2024 race: Who is Kamala Harris? What’s her Indian connection?

Also Read: ‘Kamala Harris easier to defeat’: Donald Trump after Joe Biden quits White House race

Joe Biden revealed in a post on X that he would not be seeking re-election “in the best interests” of his party and country. In the same post, he also endorsed the rise of his VP Kamala Harris as the new Democratic nominee.

Also Read: Donald Trump attacks Joe Biden, Kamala Harris at Michigan rally: ‘Stupid, stupid person’

Kamala Harris also responded in a statement, saying that she was “honored to have the President’s endorsement and my intention is to earn and win this nomination.”

Who is Kamala Harris?

Kamala Devi Harris was born in California to Shyama Gopalan, a Tamil biologist and Jamaican-American father, Donald J Harris, who was a professor.

After the divorce of her parents, Kamala Harris moved with her mother and her sister to various schools, until she settled on Howard University, a historic all black college, for her bachelor’s degree.

Kamala Harris graduated with a degree in political science and economics and later went on to pursue law – becoming a member of the bar association in 1990. She started her career as a deputy district attorney in California in the same year.

She was elected as the district attorney of San Francisco in 2003. She carried out two terms as the elected attorney general of California in 2010 and 2014. In 2017, she became a junior US Senator from her state.

She became the second African American and first Southeast Asian woman to serve in the senate

Harris gained recognition for her support for tax and health reforms, citizenship for immigrants and gun control laws.

In 2020, she ran for the US presidential elections, before dropping out in favour of Democratic nominee Joe Biden, who later asked her to be his Vice President.

The Indian connection

Harris’ faces the uphill battle of winning a nomination from her party and facing former US President Donald Trump, as his bid for re-election gains popularity.

If Harris wins the nomination, she would be the first Indian-origin woman to be standing for elections in the United States. Further, her win as President, would make her both the first Indian origin and first woman President of the country.

Her identity as an Indian is set to play a large part in the upcoming elections, with the Republican Vice President nominee JD Vance’s wife being Indian and appealing to the immigrant voter base.