Kamala Harris: Politician

By Steven Otfinoski

This former attorney general has broken more than a few glass ceilings in her career. Kamala Harris, a daughter of Indian and Jamaican immigrants and raised by a single mother, brought her intelligence and drive to California's District Attorney and Attorney General's offices. In 2016, she campaigned for the U.S. Senate as a representative from California, and won. Her win made her the second Black woman to be elected to the Senate. However, she didn't stop there, becoming a contender for the Democratic nomination for president during the 2020 presidential campaign. Chosen by the winning Democratic candidate, Joe Biden, Harris became the first female, Black, South Asian, and person of color to become United States vice president.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Chelsea House
• Release date: Dec 1, 2021
• ISBN: 9781646937721

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Kamala Harris

Copyright © 2021 by Infobase

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Contents

Chapters

The Phone Call

Mama's Girl

A Voice for Justice

Madame District Attorney

Senator on the Rise

Breaking Barriers

Support Materials

Timeline

Bibliography

Further Resources

About the Author

Learn More About

The Electoral College

Howard University

District Attorney

Doug Emhoff, Second Gentleman

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Chapters

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The Phone Call

It had been a long and grueling campaign. Now the campaign was over, but four days after the election, the winners were still undecided. Neither Republican President Donald Trump and Vice President Mike Pence nor Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden and his running mate Kamala Harris had yet reached the required 270 electoral votes to be declared winners. 

The waiting for the final vote count was tense that Saturday morning, November 7, 2020, so Harris decided to release some of that tension by going for a jog. Wearing a Nike jacket and headphones, she went running, accompanied by several Secret Service agents for security. Suddenly news arrived that stopped her in her tracks. The Associated Press, CBS News and other media outlets announced that Pennsylvania's 20 electoral votes had gone to Biden-Harris, putting them over the 270 electoral votes needed to win. 

Map of the electoral college, 2020 election

Harris immediately called Biden on her cellphone. We did it, she cried. We did it, Joe. You're going to be the next president of the United States. The eight-second video taken of the call went viral on Twitter; within four hours of its posting had 26 million views. 

Joe Biden's election to the presidency was certainly a remarkable achievement. Biden had run for president twice before, and served eight years as vice president under President Barack Obama. Now at age 78, he would become the oldest person to be elected president. But Harris's election as vice president was possibly more remarkable. She would become the first woman to serve in that office. She also became the first African American and the first Indian American to be elected vice president. As a team, Biden and Harris were the first candidates to garner more than 75 million votes in a presidential election, ever.