She has an Indian mother and a Jamaican father, and has climbed higher in the American power apparatus than any woman before her. In 2021, Kamala Harris made history when she was sworn in as vice president for Joe Biden. When Biden announced that he was withdrawing from the presidential election in November and standing behind her instead, Harris got closer to what she has long wanted: the opportunity to become president of the United States. If so, she will be the first woman and first person of Asian and African background in the Oval Office. The road there has been long and difficult, especially in recent months. People’s favorite Harris was born in Oakland, California. Both her parents are immigrants. They divorced when Harris was five, and she was raised by her mother Shyamala Gopalan Harris, a cancer researcher and human rights activist. For a long time, Kamala seemed to take the nation by storm as one of the most prominent black women in American politics. She kept repeating that she was the first of her kind, but would not be the last. Harris meets voters in 2019, the year before she wins the election alongside Joe Biden. Photo: Elijah Nouvelage / Reuters In her victory speech on January 20, 2021, she talked about her mother and the generations of women from all races who paved the way for her to stand there in the blink of an eye: – I am perhaps the first woman in this job, but I won’t be the last. For all the little girls watching tonight, see that this is the land of opportunity. And the audience loves it. It was miles away from the United States that Trump had rented for four years, more polarized than in a long time and with the murder of George Floyd fresh in his mind. But then the excitement died down. After a year as Biden’s number two, polls showed that she was seen as the least popular vice president of all time. A hard-nosed lawyer and senator Before we go into what turned the situation around for the vice-president, we must look at what she did before she got that position. Harris served as district attorney in San Francisco from 2004 to 2011. There she established herself as a tough prosecutor who cracked down hard on law breaking at the same time as she worked for progressive reforms. Kamala Harris is sworn in as a district attorney in San Francisco in 2004. With her mother, Shyamala Gopalan. Photo: George Nikitin / AP Ho created, among other things, the “Back on track” programme, which was supposed to reduce recidivism for those charged with low-level drug trafficking. In 2011, she became the state attorney general in California, as the first woman and first African-American, and then headed the Department of Justice in the US’s most populous state. There she got through reforms in criminal law, technological crime and environmental protection. She was labeled as a newcomer in the Democratic Party, and was elected as a senator in California in 2017 as the second black woman in the history of the Senate. In 2019, Harris grilled Attorney General William Barr in the hearing on Russian influence on the 2016 election. Photo: Aaron P. Bernstein / Reuters She quickly became known for grilling her opponents during hearings in the Senate, usually in critical moments. Several times her earrings went viral. Vice presidential candidate Before she became Biden’s sidekick, she tried her hand at the presidential candidacy herself. But several criticized her for lacking the discipline that is necessary to reach far, and that she did not have a clear policy, despite her “raw talent”. Then he became vice-president anyway. Winning duo in 2020. Photo: Andrew Harnik / AFP In the White House, she fought for Congress to reinstate Roe v Wade, the ruling that guaranteed American women the right to free abortion, after the Supreme Court’s conservative judges overturned it in 2022. She helped to giving Americans financial support during Covid, and got the Inflation Reduction Act through. But despite the fact that she is progressive on issues such as gay marriage and the death penalty, she is not progressive enough for the constituency she really tried to win over. Kamala Harris has wanted the presidential candidacy for a long time. Photo: Jacquelyn Martin / Jacquelyn Martin “Kamala is a cop” became a running theme during the election campaign in 2020. Because even though she was a clear voice on issues such as police power, an important topic in the wake of the murder of Floyd and “black lives matter”, had she also been in the prosecuting authorities themselves. It was just one of several cases where it became clear that the Harris policy was not completely defined. And Biden has given her several unpopular tasks, such as handling the large number of migrants who entered the United States across the Mexican border. White House sources say Harris has fallen out with both Biden and his staff. Vowing to win, Biden says he himself wants Kamala Harris as the Democrats’ presidential candidate, but it is not certain that the entire Democratic Party agrees. Many still fear that she has not been able to define what Harris’s own politics are. But she herself is ready. – I will do everything in my power to unite the party and the nation. And to beat Donald Trump. If she does, it will probably be a historic milestone for the girl from Oakland, and for the United States. Published 22.07.2024, at 05.10
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Who is Kamala Harris? – news Urix – Foreign news and documentaries
