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Kamala Harris

"You may be first, but make sure someone comes after you" is Harris' motto, inherited from her mother. Harris once admitted in an interview that she loves French fries and often gorges on them. She also loves dogs, but has never dared to get even one pet.

President Joe Biden heeded calls to withdraw his re-election bid, thrusting this year’s already high-wire race for the White House into an uncertain territory. The 46th US president’s departure from the race leaves the Democratic Party in an unprecedented situation, with only a month until the Democratic National Convention and less than four months until the November 5 election. Biden said 21 July 2024 he was endorsing Vice President Kamala Harris as the Democratic nominee for the 2024 election after he dropped out of the race. “Today I want to offer my full support and endorsement for Kamala to be the nominee of our party this year,” Biden said.

Nominating someone else would look like skipping over a Black woman, which would not look good for many in the party. Harris gained significant support within her party. She has received endorsements from key figures and is seen as a dynamic candidate who can energize younger voters and people of color. Polls have shown her to be competitive against Trump, suggesting that she has a viable path to victory in the general election.

Political observers classify Harris as part of the progressive wing of the Democratic Party (which unites the "new left," populists, feminists, gay rights activists, etc.). According to the ProgressivePunch website (created by supporters of the left wing of the Democrats who track progressive legislative initiatives), she is among the top ten most progressive senators.

Kamala Harris advocates for the transition to clean renewable energy sources and a reduction in carbon dioxide emissions into the atmosphere, stricter control over personal weapons and a ban on the sale of automatic weapons, law enforcement reform, the abolition of the death penalty, as well as an increase in taxes for large financial institutions and the expansion of social programs for the poor. She supports the legalization of marijuana at the federal level and the mitigation of penalties for the possession of other types of drugs, and is a supporter of abortion rights. On social policy issues, Harris initially supported Senator Bernie Sanders's ideas on "health care for all" and full funding of this area from the budget (up to the elimination of private health insurance), but later spoke out in favor of maintaining the ability to choose between private or public health insurance.

Kamala Harris was praised for several reasons, from her groundbreaking role as a woman of color in the highest levels of American government to specific policy positions she has advocated for.

• Trailblazer in American Politics: Harris's election as Vice President of the United States marked a historic milestone. She is the first woman, the first African American woman, and the first Asian American woman to hold this office, which has been widely praised as a significant step forward in terms of representation and diversity in American politics.
• Advocate for Criminal Justice Reform: While her record as a prosecutor has faced criticism, as I noted in my previous message, others have praised her work in this area. As Attorney General of California, she implemented programs designed to divert nonviolent offenders from prison and integrate them back into society.
• Leadership on Women's Rights: Harris has been a consistent advocate for women's rights, including reproductive rights, equal pay, and protection from sexual harassment. Her stance on these issues has earned her praise from women's rights advocates and progressive groups.
• Strong Performance in Senate Hearings: During her time as a senator, Harris was noted for her rigorous questioning during Senate committee hearings, such as the Brett Kavanaugh Supreme Court confirmation hearings.
• Focus on Racial Equity: Harris has consistently raised issues of racial equity in both domestic and foreign policy. This includes matters related to healthcare, economy, criminal justice, and more.

Perspectives on Harris are polarized depending on one's political leanings.

Kamala Harris had been a staunch advocate for reproductive rights throughout her career. Harris has consistently supported the landmark Supreme Court decision Roe v. Wade, which legalized abortion nationwide. She believes that the decision should be upheld and that women have the constitutional right to make decisions about their own bodies without government interference. Harris has backed numerous pieces of legislation aimed at protecting and expanding access to reproductive health care. She co-sponsored the Women’s Health Protection Act, which seeks to safeguard the right to access abortion services against restrictive state laws. Harris has been vocal against state-level efforts to restrict abortion access. She has condemned laws that impose excessive regulations on abortion providers, which can lead to clinic closures and reduced access to services for women. Harris has argued that such restrictions disproportionately affect low-income women and women of color.

Harris was speaking in 2023 at the White House on education when she quoted a comment her mother often made during her childhood. "She would give us a hard time sometimes, and she would say to us: 'I don't know what's wrong with you young people. You think you just fell out of a coconut tree? You exist in the context of all in which you live and what came before you,'" Harris said. The oddball quote, along with clips of her dancing, her at-times awkward laughter, and some of her other slightly baffling anecdotes, became an instant data point in the -- at best, bemused -- way the internet understood Harris.

Slate writer Mark Stern put it on X, "Republicans who gleefully watched Biden get destroyed on TikTok for the past year are now realizing with horror that they can't stop the Zoomer meme machine from turning Kamala into a brat summer icon."

Harrris on National Security

Foreign policy is not the strong suit of the woman aiming to be the 47th president of the USA. It’s also a particularly fraught issue for Washington’s allies as they warily eye US security commitments after Trump picked Senator JD Vance – who has openly touted isolationist foreign policies – as his running mate. A law school graduate and former California attorney general, Harris has spent much of her political career focused on domestic issues.

As vice president, she bucked a longstanding trend in US politics, which has seen the country’s second-most powerful official provide foreign policy expertise to newly elected presidents. In the 2000 race for instance, when George W. Bush picked Dick Cheney – who had served as his father’s defence secretary during the Gulf War – as a running mate, it was viewed as a counterweight to the younger Bush’s lack of foreign policy experience. Biden’s appointment as Barack Obama’s running mate was perhaps the best example of a newcomer president seeking a counsel-in-chief on international issues.

Vice President Harris, in contrast, had little foreign policy advice to offer a president who spent 36 years in the US Senate and eight in the White House. “Frankly, she has been stress-tested,” said Representative Adam Smith in an interview with the Politico news site. “She has been the lead spokesperson for the administration at the Munich Security Conference making the case for our role in Ukraine and NATO and in the world, and she’s been really strong.”

Kamala Harris's foreign policy approach has evolved significantly throughout her tenure as Vice President and during her time in the Senate. Harris's foreign policy positions reflect a blend of maintaining traditional U.S. alliances and adapting to new global challenges. Her approach emphasizes diplomacy, multilateral cooperation, and a strong stance on human rights and democratic values.

According to Politico, Harris will largely continue Biden's strategy on Ukraine, as she lacks much experience in the matter. According to former Pentagon and NATO official Jim Townsend, she will be dependent on the current president's advisers. In particular, the proposed Harris administration would provide active military support to Ukraine and would pursue initiatives to deepen alliances in the Pacific region due to China's growing influence . She is also expected to support Israel and other U.S. allies in the Middle East.

Harris advocates for strengthening NATO and supporting Eastern European allies against Russian aggression. Harris has underscored the importance of NATO and European security in the context of the Ukraine conflict. She supports strengthening NATO’s eastern flank to deter further Russian aggression and ensure the security of member states in Eastern Europe. Harris has also called for increased cooperation and readiness within NATO to address any threats posed by Russia.

Harris has been vocal about the importance of defending Ukraine's sovereignty and territorial integrity. She has condemned Russia's annexation of Crimea and its ongoing aggression in Eastern Ukraine. Harris supports providing Ukraine with military aid and defensive weapons to help them resist Russian advances. Harris has advocated for stringent economic sanctions on Russia as a response to its aggression towards Ukraine. She supports coordinated efforts with European allies to impose and maintain sanctions that target Russian individuals and entities involved in the conflict. The goal is to pressure Russia into ceasing its aggressive actions and respecting international laws. In June 2024, at a conference in Switzerland, she stated that the United States supports Kyiv not as a charity, but because the people of Ukraine and their future are in the sphere of strategic interests of the United States.

She has repeatedly taken tough anti-Russian positions, and in June 2017, she voted for the Countering America's Adversaries Through Sanctions Act. However, she supported the extension of the 2010 US-Russian Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (New START; suspended in 2023) until 2026 and spoke out against withdrawing from the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty (signed in 1987, expired in 2019).

Her rhetoric on Russia continued the Democratic Party’s foreign policy stance, which in recent months has used the conflict in Ukraine as an excuse to criticize Trump. In February 2024, Harris accused the Republican of “bowing” to Moscow and also criticized Russian leader Vladimir Putin . In particular, she called his peace proposals for Ukraine “a capitulation to Kiev .”

Moscow cannot predict what Kamala Harris’ approach to Russia will be if she is nominated as the Democratic Party’s candidate in the US presidential election, Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov has said. Harris has not played any meaningful role in bilateral relations as US vice president, except for a few “unfriendly” remarks, he added. Peskov said: “At the moment, we cannot evaluate the potential candidacy of Ms. Harris in terms of our bilateral relations, for any contribution on her part has not been noticed so far.” Statements Harris has made on Russia to date “have been full of rather unfriendly rhetoric toward our country,” Peskov added. “We haven’t registered any other actions by her, whether positive or negative, regarding our bilateral relations.”

Harris supports a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and has called for renewed efforts to achieve peace in the region. At AIPAC meeting in 2018, Harris was asked why she supports Israel. “It is just something that has always been a part of me,” she said. “It’s almost like saying when did you first realize you loved your family, or love your country, it just was always there. It was always there.” She has backed continued military aid to Israel while also emphasizing the need to address Palestinian rights. Harris has also supported diplomatic efforts to prevent Iran from obtaining nuclear weapons, including rejoining and renegotiating the Iran nuclear deal.

“Biden made many mistakes regarding Israel, but he is miles ahead of Harris in terms of support for Israel,” David Friedman, who served as ambassador to Israel under the Trump administration, told The Jerusalem Post. “She is on the fringe of the progressive wing of the party, which sympathizes more with the Palestinian cause.”

Writing for the Jewish Telegraph Agency [JTA], Ron Kampeas noted "Over the course of her life and career, she has been surrounded by Jews, from her schoolmates to her colleagues to her closest family members. That background has given Harris, 59, an easy familiarity with Jewish spaces, say those who have interacted with her. She has also encouraged Emhoff to embrace his Jewish identity as the second gentleman; for the first time, mezuzahs have been installed at the vice presidential residence, and Emhoff has taken a leading role in the administration’s efforts to fight antisemitism."

“I believe that a resolution to this conflict cannot be imposed. It must be agreed upon by the parties themselves. Peace can only come through a reconciliation of differences and that can only happen at the negotiating table,” Harris told AIPAC in 2017. “I believe that when any organization delegitimizes Israel, we must stand up and speak out for Israel to be treated equally.” Harris’ husband, second gentleman Doug Emhoff, has taken a leading role in the Biden administration’s efforts to combat antisemitism. Emhoff chairs thetask force that developed the Biden administration’s strategy to counter antisemitism.

Harris consistently emphasized the importance of strengthening U.S. alliances and participating actively in international institutions. She advocates for multilateral approaches to address global challenges, including climate change, terrorism, and pandemics. Harris has also stressed the need for the U.S. to lead by example on human rights and democratic values.

Harris has taken a firm stance on China, advocating for a strong U.S. presence in the Indo-Pacific region. She supports measures to counter China's economic practices and military expansion, while also emphasizing the importance of engaging China on issues like climate change and global health. During her trips to Southeast Asia, she underscored the U.S. commitment to regional security and economic partnerships.

Harris has been vocal about the need to address cybersecurity threats, particularly from state actors like Russia. She supports imposing sanctions on Russia for its interference in U.S. elections and cyber-attacks.

One of Harris's top foreign policy priorities is combating climate change. She supports rejoining the Paris Agreement and working with other countries to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Harris has called for international cooperation on clean energy technology and environmental conservation. Harris places a strong emphasis on promoting human rights and democracy worldwide. She has condemned authoritarian regimes and advocated for supporting pro-democracy movements. Harris has highlighted the importance of addressing issues such as gender equality, LGBTQ+ rights, and racial justice on the global stage.

Nobody made her “border czar,” she was asked to address root causes of migration via diplomacy. In 2021, Biden assigned her the task of tackling immigration by combating the "root causes" of people leaving Latin America. "I can think of nobody who is better qualified to do this," Biden said of Harris at the time. "When she speaks, she speaks for me." The gift turned out to be poisonous. Despite Harris' efforts and meetings with Latin American leaders, the number of undocumented border crossings continued to grow, reaching record highs last year. The Republican Party was quick to dub Harris the "border czar," and then lambaste her for not stemming the number of people crossing the border. President Biden did not "put her in charge of the southern border", but rather of negotiations with Central American countries to develop joint measures to reduce the flow of immigration to the United States through Mexico. In 2021, Kamala Harris visited several Central American countries, and on her initiative, joint working groups were established with Central American countries to combat corruption and human trafficking. Since then, illegal crossings are down dramatically (over 54% down, according to CBS News) and violent crime is at lows not seen in decades (it peaked with Trump)

Harris has a nuanced approach to immigration, balancing border security with humanitarian considerations. She has called for addressing the root causes of migration, such as violence and economic instability in Central America, and supports increasing aid to these regions. Harris also advocates for a fair and humane treatment of refugees and asylum seekers. While Harris supports strong border security measures, she emphasizes that these should be balanced with respect for human rights. She has advocated for the use of technology and improved infrastructure to secure the border, rather than building a physical wall.

Harris emphasized the importance of addressing the root causes of migration from Central America. As Vice President, she has focused on tackling issues such as violence, corruption, and economic instability in the Northern Triangle countries (Guatemala, Honduras, and El Salvador). She believes that improving conditions in these countries will reduce the pressure on people to migrate to the United States.

Harris was given a nearly impossible task, and in just two years she helped drive a massive decrease in migration from Central America, and a meaningful decrease from Mexico.

• Hondurans encountered at the border dropped by 50%
• El Salvadorian encounters dropped by even more - 60%
• Migration from Guatemala dropped by 50%.
• And even Mexican migration - the steadiest flow - dropped by 6%.

Harris managed to weather the migrant storm by backing a bill providing more funding for US border guards and agencies. The bill was however blocked by the Republicans earlier this year. Trump has made “illegal immigrants” a central plank of his campaign and is likely to try to corner Harris on the issue. But Trump's tactics could backfire. If the Republicans, if Trump and Vance, go after her on this, she can just respond that there was a bill on it and the Republicans blocked it.

The unauthorized immigrant population in the United States grew to 11.0 million in 2022, according to July 2024 Pew Research Center estimates based on the 2022 American Community Survey, the most recent year available. The increase from 10.5 million in 2021 reversed a long-term downward trend from 2007 to 2019. This is the first sustained increase in the unauthorized immigrant population since the period from 2005 to 2007. However, the number of unauthorized immigrants living in the U.S. in 2022 was still below the peak of 12.2 million in 2007. Of the 22 million people in households with an unauthorized immigrant, 11 million are U.S. born or lawful immigrants.

Harrris - Critics Talking Points

Kamala Harris became a primary target for attacks from the Republican Party following Joe Biden's withdrawal from the 2024 presidential race and his subsequent endorsement of Harris. These attacks ramped up significantly as Harris emerged as the likely Democratic nominee. Former President Donald Trump and his supporters have been vocal in their criticism, often using derogatory nicknames and questioning Harris's competence and qualifications. Trump's campaign is focusing on tying Harris closely to the Biden administration's policies, particularly on immigration and the economy. They are attempting to portray her as the "co-pilot" of what they describe as the administration's failures, such as increased border crossings and high living costs.

Additionally, these attacks have taken on a notably sexist and racist tone. Republicans used disparaging remarks to undermine Harris, with some going as far as to question her intelligence and label her as a "diversity hire". Prominent figures like former Trump aide Sebastian Gorka and Texas Representative Ronny Jackson have made particularly offensive comments, highlighting the discriminatory undertones of the current political discourse surrounding Harris.

JD Vance attacked Vice President Kamala Harris by name in 2021 as a “childless cat lady,” bitterly complaining that women who don’t produce children themselves (Harris is the proud mother of two step-children from her husband’s first marriage) don’t have a “physical commitment to the future of this country”: “We’re effectively run in this country via the Democrats, via the corporate oligarchs, by a bunch of childless cat ladies who are miserable at their own lives and the choices that they made, and so they want to make the rest of the country miserable, too… It’s just a basic fact: You look at Kamala Harris, Pete Buttigieg, AOC, the entire future of the Democrats is controlled by people without children. And how does it make any sense that we’ve turned our country over to people that don’t have a direct stake in it.”

Jonathan S. Tobin, editor-in-chief of JNS (Jewish News Syndicate), wrote: "there was no way a Democratic Party that has adopted the woke catechism of diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) and intersectionality as among its guiding principles—and which looks to African-American women as its most loyal voter group—would even consider snubbing a woman of color in that manner.... she is inextricably linked to those elements in her party that are pushing the country further apart with terrible ideas and policies that divide us by race.... she has been careful not to go too far in denouncing Israel’s effort to defeat the terrorists in Gaza, but she has also repeatedly recycled Hamas propaganda about Palestinian casualties.... much of the activist class of the Democrats has been indoctrinated in critical race theory, DEI and intersectionality, which all brand Israel and the Jews as “white” oppressors.... unless and until they shed their allegiance to dangerous DEI myths, the Democrats are carrying baggage that could sink what is left of their hopes of winning in November."

Harris would be a "real disaster" for the country and the White House if elected as the next American leader, the Republican National Committee said on 21 July 2024. “Not only would Harris be a disaster in the White House, but she also helped Joe Biden cover up his deteriorating health while in office, which undermines her credibility,” the committee said in a statement on Twitter. The text points to Biden's failures in withdrawing troops from Afghanistan, the country's immigration crisis, and rising inflation. As the committee clarified, these "failures were achieved thanks to Kamala Harris."

"One of the big weaknesses is that her popularity ratings are really not much better than Biden's," according to Stormy-Annika Mildner, the executive director of the Aspen Institute Germany, a transatlantic think tank based in in Berlin. Another is that she was tasked with tackling the border crisis and stemming mass immigration from Central- and Latin America and has been criticized by opponents for not being up to the job. "This is something where people would say she failed. I think that's a little unfair, because the situation is so difficult at the border," Mildner said. "But this is something which the Trump campaign… will use as a strong case against her."

Harris' career as a prosecutor was a mixed bag. She styled herself as California's "top cop," but angered the police with her refusal to seek the death sentence even in cases when police officers were killed. At the same time, she was criticized for not doing more to tackle corruption within law enforcement. She initiated a system of hefty fines and potential incarceration for parents whose children were skipping too many classes, which disproportionately affected families of color. She laughed off the issue of legalizing marijuana in 2014, only to say she was "absolutely in favor" of it while running for the Democratic presidential nomination five years later.

Some of the attacks on Harris were predictable, Popular Information noted. For example, shortly after Biden's announcement, the Trump campaign blamed Harris for a "migrant crime wave" over the last three years. This was also the centerpiece of Trump's campaign against Biden, but the "migrant crime wave" does not exist. Violent crime has decreased every year since Biden took office — and is down sharply again in 2024. (The last time violent crime increased was 2020, when Trump was president.) Further, a study of the 14 Texas counties along the border with Mexico by crime analyst Jeff Asher found "no evidence of increasing violent crime along the US border with Mexico." In fact, border counties "have seen a relatively steady violent crime rate below that of the rest of their state and the nation as a whole." Other attacks include those that seem to pop up any time a woman seeks a position of power. The RNC Research X account, which attacks Trump's opponents on behalf of his campaign and the Republican National Committee, posted a video attacking Harris for being "annoying."

In an April 2019 CNN town hall on the climate crisis, Harris was asked if she would support changes to the federal dietary guidelines to deemphasize the consumption of red meat. Harris said that she would support changing the dietary guidelines. She added, however, that she "loves cheeseburgers" and favors policies to "encourage moderation" and educate consumers "about the effects of our eating habits on our environment" rather than "banning certain behaviors."

As a prosecutor in San Francisco, Harris had a program called Back on Track that "placed young first-time drug offenders who pleaded guilty to their crimes into a jobs program rather than jail." The program was successful. While recidivism rates are typically 50% or higher, recidivism was "less than 10 percent among Back On Track graduates." And "the program costs only $5,000 per person, compared to over $35,000 a year for county jail."

According to an Axios report 22 July 2024, Harris’ time as vice president has been “occasionally rocky,” defined in part by large staff turnover and her reluctance to deal with politically risky responsibilities, among other things. Much of Harris’ staff has left over the past three and a half years, the article said, citing disclosures which showed that of the 47 Harris staffers listed in 2021, only five still worked for her as of this spring. Former Harris aides told Axios that the high turnover was partly because of how the VP treated her staff. The aides cited high standards that some did not want to keep up with, while others said they felt that she frequently grilled them the way she grilled Trump officials. They referred to it as Harris “prosecuting the staff.”

White House aides said they sometimes felt like Harris wasn’t a team player and stayed away from any task that involved risks. She has reportedly been cautious and reluctant to participate in events that weren’t tightly controlled. At times, Harris aides suspected that Biden’s team “didn’t want to give Harris opportunities to shine” to prevent her from being seen as a viable alternative to Biden ahead of his re-election bid, Axios wrote.

Harrris - Background

The job of vice president is a thankless one. Few people are so close to power (were the commander in chief to die, the vice president would automatically become president) while at the same time having so little of it themselves. Nelson Rockefeller, Gerald Ford's vice president between 1974 and 1977, famously said he felt like he was on standby for funerals and earthquakes. Benjamin Franklin suggested calling those holding the office "his excessive excellency." But people still hoped for more from Kamala Harris, and not just because she broke with tradition simply by taking office after all her white, male predecessors.

President-elect Joe Biden made a simple political calculation when he selected Kamala Harris as his running mate. By 2045, white people will still constitute a plurality but will no longer be the majority in the United States. By selecting Harris, Biden picked a candidate with the potential for broad appeal. First-term United States Senator Kamala Harris's star was already rising fast when she jumped into the race for the Democratic presidential nomination in early 2019. Liberals in the party loved her for being the face of the party's future - a young, Black woman.

Despite entering the race as an immediate frontrunner, Harris, who was also the only African-American woman running, was out by the end of the year - before even the Iowa caucuses. Her struggle to maintain support was driven by an inability to articulate clear policy positions and a backlash from an attempt to attack rival Joe Biden's record on race during a June 2019 debate. Many thought the dust-up ended her chances of being considered for the vice president slot. But they were wrong.

Harris, 55, the daughter of immigrants from Jamaica and India, is a former California state attorney general who became popular with liberal activists for her tough questioning of appointees and officials from the administration of President Donald Trump - including Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh and former Attorney General Jeff Sessions, during Senate hearings.

Harris' mother, breast cancer researcher Shyamala Gopalan, emigrated from India to the United States in 1960. Her father, the economics professor Donald J. Harris, was born in Jamaica and arrived in the US in 1961. Kamala Harris herself was born in Oakland, California, and spent her early years in the neighboring city of Berkeley. Her parents divorced when she was 7, and she and her sister, Maya, lived with their mother. When she was 12, they moved to Montreal, in the Canadian province of Quebec, where Gopalan had landed research work.

Harris’s mixed African-Indian heritage influenced her self-perception. In her memoir, she wrote, “My mother was very aware that she was raising two black daughters. She knew that her adopted country [the United States] would see Maya [Harris’s sister] and me as black girls.” This would create confusion for many in the media in the future, who would refer to her as either “black,” “South Asian,” or “black Asian.” Although Harris has long identified herself as African American, she now says she represents a small group of Americans of mixed descent.

Growing up in Oakland, Kamala had a stroller-eye view of the Civil Rights movement. At the age of 13, the girl held her own demonstration in front of an apartment building - in protest against the concierge who forbade children from running on the lawn. Through the example of courageous leaders like Thurgood Marshall, Constance Baker Motley, and Charles Hamilton Houston, Kamala learned the kind of character it requires to stand up to the powerful, and resolved to spend her life advocating for those who could not defend themselves. After earning an undergraduate degree from Howard University and a law degree from the University of California, Hastings, she began her career in the Alameda County District Attorney's Office.

Kamala's workaholism seriously interfered with her personal life. In 1994-1995, Harris was in close contact with California Assembly Speaker Willie Brown, who was thirty years her senior. Nothing worked out. Kamala first married at age 49 to law firm partner Douglas Emhoff. She has no children of her own; her husband has a son and daughter from his first marriage. In 2003, Kamala became the District Attorney of the City and County of San Francisco. Among her achievements as District Attorney, Harris started a program that gives first-time drug offenders the chance to earn a high school diploma and find employment. Having completed two terms as the District Attorney of San Francisco, Kamala was elected as the first African-American and first woman to serve as California's Attorney General. In this role, she worked tirelessly to hold corporations accountable and protect the state’s most vulnerable people.

The Trump family was impressed by Harris's prosecutorial activity. To the point that in 2011 and 2013, the businessman sent a total of six thousand dollars to support Kamala's campaign. A year later, Ivanka Trump also donated two thousand dollars to Harris for her reelection. Since 2014, Harris has been married to Jewish lawyer Douglas Emhoff, who has two children from a previous marriage. Harris herself did not have any children.

Over the course of her nearly two terms in office, Kamala won a $25-billion settlement for California homeowners hit by the foreclosure crisis, defended California’s landmark climate change law, protected the Affordable Care Act, helped win marriage equality for all Californians, and prosecuted transnational gangs that trafficked in guns, drugs, and human beings.

In 2017, Kamala D. Harris was sworn in as a United States Senator for California, the second African-American woman and first South Asian-American senator in history. She serves on the Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, the Select Committee on Intelligence, the Committee on the Judiciary, and the Committee on the Budget. As one of the earliest congressional critics of Trump's immigration policies, Harris pushed hard for a deal to protect from deportation those immigrants who came to the country without documents as children, a group known as the Dreamers.

Harris made history in 2016 when she became the first Black woman elected to the US Senate from California, and she has pushed back against critics of "identity politics", who she says are using the term as a pejorative to marginalise issues of race, gender and sexual orientation.

She was among a handful of Democrats who aggressively questioned Kavanaugh at his Supreme Court confirmation hearing about his views on abortion and on the special counsel probe into potential Russian meddling in the 2016 election. In the Senate, she introduced a bill to give lower-income families cash payments and tax credits to help battle wage stagnation and rising housing costs, and she has been a strong advocate of criminal justice reforms.

She lived in Los Angeles with her husband, Doug Emhoff, and is stepmother to Ella and Cole Emhoff.

Harrris - Vice-President

As with any public figure, especially one in a high-profile political role such as Vice President of the United States, Kamala Harris faced various criticisms from across the political spectrum. It's important to remember that the nature of these criticisms are shaped by partisan perspectives and personal biases. In a memoir published in 2019, Harris described herself as a "progressive prosecutor" and said it is a "false choice" to decide between supporting the police and advocating for greater scrutiny of law enforcement.

She is, however, no favorite of progressives in the Democratic party.

• Immigration : Soon after the immigration crisis at the border began to take on an unprecedented urgency, Harris was designated as the president’s representative on the issue. Apart from that, she was assigned to address electoral issues, in particular, promoting controversial voting rights reform. The difficulty of these issues and measures undertaken was so unpopular among many Republicans and other parts of the political establishment that some even speculated that she purposely was being given difficult assignments to undermine her. After taking on that role, Harris’ approval ratings began to decline, with unfavorable opinions surpassing favorable ones in June 2021.
• Foreign Policy : Criticism also came after a number of Harris' foreign policy initiatives, including her trip to France.
• Criminal Justice Record: Some critics, particularly those from the progressive wing of the Democratic party and social justice advocates, have taken issue with Harris's record as San Francisco District Attorney and later as Attorney General of California. They argue that some of her policies contributed to mass incarceration and that she was not sufficiently progressive on criminal justice reform. Many had criticised her record, including her sometimes reluctant approach to criminal justice reform and her fighting against lawsuits brought by sex workers and opponents of solitary confinement in prisons. She also came under scrutiny for declining as attorney general to prosecute OneWest Bank, which was once headed by Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin, for alleged foreclosure violations. Harris, who voted against Mnuchin's confirmation as head of the US Department of the Treasury, said she "followed the facts" in declining to prosecute.
• Lack of Clear Policy Identity: Some critics claim that Harris has not clearly defined her policy positions on various key issues, leading to uncertainty about what she stands for. For instance, during the 2020 Democratic primary, Harris shifted her position on healthcare reform several times, leading to criticism that her stance on the issue was unclear.
• Communication and Public Relations: Harris faced criticism for her handling of certain public relations matters. For example, she was criticized for her response to questions about visiting the U.S.-Mexico border during the early months of the Biden administration's handling of an increase in border crossings.

On the day of his inauguration, Biden was 78 years old — older than any other incoming president in the history of the United States. Donald Trump, the second-oldest, was 70 when he was inaugurated. It's entirely possible that health issues might not permit him to serve the full four-year term. In that case, Harris would replace him, without a new election — making her the first woman president of the United States. Biden's second term as President would start in 2025, and Biden would be 86-years-old at the end of his second-term. Advisors to Biden reportedly told Politico that he was looking for a running mate he could “turn things over to after four years” so he can act as a “transitional figure” for the Democratic Party. Biden's advisers and friends had told reporters that it is “virtually inconceivable” that he would run for a second term as president. In that case, Harris would be the presumptive nominee for President, and the presumptive winner of the election.

Christopher Cadelago, Daniel Lippman and Eugene Daniels reported in Politico 30 June 2021 "The handling of the border visit was the latest chaotic moment for a staff that’s quickly become mired in them. Harris’ team is experiencing low morale, porous lines of communication and diminished trust among aides and senior officials... While much of the ire is aimed at Harris’ chief, two administration officials said the VP herself also bears responsibility for the way her office is run."

“People are thrown under the bus from the very top, there are short fuses and it’s an abusive environment,” said another person with direct knowledge of how Harris’ office is run. “It’s not a healthy environment and people often feel mistreated. It’s not a place where people feel supported but a place where people feel treated like s---.”

“We are not making rainbows and bunnies all day." Symone Sanders, senior advisor and chief spokesperson for Harris, pushed back against the complaints. But for some of the people who know Harris best, it’s become an all-too-familiar pattern for a politician who has churned through several iterations of staff on her rise and took office with a team almost entirely new to her.

A poll showed in mid-November 2021 that Harris’ approval ratings had hit the bottom with just 28 percent supporting the vice president, while Biden was currently at 38 percent. The relationship between the current US president Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris may be bad enough to lead to her dismissal, despite the fact that the White House does not want to give the impression there is a split between the two, Fox News’ “The Five” suggested. The White House tried to tackle the rumors head on, with spokesperson Jen Psaki tweeting that the vice president is not only a vital partner to the president, “but a bold leader who has taken on key, important challenges facing the country – from voting rights to addressing root causes of migration to expanding broadband.”

By 2022 disillusionment had set in. In a nationwide poll by the news site Real Clear Politics, 42% of Americans said President Biden is doing a good job, while Harris polled at just 40%. In late November 2021, she made a social media splash when she visited a DC Christmas market, smiling winningly for the smartphones. But politically, she had a disappointing first year in office.

As of 05 July 2023, a total of 41% of registered voters had a favorable opinion of Harris and 53% had an unfavorable opinion — a net rating of -12 percentage points, according to a Times average. Harris' net favorability is slightly lower than that of former Vice President Mike Pence at this point in their respective tenures, and it's well under the ratings of three previous vice presidents.

Thom Hartmann wrote 13 July 2023 "Regardless of who the Republican nominee is, their line of attack against the Biden/Harris ticket will be simple: “You’re voting for a man who’ll be 82 in his first year in office, which means you’re really voting for Kamala Harris to become president at some point during the next four years.” ... Outside of California, most Americans know virtually nothing about Kamala Harris, and the new voters who’ll be showing up in 2024 — Zoomers fresh out of school and women who’d never voted before but are now enraged by the Dobbs decision — know even less, because they weren’t paying attention during the 2020 Democratic primary debates.... The Swift Boat Veterans for Truth got out ahead of John Kerry and defined him for the American public, leaving him to rather helplessly argue that he wasn’t a preening elitist opportunist who lied about his service in Vietnam. It didn’t work...

"Biden famously dumped the southern border situation in Harris’ lap, and today that “crisis” has become a mere trickle of a problem. Harris played a large role in this, working with multiple Central American governments to reduce the political and economic pressures that were sending people north.... Others include initiatives to deal with the abortion crisis and protect women’s private medical information in the wake of the Dobbs decision; helping get aid to universities and colleges (particularly HBCUs, 36 of which have been subject to white nationalist bomb threats); and participating in every major decision-making meeting in the White House including Biden’s decision to pull US troops out of Afghanistan."

A widely circulated Google document, entitled “Unburdened by What Has Been: The Case for Kamala,” caused quite a stir among Democrats. “There’s one path out of this mess, and it’s Kamala,” the document states. “Kamala Harris has the strongest claim to Democratic legitimacy. She is the only candidate who can take the reins right now, instead of in late August with less than three months left to go. She has significant and widely underplayed electoral advantages. She can win.”

A CNN poll conducted after the first debatee suggested that a substantial majority of Americans believe Democrats would have a better chance of beating Trump without Biden, while Harris performed slightly better than Biden in a hypothetical matchup with Trump. Other polls have shown similar results.

David Rothkopf wrote "She has already distinguished herself on a wide range of issues: Harris has opened up important dialogue with countries at our southern border to reduce immigration flows at the source; she has been a leading voice for creating a plan for “the day after” in Gaza; she has helped to maintain support among our allies for the administration’s Ukraine policy; she has engaged actively on next-generation technology issues; and she has supported tougher gun control laws while serving as an exceptionally effective champion on women’s issues and on issues pertaining to communities of color."

Harris has been a tougher critic of Israel than President Joe Biden, who frequently describes himself as a Zionist, and as a voice more sympathetic to the suffering of Palestinians in Gaza. “She’ll certainly be making it clear, as we’ve said many times before, that we believe that Palestinian people need a vote and a voice in their future, and that they need governance in Gaza that will look after their aspirations and their needs,” White House national security spokesperson John Kirby said in December 2023, describing the role an increasingly more visible Harris would play pertaining to the war in Gaza.

Republican supporters in the US are spreading rumors that Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris has a drinking problem, Newsweek reported 21 August 2024. According to the publication, the first person to report Kamala Harris's alleged alcoholism was Donald Trump campaign insider James Blair. "There are a lot of rumors that Kamala has serious problems with alcohol. Apparently, they are becoming more noticeable as the campaign heats up," he wrote on his page on the social network X.