, foiled by the Republican majority as well as many fellow Democrats afraid of pushback from industries based on pollution, such as coal and natural gas.

Kamala Harris as vice president of the United States

By August of 2020, it was clear that Kamala Harris’ time in the Senate would soon come to an end. That’s because soon-to-be-president Joe Biden had named her as his VP pick, instantly elevating the California senator to the national stage.

After the contentious 2020 election, Harris made history as the first woman, the first Black American and the first South Asian American to serve as vice president of the United States. As you can probably guess by now, Harris would use her new level of fame and influence to protect women from overzealous legislation meant to control their bodies and defend the freedom of all Americans to live in a clean environment, safe from the threat of gun violence. 

As vice president, Kamala Harris also represented the U.S. abroad on over a dozen trips to more than 19 foreign countries. There, she strengthened America’s relationship with over 150 leaders around the world.

Kamala Harris’ role in the Biden administration

Having secured her place at the highest levels of the U.S. government, Kamala Harris would take her fight for the health and safety of Americans further than ever before. Alongside President Joe Biden, Harris worked to ensure the passage of a groundbreaking new gun safety law, the first in three decades.

Harris also capped off her long career in health care advocacy by instituting a new cap on the cost of insulin for seniors, lowering prices for other prescription medications and expanding Medicaid coverage for postpartum care. She and the president were even able to gather bipartisan support for a one-trillion-dollar investment in American infrastructure, which funded the replacement of every lead pipe in the country, repairing bridges and public transit and advancements in the availability of high-speed internet.

These and other achievements led to the Biden-Harris administration presiding over a record-breaking economy, creating more small business jobs in two years than any prior administration.

Key political achievements and barriers broken

That wasn’t the only record broken during Kamala Harris’ time as vice president. In fact, as president of the Senate (a role traditionally filled by the VP), Harris cast more tie-breaking votes than any previous vice president, breaking a nearly 200-year-old record. One of these decisive votes ensured the passage of the Inflation Reduction Act, the largest-ever investment in confronting the climate crisis.

Harris also led the charge to confirm the nomination of the first Black woman to join the Supreme Court, Associate Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson. She and President Biden also worked to increase the representation of women and people of color at all levels of the federal government. In doing so, Harris ensured that although she was the first Black woman to reach many milestones, the women and people of color following in her footsteps would have an easier time than she did.

In a 2019 speech, Harris shared the advice her mother had once given her, which went on to shape much of her illustrious career.

“My mother would look at me and she’d say, ‘Kamala, you may be the first to do many things, but make sure you are not the last.’”

These words make it all the more fitting that Harris’ next challenge would be striving to become the first Black woman to fill the highest office in the U.S. government.

Kamala Harris’ political future

As you probably already know, Kamala Harris’ DNC speech in 2024 marked the formal beginning of her campaign for president of the United States of America alongside her running mate, former Minnesota governor Tim Walz. The announcement left people all over the world struggling with a single question: Can Kamala Harris beat Trump?

Though Kamala Harris’ winning message looked promising, she came short of her bid to rise to the Oval Office. Despite her loss, she will almost certainly find a way to stay true to her commitment to protecting the health and safety of the American populace. Whether as president in the future or in some other role, Harris will continue to open doors to greater representation for women, people of color and everyone else who remains underrepresented in our democracy.

Looking for more analysis on Kamala Harris in the news? Read more about Harris’ opinion on reparations, her plan for Black men, or her remarks on race.

Politics

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