Biden’s vice- president elect Kamala Harris on verge of making history

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 Harris's campaign faded and she pulled out of the race for t he White House, i nstead endorsing her former rival Mr Biden.

He named the California senator as his running mate in the summer, 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 Jamaican- born father and Indian- born 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 California'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 assert ive questioning of Trump administration officials.

The 56- year- old was one of the highest- profile contenders in a crowded Democratic primary. Mr Biden said of his running mate: "Kamala knows how to govern. She knows how to make the hard calls. She's ready to do this j ob on day one”.