Table of Biography
Kamala Harris is an American politician and attorney lawyer who is the vice president-elect of the United States. Kamala Harris is the second African-Asian woman to run for President of America. She is a Politician famous for being a female politician and attorney and for running for President of America.
Early Life and Childhood
Kamala Harris’s current age is 59 years old and she was born on October 20, 1964, in Oakland, California, United States. Her full name is Kamala Devi Harris. Her father’s name is Donald Harris (Jamaican) and her mother’s name is Shyamala Gopalan Harris (Indian). She has one sibling sister named Maya Harris. Harris follows the Christian religion and her birth sign is Virgo. She belongs to a mixed (Jamaican-Indian) ethnicity.
Moreover, her father is a Jamaican, who taught at Stanford University and her mother is the daughter of an Indian diplomat and she was a breast cancer researcher. Her younger sister, Maya, later became a public policy advocate. Her sister is an MSNBC political analyst, and her brother-in-law is Tony West, general counsel of Uber as well as a former United States Department of Justice senior official.
Additionally, her mother used to ensure that Kamala along with her younger sister, Maya, maintained ties to their Indian heritage by raising them with Hindu beliefs and taking them to her home country every couple of years. At the age of 12, her parent got divorced and she moved with her mother and sister to Montreal, Quebec, Canada. She even learned French during her time in Quebec 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.
Caption: Kamala Harris with her mother in a childhood photo. Source: Instagram
Education
Kamala went to Westmount High School in Washington D.C. She was elected to the student council. Where she joined the debate team for a B.A. in political science and economics. She graduated in 1986 from Howard University. She earned a law degree (1989) from Hastings College.
Personal Life
Harris is a married woman. She married her husband, a lawyer Douglas Emhoff on August 22, 2014, in Santa Barbara, California. She is even the stepmother of his two children named Ella, and Cole. Douglas Emhoff met Kamala on a blind date. Later, he divorced her wife and married Kamala.
Talking about her past relationships, She dated then-California Assembly Speaker Willie Brown from 1994 to 1995. He is 30 years older than Harris and was separated from his wife during their relationship. She has even said that she met Brown because their social circles overlapped. However, she ended the relationship. In the year 2000, she had been in a relationship with Louise Renne.
Caption: Kamala Harris with her husband (Sources: answerafrica.com)
Professional Life
A member of the Democratic Party, she is set to assume office on January 20, 2021, alongside president-elect Joe Biden, having defeated incumbent President Donald Trump and Vice President Mike Pence in the 2020 presidential election. Kamala was the first Indian American to serve as a U.S. senator as well as the second African American woman. Harris was previously the state’s attorney general from 2011 to 2017. After her college graduation, Kamala subsequently worked as a deputy district attorney from 1990 to 1998 in Oakland This earned her a reputation for toughness as she prosecuted cases of gang violence, drug trafficking, and sexual abuse.
In the year 2003, she defeated her boss, Terence Hallinan to become a San Francisco district attorney. Her goals in this role include the launch of the “Back on Track” initiative that cuts recidivism by offering job training and other educational programs for low-level offenders. While in the year 2004, she had drawn criticism for adhering to a campaign pledge. And had refused to seek the death penalty for a gang member convicted of the 2004 killing of police officer Isaac Espinoza. Harris then rose through the ranks, becoming district attorney in 2004.
California Attorney General
In the year 2010, she was narrowly elected attorney general of California, winning by a margin of less than 1 percent, thus becoming the first female and the first African American to hold the post.
She defeated Steve Colley for General in California. As well as being re-elected against Ronald Gold. After taking office the next year, Kamala demonstrated political independence, for example, rejecting pressure from the administration of President Barack Obama for her to settle a nationwide lawsuit against mortgage lenders for unfair practices.
Similarly, she quickly made an impact in her role by pulling out of negotiations for a settlement. Through this, she had gained the country’s five largest financial institutions for improper mortgage practices, eventually scoring a $20 million payout in 2012 that was five times the original proposed figure for her state.
Instead, she pressed California’s case and in 2012 won a judgment five times higher than that originally offered. Her refusal to defend Proposition 8 in 2008, which banned same-sex marriage in the state, helped lead to it being overturned in 2013. Harris’s book, Smart on Crime released in 2009 and she cowrote with Joan O’C. Hamilton became a model for dealing with the problem of criminal recidivism.
Caption: Kamala Harris captioned while questioning Jeff Sessions. Source: The New York Times
After 2010
Moreover, in 2012, Kamala delivered a memorable address at the Democratic National Convention, which helped her raise her national profile. Widely considered a rising star within the party, she was recruited to run for the U.S. Senate seat held by Barbara Boxer, who was retiring. In early 2015, Harris declared her candidacy and was on the campaign trail. She called for immigration and criminal justice reforms, increases to the minimum wage, and protection of women’s reproductive rights. Later, she easily won the 2016 election.
In the year 2016, she joined the chamber’s Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, Select Committee on Intelligence, Committee on the Judiciary, and Committee on the Budget. She has even 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.
Besides these, she has even made a name for herself from her spot on the Judiciary Committee, particularly for her pointed questioning of Brett Kavanaugh. She pointed out that who faced accusations of sexual assault after being nominated for Supreme Court justice in 2018. As well as then-Attorney General Jeff Sessions during a 2017 hearing that delved into alleged collusion between the Trump team and Russian agents.
2020 Presidential Race
In the year 2019, she announced that she was running for president in 2020 during a Martin Luther King Jr. Day interview on Good Morning America. She had even 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. Then, after one week she announced that she was formally kicked off her campaign before an estimated 20,000 supporters at Frank Ogawa Plaza in Oakland, California.
Similarly, she had remained near the top of the Democratic polls over the following weeks, withstanding the brouhaha. It had ensured 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. Besides this, she had even stood as one of the top performers of the first Democratic primary debate in late June. At the event, she had garnered headlines for taking Joe Biden to task over his history of opposing federal busing for school integration.
As of the year 2019, she had 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. Unfortunately, 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. And by December, she had announced that she was ending her once-promising presidential campaign.
She voted against Senator Bernie Sanders’ bill to reduce the size of the $740 billion National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2021.
Joe Biden’s Vice Presidential Running Mate
Presidential hopeful Biden announced that he chose his former rival Harris as his running mate on August 11, 2020. He had said
“”I have the great honor to announce that I’ve picked Kamala Harris — a fearless fighter for the little guy, and one of the country’s finest public servants — as my running mate,” Biden said. “Back when Kamala was Attorney General, she worked closely with Beau. 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.”
Harris had replied;
“I’m honored to join him as our party’s nominee for Vice President, and do what it takes to make him our Commander-in-Chief,”
She is even the first Black woman and person of South Asian descent to get a nomination for a national office by a major party. Moreover, she is even the fourth woman in history to compete on a major party’s presidential ticket.
On November 7, 2020, the race became in favor of the Biden-Harris ticket. Now, she will be the second vice president of significant non-European ancestry, following Charles Curtis, who worked from 1929 to 1933 alongside President Herbert Hoover. She will also be the first African American, the first Asian American, and the first female vice president in U.S. history. Thus, the highest-ranking female elected official in United States history.
Books
Kamala Harris published her memoir, The Truths We Hold: An American Journey, in January 2019. It reflects on her relationships and upbringing. She also wrote another book in 2019 titled “Superheroes Are Everywhere.”
Shortly thereafter she announced that she was seeking the Democratic presidential nomination in 2020. From the outset, Harris was one of the leading candidates. However, by September 2019 her campaign was in serious trouble, and in December she dropped out of the race.
Awards
As her achievement in her career, in 2004 she received the title “Women of Power”. Again, a year later National Black Prosecutors Association honored her with the “Thurgood Marshall Award”.
Kamala Harris – Net Worth 2024
Kamala Harris has earned name, fame, and wealth in her career. She has an estimated net worth of around $2 million. So, the sources of her income are different posts in the District office and sales of her book. She also does endorsements for California Gov. Gavin Newsom; Reps. Nanette Diaz Barragán, Katie Hill, Barbara Lee, Ted Lieu. Harris earns around $157,000 as a Senator and $320,000 as a writer. Moreover, the popular personality doesn’t seem to be involved in brand endorsement activities. However, she will surely be working as a brand ambassador for top brands in the coming days.
Scandals
Kamala Harris was criticized in 2004. For refusing to seek the death penalty for a gang member for the killing of a police officer. Other than that she has no controversy or rumors about her. She likes to keep her life low and private.
Kamala Harris – Body Measurements
Kamala Harris has a slim body type with a well-maintained body. She has a height of 5 ft 10 inches (61.2 inches) a weight of 62 kg (136.68lb) and a body measurement of 34-29-37. She has dark brown eyes and black hair color.
Kamala Harris – Social Media
Harris is active on social media. She has more than 1.3 million followers on Facebook @Kamala Harris. As well as she has more than 2 million followers on Instagram and more than 5.1 million followers on Twitter. She joined Twitter in April 2009 and as of March 2020, she has shared 2578 posts on her Instagram account.