Who Is Kamala Harris?

Kamala Harris has achieved the historic milestones of becoming the first woman and the first woman of color to serve as the vice president of the United States. Her groundbreaking career includes notable roles as a former California attorney general and U.S. senator. Explore some of the highlights of Vice President Kamala Harris's personal and political journey, as well as her positions on key issues.

Early Life and Education

Kamala Devi Harris was born on Oct. 20, 1964, in Oakland, California to immigrant parents. Her mother, Shyamala, emigrated from India and became a renowned breast cancer researcher and received her doctorate in the same year Kamala was born. Her father, Donald, came to the U.S. from Jamaica and was an economics professor at Stanford University.

Harris's parents were involved in the civil rights movement and emphasized the significance of bringing people together to champion the rights and freedoms of all individuals. At a young age, she participated in civil rights marches, even attending as a toddler.

Her parents divorced when she was seven. She moved to Montreal at age 12, along with her mother and her sister, Maya. It was there that Kamala and her sister organized a reportedly successful protest against the owner of their apartment building who wouldn't let children play on the building’s lawn.

As a student at Westmount High School in Quebec, Harris dreamed of becoming a lawyer. She returned to the U.S. after graduation and entered Howard University in Washington, D.C., where she earned a B.A. in political science and economics. Then she went back to her home state of California and attended the University of California Hastings College of the Law where she earned her J.D. in 1989.

Notable Accomplishments

Harris has a number of notable accomplishments to her name. She began her legal career as deputy district attorney in Alameda County, California, focusing on sex crimes. She became managing attorney of the Career Criminal Unit in San Francisco from there and became chief of the San Francisco Community and Neighborhood Division of the DA’s office in 2000, where she established the state’s first Bureau of Children’s Justice.

As the district attorney of San Francisco in 2004, Kamala Harris presided over the first same-sex wedding following the overturning of Proposition 8. She also created an environmental justice unit and launched a program called "Back on Track," which is aimed at providing educational and employment opportunities to first-time drug offenders.

In 2010, Kamala Harris was elected as the attorney general of California. In this role, she achieved an $18 billion settlement for homeowners who were facing foreclosure and secured a $1.1 billion settlement for students and veterans who had been deceived by a for-profit education company.

In 2021, Kamala Harris achieved a historic milestone by taking the oath of office as vice president. She marked a series of "firsts" as the initial woman, woman of color, and South Asian American to assume this role. As part of her responsibilities, Harris has engaged in numerous international visits, traveling to more than 19 countries and holding discussions with over 150 world leaders to enhance global partnerships and alliances.

In 2022, Biden signed the Inflation Reduction Act, a significant legislative achievement in which Vice President Harris played a pivotal role. It aims to cut expenses for families, address the climate crisis, reduce the budget deficit, and ensure that major corporations pay their share of taxes. One of the key aspects of this act, influenced by Vice President Harris's advocacy, is the empowerment of Medicare to negotiate prices for certain high-cost medications. It limits the monthly cost of insulin for seniors to $35, eliminates out-of-pocket expenses for recommended adult vaccines under Medicare, and sets a yearly cap of $2,000 for seniors' pharmacy-related expenditures.

San Francisco Attorney General

Harris defeated her former boss, Terence Hallinan, in an election to become San Francisco district attorney in 2003. She was the first Black woman to hold the office. The conviction rate in San Francisco jumped from 52% to 67% during her first three years. She launched the “Back on Track” initiative that cut recidivism through job training and other programs for low-level offenders.

Harris went from a police favorite to being shunned by police unions during her tenure as San Francisco DA due to a reputation for only prosecuting the most airtight of cases and for her handling of a case against a cop killer in 2004. Harris had an often-stated personal opposition to the death penalty and had made a campaign promise to never seek it. It turned many of those on the blue line against her when she refused to request the death penalty for a gang member convicted of killing police officer Isaac Espinoza.

Attorney General of California

Harris became the first woman and the first Black and South Asian American attorney general of California in November 2010, narrowly beating Los Angeles County District Attorney Steve Cooley in the race. She made an immediate mark by withdrawing from settlement negotiations with five of the country’s largest financial institutions for improper mortgage practices, and eventually settled for five times the original proposed amount.

Harris created Open Justice as attorney general, an online platform that makes criminal justice data available to the public at large. The database has helped improve police accountability by tabulating the number of deaths and injuries of those in police custody. She also presided over the creation of “Operation Boo,” a mandatory curfew for all homeless sex offenders on Halloween.

U.S. Senator for California

Harris became the first South Asian American to enter the U.S. Senate when she defeated Loretta Sanchez in 2016. Her pointed questioning of high-profile witnesses like then U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions and Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh drew her high praise from the left. Harris supported a single-payer healthcare system in the Senate and introduced legislation to provide financial relief to those facing rising housing costs.

Harris joined bipartisan bills less often than all other Senate Democrats, according to GovTrack. Of the 696 bills she co-sponsored, only 14% were introduced by Republicans. On the other hand, she received bicameral (House and Senate) support on more bills than any other member of her Senate class and had the most co-sponsors on her bills of anyone in her class.

Harris introduced one bill while serving as senator that became law in 2019: S. 129 (116th): Saint Francis Dam Disaster National Memorial Act. It provides for the establishment of a national monument to commemorate those killed by the collapse of the Saint Francis Dam on March 12, 1928. Three other bills that she's sponsored have been enacted via other legislation:

• S. 3055 (115th): Disaster Victims Passport and ID Relief Act of 2018
• S. 3033 (115th): COUNT Victims Act
• S. 729 (115th): John Muir National Historic Site Expansion Act

The Presidential Campaign

Harris announced that she was running for president in January 2019. One high point of her campaign came during the first Democratic debate when Harris confronted Joe Biden over his opposition to cross-district busing in the 1970s. She delivered a stirring anecdote about the opportunity that busing afforded one child, ending with the dramatic line, “And that little girl was me.” The clip became an immediate viral sensation and so did her candidacy.

But the resulting surge in poll numbers didn't last. Harris shut down her campaign in December 2019 and endorsed Biden in March 2020. He announced Harris as his running mate in August 2020, saying, “Back when Kamala was attorney general, she worked closely with (my son) 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.”

Biden was declared the 46th president elect of the U.S. on Nov. 7, 2020, making Harris the first female, the first Black person, and the first Asian American to hold the position of vice president. She was sworn into office on Jan. 20, 2021.

Philosophies and Publications

Published Works

Harris has published three books. Her first was "Smart on Crime: A Career Prosecutor's Plan to Make Us Safer" in 2009. It explores her philosophy and ideas for criminal justice reform. The book focuses on issues such as government corruption and justice for sexual abuse victims. It portrays Harris as a prosecutor with a tough but empathetic approach, emphasizing support for victims and measures to prevent crimes. It's also viewed by some as pro-law enforcement, and aligned with an era focused on crime prevention rather than racial bias and police presence.

Two other books appeared in early 2019. "The Truths We Hold: An American Journey" is a memoir that reflects on her personal relationships and upbringing. "Superheroes Are Everywhere" is a picture book autobiography for children.

Ideology

Both Biden and Harris are generally considered to be in the moderate wing of the Democratic Party, though GovTrack labels Harris as one of the most liberal members of the Senate. Her record in the Senate is to the left of Biden’s.

Harris began by joining Sen. Bernie Sanders in his call for Medicare for All but she later backtracked, leaving her position uncertain. Biden does not support Medicare for All and has called for fixing and expanding the Affordable Care Act (ACA) instead. Harris was a co-sponsor of the Green New Deal, which Biden doesn't support.

The area on which they seem to agree most is immigration. Both favor a path to citizenship for undocumented immigrants living in the U.S. Both favor protection of Dreamers, including a plan to fix Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA), and she supported his reversal of President Donald Trump’s Muslim ban.

The Bottom Line

Kamala Harris's public service career has been filled with firsts: the first woman, and the first Black woman, the first South Asian-American elected to hold various government offices and positions, including state attorney general and U.S. senator. The culmination of these is the job of vice president of the U.S. As one publication put it, "her political gifts made it easy to forget that with each step in her career she was making history."

Her journey reflects a blend of centrist and liberal ideologies, and her role continues to evolve, as she focuses on critical issues like voting rights and immigration.