VP-elect takes her place in history

With her election to the second-highest post in the nation, Kamala Harris has secured her place in history as a first — several times over.

The first woman to be vice president. First Black person. First Asian American.

With each boundary broken, Harris, California’s junior senator, established herself as a new face of American political power, one reflective of a broad cross-section of the population that for much of our history did not see itself in the nation’s leaders.

“My 9-year-old will believe for the rest of her life that there is no ceiling for Black girls,” said Lateefah Simon, a Bay Area-based civil rights advocate whom Harris has mentored for nearly 20 years. “Her best friend, who is a first-generation Latina, ... will see the vice president of the United States holding up the experiences of her mother, of this young girl’s mother, of the migrant experience.”

On Saturday, Harris acknowledged the many eyes upon her as she spoke for the first time as vice presidentelect.

“Every little girl watching tonight sees this as a country of possibilities,” Harris said.

Wearing suffragist white and occupying the unorthodox speaking slot before her running mate, Presidentelect Joe Biden, Harris made a forceful prediction: “While

A8] of demonization in America begin to end here and now,” President-elect Joe Biden said after Vice President-elect Kamala Harris introduced him at their victory celebration in Wilmington, Del.