Kamala Harris could make history as the first African American woman and first person of South Asian origin to reach the White House. He does so with barely any reference to his gender or race, and with the promise of opening a “new chapter” in United States politics.
The career of Harris, 60, has been marked by firsts: She was the first black district attorney and the first woman to serve as attorney general in California; the first Indian-American to reach the Senate and, when Joe Biden elected her, the first woman in the Vice Presidency.
However, He has preferred not to emphasize the historical nature of his possible arrival at the White Housein contrast to Hillary Clinton’s 2016 campaign.
In his biography, “The Truths We Hold,” he explains that prefers to describe herself simply as “an American”, and claims to feel comfortable with her identity as a mixed-race woman, despite attacks from Trump, who has questioned whether she is African-American enough.
Harris is proud of her African American and Indian heritage. Her name, which some Republicans pretend not to know how to pronounce in order to attack her, means “lotus flower,” a plant that emerges to the surface only when its roots are well anchored.
Origins
Born on October 20, 1964 in Oakland (California), she is the eldest daughter of Shyamala Gopalan, a cancer researcher from Indiay Donald Harris, a Jamaican economist, who divorced when she was seven years old.
His mother, who died in 2009, was a central figure in his life and the person to whom he turned at a decisive moment for his future.
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During her adolescence, her best friend from high school confessed to having been a victim of sexual abuse by her stepfather. Harris did not hesitate to call his mother on the phone so that her friend could move in with them.
That’s when he found his calling, and decided to dedicate himself to protecting victims of any crimewhich propelled her to become district attorney in San Francisco (2004-2011), and then attorney general of California (2011-2017).
Political career
In 2016, he won a seat in the Senate and quickly He stood out for his incisive questions to members of the Trump Administration (2017-2021), as well as two judges nominated by him for the Supreme Court, including Brett Kavanaugh, accused of sexual abuse.
In 2020, he launched himself to compete for the Democratic presidential nomination.but had difficulties defining his proposals. Biden ended up being the party’s candidate and chose her for the Vice Presidency.
Harris, married since 2014 to lawyer Douglas Emhoff, was barely able to shine in the White House. Biden tasked him with tackling the “root causes” of migration in Central Americaa cursed issue in US politics that has been without a solution for decades.
As part of that work, he traveled to Guatemala, where he starred in one of his most controversial moments, by telling migrants trying to enter the United States: “Don’t come.”
After a wave of criticism for the apparent lack of empathy, Harris retreated from the public light. It came up again when the Supreme Court annulled the right to abortion at the federal level in June 2022, channeling the indignation of millions of women.
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In this way, when Biden ended his electoral career in July of this year, Harris quickly built her candidacy around the concept of freedom: freedom for women to decide about their bodies and for every American to aspire to a better life.
To the rhythm of the song “Freedom” by Beyoncé, He has toured the country shouting “we are not going back”and proclaiming that the United States must decide at the polls whether it wants a country of “chaos” and “hate”, like the one Trump established, or one of “freedom” and “hope.”
His promise has been to unite the nation after years of tension, and to do so he has resorted to patriotic symbols, filling his rallies with US flags and adding support from Republican figures such as former congresswoman Liz Cheney, daughter of former Vice President Dick Cheney (2001-2009).
Harris, who worked at a McDonald’s as a child, has positioned herself as the candidate of the middle class with the desire to reduce the prices of housing, food and medicine.
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