VICE PRESIDENT Kamala Harris

Senator Kamala Harris, the 2020 Democratic Party vice presidential candidate, has one of the most unique personal backgrounds.

Both of her parents were immigrant, her father coming from Jamaica, and her mother from India.

Despite her relatively difficult childhood - her parents divorcing when she was seven - she distinguished herself academically.

Senator Harris is noted for her lengthy and distinguished career in public service. Her first job after graduating was as a deputy district attorney in California’s Alameda County in 1990

In all her postings, she was recognized as a capable prosecutor on an upward career trajectory.

In 2002, she successfully ran for San Francisco’s District Attorney’s office, winning the election against established incumbent and other renowned candidates.

In doing so, she became the first person of color to hold the esteemed office.

Her campaign platform, and her performance as the district attorney, emphasized on aggressively pursuing violent offends. Interestingly, she was against the death penalty and refused to pursue it as a punitive measure against the defendants her office was prosecuting.

She also expressed a lot of passion regarding the prosecution of (mostly corporate) offenders who were breaking environmental protection laws.

One of her more controversial policies as the district attorney was a campaign against student truancy. Identifying truancy as one of the driving factors behind the growing crime rate, she initiated a policy that would prosecute parents whose children missed more than 50 days in a school year.

In 2010, she successfully ran for the position of California’s attorney general, winning with an overwhelming majority. Her tenure as the states Attorney General saw her adopting policies regarding prosecuting anti-LGBT hate crimes. She was also noted for numerous prosecutions against organized crime, especially drug cartels operating between California and Mexico.

In 2016, with more than 80% of the votes, she was nominated as the Democratic candidate for one of the California’s Senate seats. She won the general election winning all but four of the state’s counties.As a senator, she promised to work towards protecting immigrants and other marginalized communities against President Trump’s executive policies.

She was one of the more vocal opponents in the senate against the Trump’s administration numerous Muslim bans which sought to block immigrants from majority Muslim nations. She has also been very vocal regarding her position to numerous administration appointees seeking senate approval including Betsy DeVos as Education Secretary and Neil Gorsuch as a Supreme Court candidate.

After unsuccessfully running for the Democratic presidential candidate in 2020, she was nominated by the eventual winner, former Vice President Joe Biden as his running mate and vice-presidential candidate.

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