Who is Kamala Harris? US vice president and favoured Biden successor

Kamala Harris cemented herself in US political history when she became the first woman to serve as vice president four years ago.

But as the 6 November election approaches and with questions being raised over Joe Biden’s fitness for office, rumours have circulated that the president’s campaign has been “quietly assessing” whether Ms Harris could take over from him as the democratic nominee.

The Biden campaign has insisted the US president will remain at the top of the ticket in November and it has “no plan for an alternative nominee” – but that may not be enough to stop speculation.

Here’s a look at how Ms Harris came to be vice president, why she is being touted for the top job and what her reaction has been.

Before vice presidency

The 59-year-old was born and raised in Oakland, California by Jamaican father Donald Harris and Indian mother Shyamala Gopalan.

Her parents, both immigrants, were highly respected in their fields – her mother as a breast cancer scientist and father an economics professor.

They divorced when she was seven and she was raised with her sister Maya by their mother in Berkeley.

Ms Harris says the pair took her to civil rights marches while she was “in a stroller,” growing her interest in law.

She went on to graduate from Howard University and the University of California Hastings College of Law.

She began her long career in law as a deputy district attorney between 1990 and 1998, specialising in prosecuting child sexual assault cases, but also working on homicide and robbery cases.

In 1998, Ms Harris was named managing attorney of a criminal unit at the San Francisco District Attorney’s Office before becoming head of the San Francisco City Attorney’s Division on Families and Children.

She became the first female district attorney for San Francisco in 2004. During her first three years in the position, the conviction rate in the city jumped from 52% to 67%.

She served for six years before being elected as attorney general of California, where she oversaw the largest state justice department in the country.

In 2016, she won the US Senate race in California, beating fellow Democrat Loretta Sanchez who had 20 years’ experience in Congress.

Here, she built a reputation around her work as a prosecutor and gained national attention during her forensic questioning of Trump administration officials including Jeff Sessions, and then Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh.

She had become a prominent politician by the time she launched a campaign for the Democratic presidential nomination in January 2019, going with the slogan “Kamala Harris for the People”.

Democrats saw her as a promising candidate to overthrow Donald Trump’s presidency in the 2020 election, but Ms Harris ultimately dropped out of the race in December 2019, blaming a lack of finances.

Joe Biden selected her as his running mate in August 2021, describing her as a “fearless fighter for the little guy”.

It made her the first black female running mate for the two major parties, and only the third female running mate for the two major parties in American history.

‘We did it, Joe!’

When Ms Harris was sworn into office with Biden she became not only the first woman to serve as vice president, but also the first black person and person of South Asian descent to take on the role and highest-ranking woman ever to serve in the American government.

In a touching moment after it was revealed Mr Biden won the presidential election, she called him while out running.

“We did it,” she said. “We did it, Joe! You’re going to be the next president of the United States.”

In her first speech as vice-president elect, she spoke of the many women who made her achievement possible, personally and historically.

She thanked American voters for turning out in record numbers and vowed to “strive to be a vice president like Joe [Biden] was to President Obama – loyal, honest and prepared, waking up every day thinking of you and your family”.

“While I may be the first woman in this office, I will not be the last,” she said, in an apparent reference to something her late mother told her.

“My mother would look at me and she’d say, ‘Kamala, you may be the first to do many things, but make sure you are not the last,'” Ms Harris said in 2019.

As vice president, Ms Harris has rallied for abortion rights and been heavily focused on tackling the immigration crisis on the US-Mexico border.

Rumours of a late takeover bid

It’s been a torrid time for president Biden of late, with the 81-year-old dealing with the aftermath of a disastrous debate against opponent former president Trump in June.

Ms Harris launched a staunch defence of the president mere minutes after the debate ended, admitting he had a “slow start” but saying he “pushed facts” while Donald Trump “pushed lies”.

Calls from within the president’s own party for him to resign have become even louder after he mistakenly referred to Volodymyr Zelenskyy as “President Putin” at the NATO summit before referring to his vice-president as Donald Trump, rather than Ms Harris.

Polls are suggesting most Democrats think the vice president would do well as Mr Biden’s successor.

Experts say she would have a head start over other potential successors, as she’s already been on a winning presidential ticket with Mr Biden, has years of goodwill banked with core party constituencies and would likely control a huge campaign fund amassed by the Biden re-election.

Ms Harris has side-stepped the drama and remained loyal to Mr Biden on the campaign trail – but has acknowledged how much is at stake, calling this “the most existential, consequential and important election of our lifetime”.

On Saturday, she tweeted her support of the president, calling him a “leader who fights for the American people”.

She has not entertained questions about a presidential bid of late, but in 2023 she did comment on whether she was ready to step on for Mr Biden if he became unable to serve.

“Yes, I am, if necessary,” she told CBS, adding: “But Joe Biden is going to be fine. And let me tell you something: I work with Joe Biden every day.”

Mr Biden said last week he felt Ms Harris was “qualified to be president”.

“That’s why I picked her,” he said in a press conference, adding he would not step aside for her unless polls suggested there was no way he could beat Mr Trump in November.

“No poll is saying that,” he concluded.

Source Agencies