Kamala Harris: New vice president to serve as a ground-breaking presence in the White House

Vice President-Elect Kamala Harris is the history-making half of the Joe Biden ticket: The highest-ranking woman ever elected in the United States and the first Black woman to serve in her new job.

The 56-year-old California senator emerged as a rising Democratic Party star over the past two decades, winning her Senate seat after stints as San Francisco district attorney and California’s attorney general. She mounted her own run for the White House this year, taking the slot as Biden’s running mate once he secured the nomination to take on President Trump.

Harris learned about the Democratic ticket’s victory while out for a Saturday morning run.

“We did it, we did it Joe,” she said in a call to the incoming president. “You’re going to be the next president of the United States.”

Harris is the daughter of two civil rights activists: Mom Shyamala Gopalan, from India, and dad Donald Harris, from Jamaica. They met as students on the Berkeley campus of the University of California in the turbulent 1960s. The couple split when Harris and her sister were still young and were raised by their mother.

Harris has often said her mom became the most important influence on her life. And she has invoked the names of other Black women who created the path that she followed in politics and activism: Former New York Rep. Shirley Chisholm, the first Black candidate to seek a major party presidential nomination in 1972, along with educator Mary McLeod and civil rights proponent Fannie Lou Hamer.

“We’re not often taught their stories, but as Americans, we all stand on their shoulders,” she said in accepting the vice presidential nomination three months ago.

Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Kamala Harris (D-CA) participates in a interview and question-and-answer session with leaders from historically black colleges and universities during a Thurgood Marshall College Fund event at the JW Marriott February 07, 2019 in Washington, DC. (Chip Somodevilla/)

The political veteran attended the historically black Howard University, where she pledged the Alpha Kappa Alpha sorority — the nation’s first founded by and for Black women.

Harris is married to Doug Emhoff, a Jewish man whose children from a previous marriage refer to her as “Mamala.”

During her short bid to become the Democratic presidential nominee, Harris put Biden in her sights during one notable moment in a June debate, bringing up his work with segregationist senators and opposition to school busing in the 1970s, which she said had affected her personally.

Biden, who has deep ties in the African-American community, put her on the ticket anyway. As the 2020 campaign neared its finish, Harris provided an extra boost in getting Black voters to the polls, adding a special incentive to stand in long lines or head to a drive-in rally. Her presence served to “reinforce the excitement about the ticket,” said Hilary McLean, a Sacramento-based Democratic consultant.

Harris spent the fall often campaigning in areas where that excitement could be stoked. In September, she visited Headliners Barber Shop in Detroit, a Black-owned business on one of the Black community’s major roads.

“It was very important to us and to me personally to be here,” Harris said. She spoke about how Black business has been hit hard by the COVID-19 pandemic.

Harris, a veteran campaigner, proved adept at staying on the message despite President Trump’s campaign efforts to rattle her.

She also faced skepticism from many Black activists for her self-described role as California’s “top cop.”

Black activists, though, ultimately rallied around her.

“I was more interested in what her views are now,” said A’shanti Gholar, president of Emerge America, a Democratic women’s group. “There’s no perfect candidate.”

With News Wire Services