Joe Biden chooses senator and former rival Kamala Harris as his vice presidential candidate

The Democratic candidate for the presidency of the United States, Joe Biden, has chosen his former rival in the primaries Kamala Harris on Tuesday to complete his ticket . Thus, the 55-year-old senator from California, with a Jamaican father and an Indian mother, has become the third woman named as a candidate for vice president and, if the Democrats win the elections, she will be the first woman vice president in history.

It's not the first glass ceiling to be broken by Harris, who as early as 2011 became California's first female attorney general. Six years later, she became the second black woman to be elected to the upper house, and her harsh interventions in the early stages of the Trump Administration soon made her a nationally known figure.

Harris entered the Democratic presidential primary in January of last year. He started off as one of the best known names. Senator, hailing from a Democratic stronghold like California, carried a solid background for a presidential race. She tried to maintain a delicate equidistance between the centrist and the leftist sector. She had memorable moments, the main of which, ironically, was a furious attack on her then main rival in the moderate sector and today is the man who has chosen her to make her vice president: Harris cornered Biden in a television debate for his views on school segregation decades ago. But she never managed to hold onto the top positions in the polls and fundraising became more difficult for her, until she decided to throw in the towel and withdraw from the overcrowded race in early December, when she ranked sixth in the polls with a 3,. 4% of the supports. On March 8, she supported Biden.

Her solid resume, with experience in the federal, state and local administrations, makes her a strong candidate, just as her non-affiliation to the two sides that fight for power in the party works in her favor. Her Jamaican and Indian ancestry is also a gesture to a sector of the country that has been mobilizing these months for racial justice. She is good at debates, and having starred in a primary race ensures that her record has been scrutinized and shields her from surprises. Among her weaknesses is her tough record as a prosecutor, which has earned her criticism especially in the more progressive wing of the party.

Biden has spent the last few days interviewing, in person, on the screen or by phone, each of the finalists in a search that has generated enormous buzz. A four-member committee has examined the credentials and track record of each of the candidates, but with her job done, the decision was made by Biden alone.

The appointment of Joe Biden's ticket partner, who was himself vice president with Barack Obama, has been surrounded by enormous expectation. During his campaign in the primaries, he promised that it would be a woman, and that was one of the few certainties. Another certainty is that there are several factors that contribute to the vice president of an eventual Biden Administration will acquire an unprecedented relevance. There is not only the fact that the vice presidency has been growing in importance in recent years, and that Biden himself was a vice president with many powers, so it is expected that he will also give a field to his partner. In addition, it happens that the candidate, who would become the oldest president to reach the White House (he would do so at 78 years old), has referred to himself as a transitional president, so the vice president will be seen as like a president waiting. Ultimately, history goes that, like presidents, the most important vice presidents arrive in times of great challenge. And in a country hit by an unusual and multifaceted crisis, challenges will not be lacking for the Administration that leaves the polls on November 3.

On Monday, the Biden campaign assured that there would be a decision in the middle of this week. But the candidate had already missed on at least two occasions the deadline he had set for himself to announce what was perhaps the most important decision of his campaign to date. The decision, in any case, had to be made before the Democratic Convention is held next Monday, from which Biden, who has no rival, will come out as the official candidate of the party. So the posters and T-shirts with the message "Biden - Harris" can begin to be printed.