Kamala Harris: First woman becomes US Vice President - Biden relies on "fearless fighter"

The California US Senator Kamala Harris made it to the side of Joe Biden as Vice President.

You trust her to get further.

• Kamala Harris

  was born in California in 1964.

• In the 2020 US election, the

  Senator was

  elected

  Vice President

  under

  Joe Biden

  .

• She is the first black woman with Afro-Caribbean roots to aspire to this office.

Kamala Harris: aspiring hope for the US Democrats

Washington, DC -

born in Oakland, California on October 20, 1964 to an Indian Tamil woman and a Jamaican.

By the time Democratic Party's presidential candidate

officially introduced her as his “running mate” - his

-

in August 2020

, she had already had a remarkable political career.

And that was clearly shaped by their

.

Now it does not seem impossible that Kamala Harris will reach for the highest office in the USA.

She already made it to the position of Vice President under Joe Biden after the US election in November 2020.

Kamala Harris: Origin and Family

Kamala Harris

' mother, the breast cancer researcher

, emigrated from India to America in 1960.

Her father,

, a

professor of economics

, came to the United States from Jamaica.

In the 1960s, the years of student protests, the two of them pushed Kamala Harris across the Berkeley University campus in a stroller.

When she was seven years old, her parents separated.

Kamala and her sister

grew up with their mother, initially in Montreal, Canada, where Shyamala Gopalan Harris had a research assignment.

Oakland later became the

.

The religious imprint of the two girls consisted of Baptist and Hindu elements.

Kamala Harris says that she owed her fighting spirit to her mother, who was active as a civil rights activist: “My mother formed us into strong women.” She taught her daughters: “Don't just sit around and complain.

Do something! "

Kamala Harris has been married to the Jewish lawyer

since 2014,

and he brought two children into the marriage.

According to him, his wife's professional success is based on her political commitment as well as on her multicultural background.

This also makes her popular with the non-African American electorate.

Kamala Harris: Degree and first position as a public prosecutor

Kamala Harris

studied political science and economics in Washington, then law in San Francisco.

She was admitted to the bar in 1990 and began her career as a contentious public prosecutor.

In 2003, Harris, a member of the US Democratic Party, was elected San Francisco's first female district attorney.

In 2007 she was unanimously re-elected.

Her style was not always undisputed: in the election campaign she had ruled out ever to seek the death penalty.

When she

to

the case of the police killer

, she incurred the displeasure of the police

.

At the same time, she turned the left in her own party against her.

Her law-and-order policy was not well received in liberal California: Kamala Harris, for example, voted for parents of chronic truants to be punished with up to a year in prison.

Kamala Harris: Career as Attorney General

In 2010,

ran

for the vacant position of

of California and successfully beat six applicants.

On January 3, 2011, she was sworn in as Attorney General.

In the USA, this office is a combination of attorney general and attorney general. Here, too, Kamala Harris took on the role of pioneer: she was not only the first female occupation of this position, but also the first person with an Indian and African American background.

In 2014, as Attorney General, she appealed a ruling that ruled the death penalty unconstitutional.

The party left in particular still blames them today for the fact that without this objection the death penalty in California would not have been abolished in March 2019, but in 2014.

It is noteworthy that Kamala Harris is privately seen as an opponent of the death penalty.

In September 2014, Kamala Harris was briefly

traded

as a possible successor to US Attorney General

.

However, President

chose

.

Kamala Harris, on the other hand, was re-elected as Attorney General and began her second term in January 2015.

Kamala Harris: US Senator for the State of California

In early 2015,

announced

her candidacy for the US Senate.

It was supported by a broad base of the Democrats.

Among other things, the then US President

- whom she had supported in his presidential candidacy - and his Vice President

spoke out in

favor of her as

.

The primary elections in California won the two Democrats,

, who was assigned to the political center, and Kamala Harris, who represented the progressive wing.

In the Senate election in November 2016, Kamala Harris was able to gather 62.6 percent of all voters behind him.

As the second colored woman, she entered the US Senate in January 2017.

At the time they were sworn in, there were exactly three African American US senators.

Analytical, razor-sharp, unyielding

Right at the beginning of her career as a

, Kamala Harris resolutely took the lead in the opposition to President

immigration policy

.

She also made a name for herself through her merciless and razor-sharp appearances at Senate hearings:

• At the

  2017

  Justice Secretary

  Rod Rosenstein

  hearing

  regarding

  Trump's

  dismissal of FBI Director

  James Comey

  , Republicans urged her to ask more politely.

• In 2018 she subjected Trump's controversial candidate for the Supreme Court,

  Brett Kavanaugh

  , to a precise, almost inquisitorial questioning.

  With this interrogation she became known to a wide public.

• In 2019, Justice Minister

  William Barr

  evaded

  her questions about the final report by special investigator

  Robert Mueller

  in the context of the Russia affair.

  She then suggested that he resign from his position.

Kamala Harris: 2020 presidential candidacy

Again and again,

was traded as a possible US presidential candidate for the Democrats.

When she finally announced her candidacy in 2019, she was initially considered a favorite over her competitors

,

and

.

During the primary campaign, she clashed several times with Joe Biden, whom she accused, among other things, of having made common cause with declared racists as a young senator.

In May 2019, she described Joe Biden as a great "running mate" - she had him in mind as a running mate for her presidency.

But in the course of the year she lost support and gave up her candidacy in December 2019 because of poor survey results.

In March 2020, she specifically spoke out in favor of Joe Biden as the US Democratic presidential candidate, who announced Kamala Harris as his runner-up in August 2020.

Kamala Harris: 2020 Vice Presidential Candidate

Joe Biden

described

as a "fearless fighter" when announcing his decision.

She was trusted to be able to mobilize mainly African-American voters - an important argument, especially against the background of the “Black Lives Matter” movement.

But

Biden

didn't just

choose

her because of her

and gender.

When introducing his

, he also emphasized that she was able to "take over the job [of the president] immediately." necessarily want to see him as president, but speculate on Kamala Harris as a potential successor.

In the traditional TV duel between the vice-presidential candidates, Kamala Harris and

answered the moderator's questions in October 2020.

Unlike the TV duel between the two presidential candidates

and Joe Biden, which was largely chaotic and emotional, the two runner-ups tried to argue.

Kamala Harris advocated more economic redistribution, more climate protection and more government regulation.

List of rubric lists: © Andrew Harnik / AP / dpa