Kamala Harris: Facts About First Asian-American And African-American Woman Vice-President Of The US

After the results of the US Presidential Election 2020 clearly declared the victory of Joe Biden as the 46th US President against incumbent Donald J Trump, he chose Indian-origin candidate Kamala Harris as the first woman Vice-President of the US. Born on 20 October 1964, Kamala Devi Harris is a member of the Democratic Party. She will be assuming office on 20 January 2021 along with US President-Elect Joe Biden.

Kamala Harris will become the first African-American and first Asian-American woman Vice-President ever in the history of the USA. As the entire world witnesses the result of US Presidential Election 2020, here are some facts about Kamala Harris, now the highest-ranking female elected official in US history.

Also Read: Joe Biden: Lesser Known Facts About The US President-Elect 2021

1. Kamala Harris was born in Oakland, California, the US to parents Shyamala Gopalan (mother) and Donald J Harris (father). Her mother is a biologist whose work has played a key role in stimulating the research on breast cancer.

2. Her mother was only 19 when she arrived in the US from Tamil Nadu, India in 1958. At the time she was a graduate student in Nutrition and Endocrinology at the University of California, Berkeley. She completed her PhD in the year 1964. Kamala Harris' father is a professor at Stanford University and migrated to the US from Jamaica.

3. She lives with her sister Maya in Berkeley, California.

4. She has visited India several times with her mother. She admits that she was deeply influenced by Indian culture in the first few visits.

5. Her maternal grandfather's thoughts, opinions and views on modernity and feminism inspired Harris to a great extent.

6. She was only 7 when her parents divorced. She recalls that when she visited her father in Palo Alto with her sister, the people around didn't allow them to play with their children just because Harris and her sisters are half-black.

7. Initially, Harris attended Notre-Dame-des-Neiges, a French-speaking school. Later, she went on to study at the Westmount High School in Westmount, Quebec.

8. After graduating from high school, Kamala Harris studied at Howard University. There she also interned as a mail clerk under Alan Cranston, a California Senator. While working as an intern, she led a team named Alpha Kappa Alpha.

9. In 1986, she graduated from Howard University in Political Science and Economics.

10. She went on to pursue law at the University of California Hastings College of the Law. She attended law school through the Legal Education Opportunity Program (LEOP).

11. At the law school, she served as president of the Black Law Students Association.

12. In the year 1989, she graduated with a Juris Doctor (Doctor of Jurisprudence) degree and then was admitted to the California Bar in June 1990.

13. In the same year, Harris was hired as deputy district attorney in Alameda County, California. In 1994, she was appointed for the state Unemployment Insurance Appeals Board.

14. In February 1998, Harris was elected as an assistant district attorney, defeating San Francisco district attorney Terence Hallinan.

15. Later Harris became the Chief of the Career Criminal Division. Her role included prosecuting homicide, robbery, sexual assaults and burglary.

16. On 12 November 2008, Harris announced her candidacy for the California Attorney General. She was nominated for the same on 8 June 2010 with a 33.6% vote, defeating Chris Kelly and Alberto Torrico.

17. She was sworn-in on 3 January 2011, as the first woman, the first South Asian-American and the first African-American person to hold the office of the Attorney General in US history.

18. She was re-elected for the same position in 2014.

19. In the 2016 Senate election, Harris defeated Loretta Sanchez to become the second South Asian-American and African-American woman to serve in the US Senate.

20. As a member of the Senate, she worked extensively on bringing major healthcare reforms, federal rescheduling of Cannabis, imposing a ban on assault weapons, the Dream Act and bringing a progressive tax reform.

21. She declared her name for the 2020 Democratic presidential nomination. This fetched her national attention.

22. On 11 August 2020, she was declared as Joe Biden's running mate in the US Presidential Election 2020.

23. On 7 November 2020, the race was called in favour of the Joe Biden and Kamala Harris ticket.