![Kamala Harris: the new Democratic presidential candidate](https://media-manager.starsinsider.com/gallery/1080/na_6690f1ce86f31.jpg)
![Kamala Harris: the new Democratic presidential candidate](https://media-manager.starsinsider.com/gallery/1080/na_5faabd3dcbf19.jpg)
![Kamala Harris: the new Democratic presidential candidate](https://media-manager.starsinsider.com/gallery/1080/na_5faabd3c4d819.jpg)
![Kamala Harris: the new Democratic presidential candidate](https://media-manager.starsinsider.com/gallery/1080/na_5faabd3e2fdf5.jpg)
![Kamala Harris: the new Democratic presidential candidate](https://media-manager.starsinsider.com/gallery/1080/na_5faabd409f081.jpg)
![Kamala Harris: the new Democratic presidential candidate](https://media-manager.starsinsider.com/gallery/1080/na_5faabe82a8c05.jpg)
![Kamala Harris: the new Democratic presidential candidate](https://media-manager.starsinsider.com/gallery/1080/na_5faabd3c5af9a.jpg)
![Kamala Harris: the new Democratic presidential candidate](https://media-manager.starsinsider.com/gallery/1080/na_5faabd41544f2.jpg)
![Kamala Harris: the new Democratic presidential candidate](https://media-manager.starsinsider.com/gallery/1080/na_5faabd4144ef0.jpg)
![Kamala Harris: the new Democratic presidential candidate](https://media-manager.starsinsider.com/gallery/1080/na_5faabd4194640.jpg)
![Kamala Harris: the new Democratic presidential candidate](https://media-manager.starsinsider.com/gallery/1080/na_5faabd44305de.jpg)
![Kamala Harris: the new Democratic presidential candidate](https://media-manager.starsinsider.com/gallery/1080/na_5faabd44224cd.jpg)
![Kamala Harris: the new Democratic presidential candidate](https://media-manager.starsinsider.com/gallery/1080/na_5faabd4a2cbfb.jpg)
![Kamala Harris: the new Democratic presidential candidate](https://media-manager.starsinsider.com/gallery/1080/na_5faabd4c08840.jpg)
![Kamala Harris: the new Democratic presidential candidate](https://media-manager.starsinsider.com/gallery/1080/na_5faabd48a12e2.jpg)
![Kamala Harris: the new Democratic presidential candidate](https://media-manager.starsinsider.com/gallery/1080/na_5faabd4a6d057.jpg)
![Kamala Harris: the new Democratic presidential candidate](https://media-manager.starsinsider.com/gallery/1080/na_5faabd4d48ee6.jpg)
![Kamala Harris: the new Democratic presidential candidate](https://media-manager.starsinsider.com/gallery/1080/na_5faabd4ac0a44.jpg)
![Kamala Harris: the new Democratic presidential candidate](https://media-manager.starsinsider.com/gallery/1080/na_5faabd4c70fa8.jpg)
![Kamala Harris: the new Democratic presidential candidate](https://media-manager.starsinsider.com/gallery/1080/na_5faabd4e96746.jpg)
![Kamala Harris: the new Democratic presidential candidate](https://media-manager.starsinsider.com/gallery/1080/na_5faabd4ee5f8a.jpg)
![Kamala Harris: the new Democratic presidential candidate](https://media-manager.starsinsider.com/gallery/1080/na_5faabd7022ba0.jpg)
![Kamala Harris: the new Democratic presidential candidate](https://media-manager.starsinsider.com/gallery/1080/na_5faabd6fe75a6.jpg)
![Kamala Harris: the new Democratic presidential candidate](https://media-manager.starsinsider.com/gallery/1080/na_5faabd3fe8fd9.jpg)
![Kamala Harris: the new Democratic presidential candidate](https://media-manager.starsinsider.com/gallery/1080/na_5faabd6f8dfe6.jpg)
![Kamala Harris: the new Democratic presidential candidate](https://media-manager.starsinsider.com/gallery/1080/na_5faabd6f30ec7.jpg)
![Kamala Harris: the new Democratic presidential candidate](https://media-manager.starsinsider.com/gallery/1080/na_5faabd6f1f95f.jpg)
![Kamala Harris: the new Democratic presidential candidate](https://media-manager.starsinsider.com/gallery/1080/na_5faabd702dcee.jpg)
![Kamala Harris: the new Democratic presidential candidate](https://media-manager.starsinsider.com/gallery/1080/na_5faabd7359939.jpg)
![Kamala Harris: the new Democratic presidential candidate](https://media-manager.starsinsider.com/gallery/1080/na_5faabd734383b.jpg)
![Kamala Harris: the new Democratic presidential candidate](https://media-manager.starsinsider.com/gallery/1080/na_5faabd736b6b1.jpg)
![Kamala Harris: the new Democratic presidential candidate](https://media-manager.starsinsider.com/gallery/1080/na_5faabd73e1ec2.jpg)
See Also
See Again
© Getty Images
0 / 32 Fotos
Child of immigrants
- Kamala Harris was born in Oakland, California, to a Jamaican economist and professor, and an Indian biologist who moved to the US and became one of the country’s most respected cancer researchers. Her parents divorced when she was five, and she and her sister were primarily raised by her mother.
© Getty Images
1 / 32 Fotos
Biracial upbringing
- Her mother was keen to raise her as a strong Black woman, and Harris' biracial upbringing means that she embodies and can engage with many American identities. People see the aspirational immigrant story in her. She, however, has always simply seen herself as "American."
© Getty Images
2 / 32 Fotos
"Momala"
- In 2014, Harris married lawyer Doug Emhoff and became stepmother to his two children, who decided to call her "Momala" instead of stepmom, as Harris explained in an article for Elle. This only helped shape her as a representative of the modern American "blended" family.
© Getty Images
3 / 32 Fotos
She’s always been witty
- Her experience on the debate team at Howard University has proven to help her to this day. One fabulous example is when Donald Trump Jr tweeted, "Why is @KamalaHarris the only person that laughs at her jokes... always way to [sic] long and way too hard?" She responded, "You wouldn't know a joke if one raised you."
© Getty Images
4 / 32 Fotos
Career beginning
- She started her career in the Alameda County District Attorney's Office and later became district attorney (the top prosecutor) for San Francisco in 2003, which lasted until 2011. Her career as a prosecutor is what paved her way to becoming a politician.
© Getty Images
5 / 32 Fotos
Her most successful program
- As district attorney in 2005, Harris launched the "Back on Track" initiative to reduce recidivism among first-time drug-trafficking defendants. The program, as reported by Marie Claire, lasts 12-18 months and provides participants with a personal responsibility plan (PRP).
© Getty Images
6 / 32 Fotos
Back on Track
- The PRP consists of setting goals around employment, parenting, and education, instead of serving jail time. It helps ex-convicts reintegrate into society, thereby shutting the revolving door of the criminal justice system.
© Getty Images
7 / 32 Fotos
Smashing some glass ceilings
- In 2010, she became the first woman and the first Black person elected to serve as California's attorney general, the top lawyer and law enforcement official in America's most populous state. Four years later, she was re-elected.
© Getty Images
8 / 32 Fotos
More milestone moments
- In 2016, Harris was elected to the Senate, becoming California’s first Black senator and the country’s first South Asian-American senator.
© Getty Images
9 / 32 Fotos
Uncertainty about where she stands
- Some publications view her as the most liberal of all senators, others call her a moderate, and then there are those that call her a radical. People can't quite seem to place her politics.
© Getty Images
10 / 32 Fotos
Stance on the death penalty
- As San Francisco district attorney in 2004, Harris made the difficult decision not to seek the death penalty for a man who had shot an officer. Progressive, right? But in 2014, as state attorney general, she confusingly defended California’s death penalty system in court, Elle reports. Harris now maintains that she has always been opposed to the death penalty.
© Getty Images
11 / 32 Fotos
On police brutality
- In 2015, as state attorney general, Harris was proudly a part of the reason California became the first statewide agency to adopt body cameras for officers. The state also launched the first implicit bias program in the country.
© Getty Images
12 / 32 Fotos
But, in the same year...
- Also in 2015, Harris reportedly did not support the independent investigation of incidents of deadly police force in California. It was also revealed not all officers were required to wear body cameras–only those working under Harris were.
© Getty Images
13 / 32 Fotos
On police brutality more recently
- Especially in 2020, Harris spoke about police reform, called for the arrests of the officers who killed Breonna Taylor, and she talked frequently about the need to dismantle systemic racism. But, still, her stance dangerously wavers between reforming and defunding the police.
© Getty Images
14 / 32 Fotos
Scandal in the criminal justice system
- In 2014, federal judges ordered that all non-violent second-strike offenders be eligible for parole after serving half their sentence, since California prisons were dangerously overcrowded, the LA Times reports. The state, however, scandalously argued against this order.
© Getty Images
15 / 32 Fotos
Scandal in the criminal justice system
- Most of those prisoners were working as groundskeepers, janitors, kitchen staff, and helping the state battle wildfires for less than US$2 a day. Harris' lawyers argued against their release to keep their cheap labor force. Harris later told BuzzFeed that she was "shocked" to read about their defense in the news.
© Getty Images
16 / 32 Fotos
Her anti-truancy policy backfired - In 2011, Harris passed a law making it a criminal misdemeanor for parents to allow their children (up to eighth grade) to miss more than 10% of school days without an excuse, in an effort to combat truancy. This backfired as it blamed parents with circumstances outside their control, and Harris later apologized regretfully.
© Getty Images
17 / 32 Fotos
A champion for immigrants
- Harris has a long record of immigration work, from starting a job training program in San Francisco for ex-convicts that allowed undocumented immigrants to participate, to creating state-wide legislation that would protect immigrants from deportation.
© Getty Images
18 / 32 Fotos
Mispronouncing her name
- Many immigrants and their descendants experience this micro-aggression, and Harris experienced it brutally and publicly with white politicians making fun of her name during her presidential campaign. Though it’s terrible, Harris' experience created a long overdue conversation around the topic.
© Getty Images
19 / 32 Fotos
On legalizing marijuana
- In 2010, Harris was opposed to the use of recreational marijuana, though supported medical marijuana. By 2018, however, she changed her tune and started supporting legalizing marijuana at the national level, co-signing Senator Corey Booker's Marijuana Justice Act.
© Getty Images
20 / 32 Fotos
Her past on marijuana haunts her
- Despite her increasingly progressive view of marijuana, critics are quick to point out that her San Francisco office oversaw over 1,900 cannabis convictions.
© Getty Images
21 / 32 Fotos
Early supporter of gay rights
- In 2004, as San Francisco district attorney, Harris spent Valentine’s Day officiating same-sex marriages. In the pool of Democratic candidates for the 2020 election, she certainly boasted the earliest on-record support for marriage equality, 19th News reports.
© Getty Images
22 / 32 Fotos
Early supporter of gay rights
- Harris also helped create an LGBTQ hate crimes unit while she was district attorney of San Francisco. Later, as California’s attorney general, she battled the "panic defense," a legal strategy in which perpetrator can claim that anti-LGBTQ violence or murder is justified due to the victim's alleged sexual advances.
© Getty Images
23 / 32 Fotos
Early supporter of gay rights
- In 2011, Harris backed marriage equality again by petitioning to the 9th US Circuit Court of Appeals to repeal Proposition 8, the 2008 measure that banned same-sex marriage.
© Getty Images
24 / 32 Fotos
Missteps on trans issues
- In 2015, Harris fought to block gender-affirming medical care for a trans woman in prison, to the LGBTQ community's disappointment. In 2019, she explained that legal briefs in her office were often written without her consultation and that her job obligated her to defend the state. She did, however, take full responsibility.
© Getty Images
25 / 32 Fotos
Support for anti-sex work bills
- Harris backed FOSTA/SESTA, a 2018 package of bills that aimed to curb sex trafficking by shutting down sites commonly used by sex workers like Backpage and Craigslist. But many sex workers, especially transgender ones, found it devastating to wipe out the critical screening tools they used to keep themselves safe.
© Getty Images
26 / 32 Fotos
A recent shift on sex work
- These days, Harris says she supports decriminalizing sex work, but stands by her decision to shut down the site Backpage, as it was profiting from ads trafficking children, she claims.
© Getty Images
27 / 32 Fotos
A recent shift on sex work
- She told The Root in an interview that she’s against exploitation, "but when you're talking about consenting adults, we should consider that we can't criminalize consensual behavior."
© Getty Images
28 / 32 Fotos
She’s been firm on various other topics
- Harris has been steady with her beliefs on supporting the working class during the pandemic, stricter gun control, Medicare for All, women's reproductive rights, the Green New Deal, equal pay, and more.
© Getty Images
29 / 32 Fotos
She’s not running from her past
- "The bottom line is the buck stops with me and I take full responsibility for what my office did," Harris said in 2019. "There are cases … where there were folks that made a decision in my office and they had not consulted me and I wish they had."
© Getty Images
30 / 32 Fotos
If there’s one thing we know
- It’s that Kamala Harris is not perfect, but she represents the potential to change. Sources: (BBC) (Marie Claire) (ELLE) (19th News) (Vox) See also: The US government has already planned for the worst
© Getty Images
31 / 32 Fotos
© Getty Images
0 / 32 Fotos
Child of immigrants
- Kamala Harris was born in Oakland, California, to a Jamaican economist and professor, and an Indian biologist who moved to the US and became one of the country’s most respected cancer researchers. Her parents divorced when she was five, and she and her sister were primarily raised by her mother.
© Getty Images
1 / 32 Fotos
Biracial upbringing
- Her mother was keen to raise her as a strong Black woman, and Harris' biracial upbringing means that she embodies and can engage with many American identities. People see the aspirational immigrant story in her. She, however, has always simply seen herself as "American."
© Getty Images
2 / 32 Fotos
"Momala"
- In 2014, Harris married lawyer Doug Emhoff and became stepmother to his two children, who decided to call her "Momala" instead of stepmom, as Harris explained in an article for Elle. This only helped shape her as a representative of the modern American "blended" family.
© Getty Images
3 / 32 Fotos
She’s always been witty
- Her experience on the debate team at Howard University has proven to help her to this day. One fabulous example is when Donald Trump Jr tweeted, "Why is @KamalaHarris the only person that laughs at her jokes... always way to [sic] long and way too hard?" She responded, "You wouldn't know a joke if one raised you."
© Getty Images
4 / 32 Fotos
Career beginning
- She started her career in the Alameda County District Attorney's Office and later became district attorney (the top prosecutor) for San Francisco in 2003, which lasted until 2011. Her career as a prosecutor is what paved her way to becoming a politician.
© Getty Images
5 / 32 Fotos
Her most successful program
- As district attorney in 2005, Harris launched the "Back on Track" initiative to reduce recidivism among first-time drug-trafficking defendants. The program, as reported by Marie Claire, lasts 12-18 months and provides participants with a personal responsibility plan (PRP).
© Getty Images
6 / 32 Fotos
Back on Track
- The PRP consists of setting goals around employment, parenting, and education, instead of serving jail time. It helps ex-convicts reintegrate into society, thereby shutting the revolving door of the criminal justice system.
© Getty Images
7 / 32 Fotos
Smashing some glass ceilings
- In 2010, she became the first woman and the first Black person elected to serve as California's attorney general, the top lawyer and law enforcement official in America's most populous state. Four years later, she was re-elected.
© Getty Images
8 / 32 Fotos
More milestone moments
- In 2016, Harris was elected to the Senate, becoming California’s first Black senator and the country’s first South Asian-American senator.
© Getty Images
9 / 32 Fotos
Uncertainty about where she stands
- Some publications view her as the most liberal of all senators, others call her a moderate, and then there are those that call her a radical. People can't quite seem to place her politics.
© Getty Images
10 / 32 Fotos
Stance on the death penalty
- As San Francisco district attorney in 2004, Harris made the difficult decision not to seek the death penalty for a man who had shot an officer. Progressive, right? But in 2014, as state attorney general, she confusingly defended California’s death penalty system in court, Elle reports. Harris now maintains that she has always been opposed to the death penalty.
© Getty Images
11 / 32 Fotos
On police brutality
- In 2015, as state attorney general, Harris was proudly a part of the reason California became the first statewide agency to adopt body cameras for officers. The state also launched the first implicit bias program in the country.
© Getty Images
12 / 32 Fotos
But, in the same year...
- Also in 2015, Harris reportedly did not support the independent investigation of incidents of deadly police force in California. It was also revealed not all officers were required to wear body cameras–only those working under Harris were.
© Getty Images
13 / 32 Fotos
On police brutality more recently
- Especially in 2020, Harris spoke about police reform, called for the arrests of the officers who killed Breonna Taylor, and she talked frequently about the need to dismantle systemic racism. But, still, her stance dangerously wavers between reforming and defunding the police.
© Getty Images
14 / 32 Fotos
Scandal in the criminal justice system
- In 2014, federal judges ordered that all non-violent second-strike offenders be eligible for parole after serving half their sentence, since California prisons were dangerously overcrowded, the LA Times reports. The state, however, scandalously argued against this order.
© Getty Images
15 / 32 Fotos
Scandal in the criminal justice system
- Most of those prisoners were working as groundskeepers, janitors, kitchen staff, and helping the state battle wildfires for less than US$2 a day. Harris' lawyers argued against their release to keep their cheap labor force. Harris later told BuzzFeed that she was "shocked" to read about their defense in the news.
© Getty Images
16 / 32 Fotos
Her anti-truancy policy backfired - In 2011, Harris passed a law making it a criminal misdemeanor for parents to allow their children (up to eighth grade) to miss more than 10% of school days without an excuse, in an effort to combat truancy. This backfired as it blamed parents with circumstances outside their control, and Harris later apologized regretfully.
© Getty Images
17 / 32 Fotos
A champion for immigrants
- Harris has a long record of immigration work, from starting a job training program in San Francisco for ex-convicts that allowed undocumented immigrants to participate, to creating state-wide legislation that would protect immigrants from deportation.
© Getty Images
18 / 32 Fotos
Mispronouncing her name
- Many immigrants and their descendants experience this micro-aggression, and Harris experienced it brutally and publicly with white politicians making fun of her name during her presidential campaign. Though it’s terrible, Harris' experience created a long overdue conversation around the topic.
© Getty Images
19 / 32 Fotos
On legalizing marijuana
- In 2010, Harris was opposed to the use of recreational marijuana, though supported medical marijuana. By 2018, however, she changed her tune and started supporting legalizing marijuana at the national level, co-signing Senator Corey Booker's Marijuana Justice Act.
© Getty Images
20 / 32 Fotos
Her past on marijuana haunts her
- Despite her increasingly progressive view of marijuana, critics are quick to point out that her San Francisco office oversaw over 1,900 cannabis convictions.
© Getty Images
21 / 32 Fotos
Early supporter of gay rights
- In 2004, as San Francisco district attorney, Harris spent Valentine’s Day officiating same-sex marriages. In the pool of Democratic candidates for the 2020 election, she certainly boasted the earliest on-record support for marriage equality, 19th News reports.
© Getty Images
22 / 32 Fotos
Early supporter of gay rights
- Harris also helped create an LGBTQ hate crimes unit while she was district attorney of San Francisco. Later, as California’s attorney general, she battled the "panic defense," a legal strategy in which perpetrator can claim that anti-LGBTQ violence or murder is justified due to the victim's alleged sexual advances.
© Getty Images
23 / 32 Fotos
Early supporter of gay rights
- In 2011, Harris backed marriage equality again by petitioning to the 9th US Circuit Court of Appeals to repeal Proposition 8, the 2008 measure that banned same-sex marriage.
© Getty Images
24 / 32 Fotos
Missteps on trans issues
- In 2015, Harris fought to block gender-affirming medical care for a trans woman in prison, to the LGBTQ community's disappointment. In 2019, she explained that legal briefs in her office were often written without her consultation and that her job obligated her to defend the state. She did, however, take full responsibility.
© Getty Images
25 / 32 Fotos
Support for anti-sex work bills
- Harris backed FOSTA/SESTA, a 2018 package of bills that aimed to curb sex trafficking by shutting down sites commonly used by sex workers like Backpage and Craigslist. But many sex workers, especially transgender ones, found it devastating to wipe out the critical screening tools they used to keep themselves safe.
© Getty Images
26 / 32 Fotos
A recent shift on sex work
- These days, Harris says she supports decriminalizing sex work, but stands by her decision to shut down the site Backpage, as it was profiting from ads trafficking children, she claims.
© Getty Images
27 / 32 Fotos
A recent shift on sex work
- She told The Root in an interview that she’s against exploitation, "but when you're talking about consenting adults, we should consider that we can't criminalize consensual behavior."
© Getty Images
28 / 32 Fotos
She’s been firm on various other topics
- Harris has been steady with her beliefs on supporting the working class during the pandemic, stricter gun control, Medicare for All, women's reproductive rights, the Green New Deal, equal pay, and more.
© Getty Images
29 / 32 Fotos
She’s not running from her past
- "The bottom line is the buck stops with me and I take full responsibility for what my office did," Harris said in 2019. "There are cases … where there were folks that made a decision in my office and they had not consulted me and I wish they had."
© Getty Images
30 / 32 Fotos
If there’s one thing we know
- It’s that Kamala Harris is not perfect, but she represents the potential to change. Sources: (BBC) (Marie Claire) (ELLE) (19th News) (Vox) See also: The US government has already planned for the worst
© Getty Images
31 / 32 Fotos
Kamala Harris: the new Democratic presidential candidate
President Biden has dropped out of the race and endorsed Harris as the Democratic nominee
© Getty Images
On Sunday, July 21, President Biden announced his withdrawal from the presidential race and declared his support for Vice President Kamala Harris to become the Democratic candidate. This decision came after substantial pressure from within the Democratic Party for Biden to step aside, due to growing concerns about his mental fitness. Biden is currently recovering from COVID-19 at his home in Delaware and has yet to make a speech about his withdrawal, first sharing the news on Twitter. Following the announcement, Kamala Harris accepted President Biden's endorsement and is now seeking the Democratic nomination. It seems all but guaranteed that she will be voted in at the Democratic National Convention in August.
Harris has already made American history as the first female vice president, as well as the first Black woman and South Asian American to be elected to one of the two highest offices in the United States. Now, she has the opportunity to become the first woman to be President of the United States. Young Black and South Asian girls are right to look at Harris and feel empowered and excited for the future, which now seems more likely than ever to hold a female president of color.
Click through the following gallery to see some of the most defining moments on her journey to breaking through numerous glass ceilings, as well as her biggest hurdles so far.
RECOMMENDED FOR YOU
![Male celebrities who are considered "ugly hot"](https://media-manager.starsinsider.com/640/na_6696347217e95.jpg)
![All the stars who have come out (so far) as LGBTQ+ in 2024](https://media-manager.starsinsider.com/640/na_669522e3ae0e4.jpg)
![Dangerous attraction: celebrities who owned snakes](https://media-manager.starsinsider.com/640/na_66912f5825648.jpg)
![Famous people who died with neurodegenerative diseases](https://media-manager.starsinsider.com/640/na_668bb884db162.jpg)
![The best red carpet looks of the year (so far)](https://media-manager.starsinsider.com/640/na_66683132a001b.jpg)
![Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie's relationship and divorce: a timeline](https://media-manager.starsinsider.com/640/na_66618c3072a32.jpg)
![These celebrities have dated regular people](https://media-manager.starsinsider.com/640/na_5d16449fa502a.jpg)
MOST READ
- Last Hour
- Last Day
- Last Week
-
1
CELEBRITY Relationships
-
2
LIFESTYLE Nature
-
3
LIFESTYLE Curiosities
-
4
TRAVEL Staycation
Be a tourist in your own city and fall in love all over again
-
5
HEALTH Covid-19
-
6
HEALTH Cognitive function
-
7
LIFESTYLE Bizarre
You won't believe these bizarre prison rules and regulations
-
8
HEALTH Bad habits
-
9
TRAVEL Destinations
-
10
TRAVEL Architecture