Kamala Harris breaks vice presidential glass ceiling
WASHINGTON – The vice presidential glass ceiling has been broken.
California Sen. Kamala Harris will make history as the first woman elected vice president, now that Joe Biden has won the White House.
Biden beat Donald Trump four years after Hillary Clinton came up short in her bid to be the first female president.
Harris, 56, was the first African American woman and the first Asian American person on a major party’s presidential ticket. Her husband, entertainment lawyer Doug Emhoff, will be the first “Second Gentleman.”
Harris has said she expects to work closely with Biden, offering him a perspective shaped by a different background.
“It is about a partnership that also is informed by one of the reasons I think Joe asked me to join him, which is that he and I have – we have the same ideals and values, but we have very different life experiences,” Harris said during her final fundraiser for the campaign.
Biden had faced tremendous pressure to choose a woman of color as his running mate because of the large role African Americans – and particularly Black women – have played in the Democratic Party and because of the racial issues thrust into the foreground through the coronavirus pandemic and the deaths of Black Americans at the hands of police.
Announcing his choice, Biden called the former prosecutor a “fearless fighter for the little guy, one of the country’s finest public servants.”
Harris was only the third female vice presidential nominee of a major party ticket.
Her debate with Vice President Mike Pence was the second-most-watched vice presidential debate, after the 2008 matchup between Biden and Alaska Sen. Sarah Palin.
Biden’s age contributed to the public’s interest in Harris, as his 77 years increase the chance that he might not serve a full term or seek reelection.
Breaking barriers of race, gender
Biden’s selection of Harris was a significant fundraising boost to the campaign. She was also dispatched to energize voters of color, particularly Black Americans. The first candidate on a major party ticket to have attended a historically Black university, Harris campaigned at HBCUS, barbershops and other places of significance for communities of color. For many virtual campaign events, Harris broadcast out of a studio set up at her alma mater, Howard University.
“I say it’s about time a graduate from a state university and an HBCU graduate are in the White House,” Biden said of himself and Harris during a drive-in rally in Atlanta.
Emhoff was also a regular presence on the campaign trail and formed a bond with Jill Biden, who preceded him as the spouse of a vice president.
Emhoff, who will be the first Jewish American in the vice presidential residence, was a regular Biden surrogate for campaign events targeted to Jewish supporters. He was also “sent all the time to probably the hardest spots,” Biden senior strategic adviser Greg Schultz said during an October campaign event.
Harris had competed against Biden for the Democratic nomination but ended her bid before the first votes were cast.
She was born in Oakland, California, to Shyamala Gopalan, a breastcancer scientist who immigrated from India, and Donald Harris, a professor of economics who immigrated from Jamaica.
Harris said her mother raised her to be a proud, strong Black woman – and also to be proud of her Indian heritage.