"Fearless Fighter" Kamala Harris

Joe Biden has decided: Kamala Harris should be his runner-up. Who is the woman?

Washington (AP) - It wasn't too long ago that Joe Biden and Kamala Harris were still competitors. Now they want to go together against the incumbent US President Donald Trump in the election on November 3rd.

In the race for the Democratic candidacy, the California senator and the ex-vice president were still clashing. It was a sentence from Harris that stuck: "That little girl was me." Harris had criticized Biden for opposing children to be bussed to schools in other districts to break the segregation of blacks and whites in the 1970s. Harris linked this to her own biography: she herself sat on such a bus.

An election victory with Biden would be historic - a woman has never been US Vice President. It is the first time that a black woman has run for one of the two big parties as a runner-up candidate.

Harris was born on October 20, 1964 in Oakland, California. She has Jamaican-Indian roots. In addition to being a cancer researcher, her mother was also a civil rights activist - Harris repeatedly says of her that she had the greatest impact on her life.

Harris studied political science and economics in the capital Washington, and law in California. In 2003, she was elected District Attorney for San Francisco. There she made controversial decisions: During the election campaign, she promised never to seek the death penalty as a prosecutor. She did well, but protested after killing a policeman.

When she applied for the position of Attorney General - which combines the positions of attorney general and attorney general in the USA - she promised to have the death penalty carried out in the new office despite her personal opposition - and again she adhered to it.

Internationally, Harris' name probably first came across a broad international public when Barack Obama apologized. In 2013, he praised Harris as a brilliant and tenacious lawyer - and described it as the best-looking attorney general by far. Obama was charged with sexism.

Harris was the second African American woman to be elected to the US Senate in 2016. Your mission is as before: to fight for the rights of all people in California. In early 2019, she announced that she was running for the Democratic presidential nomination. At the beginning she was considered a promising applicant.

Her opponents tried to use the law-and-order past against her. Some of their decisions were seen by critics as inconsistent with their promise to reform a "broken" criminal justice system. In December she ended her campaign.

Harris is now believed to be particularly good at mobilizing African American voters. It is moderate, sedate, and its performances are thoroughly choreographed. In the Senate, she has shown that she can persistently ask questions and is a problem solver. It is more often criticized that it cannot be located ideologically.

Harris had previously considered playing in a duo with Biden against Trump. Biden would be a great running mate, she said in May 2019 - at that time, however, she still had him in mind as her runner-up candidate. Biden described Harris, who was close friends with his late son Beau, as a "fearless fighter" when announcing his decision.

© dpa-infocom, dpa: 200812-99-133495 / 2