Kamala Harris

Kamala Devi Harris (born October 20, 1964) is an American politician and attorney who has been the 49th vice president of the United States since 2021, serving under President Joe Biden. She is the first woman, the first African American, and the first Asian American to be vice president. She is the highest-ranking female official in U.S. history. Harris is the Democratic Party's nominee for president in the 2024 election. From 2017 to 2021, she represented California in the United States Senate. Before that, she was the attorney general of California.

Born in Oakland, California, Harris graduated from Howard University and the University of California's Hastings College of the Law. She began her law career in the office of the district attorney of Alameda County. She was recruited to the San Francisco District Attorney's Office and later to the office of the city attorney of San Francisco. She was elected district attorney of San Francisco in 2003 and attorney general of California in 2010, and reelected as attorney general in 2014. As the San Francisco district attorney and the attorney general of California, Harris was the first woman, the first African American, and the first Asian American to hold each office.

Harris was the junior U.S. senator from California from 2017 to 2021. She won the 2016 Senate election, becoming the second Black woman and first South Asian American U.S. senator. As a senator, Harris advocated for stricter gun control laws, the DREAM Act, federal legalization of cannabis, and reforms to healthcare and taxation. She gained a national profile for her pointed questioning of Trump administration officials during Senate hearings, including Trump's second Supreme Court nominee, Brett Kavanaugh.

Harris sought the 2020 Democratic presidential nomination in 2019, but withdrew from the race before the primaries. Biden selected her as his running mate, and their ticket defeated the incumbent president and vice president, Donald Trump and Mike Pence, in the 2020 election. Presiding over an evenly split Senate upon entering office, Harris played a crucial role as president of the Senate. She cast more tie-breaking votes than any other vice president, which helped pass bills such as the American Rescue Plan Act of 2021 stimulus package and the Inflation Reduction Act of 2022. After Biden withdrew from the 2024 presidential election, Harris launched her campaign with Biden's endorsement. On August 6, 2024, she chose Tim Walz, the governor of Minnesota, as her running mate.

Harris was an early co-sponsor of the Green New Deal, a plan to transition the country towards generating 100 percent renewable electricity by 2030.

In July 2019, Harris teamed with Kirsten Gillibrand to urge the Trump administration to investigate the persecution of Uyghurs in China by the Chinese Communist Party; in this question she was joined by Senator Marco Rubio.

Before and during her 2020 presidential campaign, an online informal organization using the hashtag #KHive formed to support Harris's candidacy and defend her from racist and sexist attacks.

On March 24, 2021, Biden assigned Harris to work with Mexico and Northern Triangle nations to stem irregular migration to the U.S.-Mexico border and address the "root causes" of migration. Multiple news organizations at the time described Harris as a "border czar", though Harris rejected the title and never actually held it. Republicans and other critics began using the term "border czar" to tie Harris to the Mexico–United States border crisis, including in a July 2024 House resolution, despite her having no authority over the border itself.

Harris conducted her first international trip as vice president in June 2021, visiting Guatemala and Mexico in an attempt to address the root causes of an increase in migration from Central America to the United States. During her visit, in a joint press conference with Guatemalan president Alejandro Giammattei, Harris issued an appeal to potential migrants: "I want to be clear to folks in the region who are thinking about making that dangerous trek to the United States-Mexico border: Do not come. Do not come."

In November 2023, Harris pledged that the Biden administration would place no conditions on U.S. aid to Israel in its war with Hamas in Gaza. In March 2024, she criticized Israel's actions during the Israel–Hamas war, saying, "Given the immense scale of suffering in Gaza, there must be an immediate ceasefire for at least the next six weeks...This will get the hostages out and get a significant amount of aid in." This proposed ceasefire never happened, and the Biden administration continues to place no conditions on aid to Israel despite Israel's actions spreading into attacks on Lebanon.

Harris's term as vice president has seen high staff turnover—including the departures of her chief of staff, deputy chief of staff, press secretary, deputy press secretary, communications director, and chief speechwriter—which critics allege reflects "dysfunction" and demoralization. Axios reported that at least some of the turnover was due to exhaustion from a demanding transition into the new administration, as well as financial and personal considerations. For most of her tenure, Harris had one of the lowest approval ratings of any vice president. According to a RealClear Politics polling average, a record low of 34.8% of Americans had a favorable view of her in August 2022, but this number rose rapidly after she became the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee in July 2024. Harris had a net favorable rating by September 9.

Harris's often boisterous laughter has been called one of her "most defining and most dissected personal traits". She says she got her laugh from her mother.