Joe Biden endorses Kamala Harris for Democratic nomination after ending re-election bid

By Agencies

She has not wavered in her loyalty to Mr Biden in recent weeks – but even Republicans have begun to incoporate her name into the Trump campaign’s messaging.

After making history as the first woman as well as the first black and Asian American vice-president, supporters argue her current title as second-in-command could mark a more seamless transition if Biden passes the baton. Other Democrats are calling for an open convention to pick a replacement.

Despite having low approval ratings during her tenure as vice-president, Ms Harris’ supporters point to her advocacy for reproductive rights, appeal among black voters and her background as a prosecutor who would be running against a now-convicted felon to make the case for her serving as commander-in-chief:

“I believe she has been instrumental in addressing key issues such as voting rights and immigration reform,” Nadia Brown, director of Georgetown University’s Women’s and Gender Studies Program, said. “She has also been Biden’s most powerful surrogate on issues of abortion access and outreach to black communities.”

Just five years ago, Ms Harris was the senator from California hoping to win the Democratic nomination for presidency.

She began her career in the Alameda County District Attorney’s Office and became the district attorney – the top prosecutor – for San Francisco in 2003, before being elected the first woman and the first black person to serve as California’s attorney general, the top lawyer and law enforcement official in America’s most populous state.

She gained a reputation as one of the Democratic party’s rising stars, using this momentum to propel her to election as California’s junior US senator in 2017.

But her presidential aims were unsuccessful in 2020.

Her adept debate performances were not enough to compensate for poorly articulated policies.

Her campaign died in less than a year and it was Mr Biden who returned the now 59-year-old to the national spotlight by putting her on his ticket.

Gil Duran, a communications director for Ms Harris in 2013 who critiqued her run for the presidential nomination, called it “a big reversal of fortune for Kamala Harris”.

“Many people didn’t think she had the discipline and focus to ascend to a position in the White House so quickly… although people knew she had ambition and star potential. It was always clear that she had the raw talent,” Duran said.

Born in Oakland, California, to two immigrant parents – an Indian-born mother and Jamaican-born father – her parents divorced when she was five and she was primarily raised by her Hindu single mother, Shyamala Gopalan Harris, a cancer researcher and civil rights activist.

She grew up engaged with her Indian heritage, joining her mother on visits to India, but Ms Harris has said that her mother adopted Oakland’s black culture, immersing her two daughters – Kamala and her younger sister Maya – within it.

“My mother understood very well that she was raising two black daughters,” she wrote in her autobiography The Truths We Hold. “She knew that her adopted homeland would see Maya and me as black girls and she was determined to make sure we would grow into confident, proud black women.”

Her biracial roots and upbringing mean she embodies and can engage with and appeal to many American identities. Those parts of the country which have seen rapid demographic change, enough change to alter a region’s politics, see an aspirational symbol in her.