The Courier & Advertiser (Perth and Perthshire Edition)
Running mate Harris on the brink of making history as the next VP
A trailblazer throughout her career, Kamala Harris is on the brink of making history as the first female, black, and IndianAmerican vice-president.
Democratic candidate Joe Biden’s running mate is one of the party’s most prominent figures and launched her own bid to become president last year.
But the early promise of Ms Ha r r i s ’ s campaign faded and she pulled out of the race for the White House, instead endorsing her former rival Mr Biden.
He named the California senator as his running mate in the s u m m e r, making history by selecting the first black woman to compete on a major party’s presidential ticket.
Born in 1964 in Oakland, California, to a Jamaicanborn father and Indianborn mother, Ms Harris said she was inspired to fight injustice by her mother, who was an activist and researcher.
After studying at Howard
University and then for a law degree at the University of California, she began her career in the Alameda County District Attorney’s Office.
She won her first election in 2003 when she became San Francisco’s district attorney and, when elected C a l i f o r n i a ’s attorney general in 2010, she was the first woman and black person to hold the job.
After being elected to the Senate in 2016, she quickly gained attention for her assertive questioning of Trump administration officials during congressional hearings.
The 56-year-old launched her presidential campaign in early 2019 with the slogan “Kamala Harris For the People,” a reference to her courtroom work.
After choosing Ms Harris as his running mate in August, Mr Biden praised her as “smart, she’s tough, she’s experienced, she’s a proven fighter for the backbone of this country”.