Spotlight of The Month

Kamala Harris:
The Daughter
of Immigrants
to the First
Woman Vice
President Elect
This month, our spotlight woman in power is Kamala Harris. She is an American politician and attorney who
is a United States Senator of California and the Vice-President elect of the United States. To learn about her
journey from daughter of immigrants to vice-president elect, these next 4 pages have all you need to know.

Early Life
Kamala Harris was born in Oakland, California
on October 20, 1964. Her mother, Shyamala
Gopalan, a biologist, arrived in the U.S. from
India in 1958 as a graduate student in nutrition
and endocrinology at the University of Califor-
nia, Berkeley. Her father, Donald J. Harris, was a
Stanford University professor of economics who
arrived in the U.S. from Jamaica in 1961 for a
graduate study at U.C. Berkeley.
Kamala as an
infant and her
mother Shyamala
Women in Power, Issue 110
Along with her younger sister Maya, Harris was
raised in Berkeley, California. Throughout her
childhood, Harris visited her relatives in both
India and Jamaica. She said she was strongly
influced by her maternal grandfather, a retired
Indian civil servant whose progressive views on
demogracy and women’s rights impressed her.
When Harris was seven, her parents divorced.
Her and her sister visited Palo Alto on the week-
ends and often children in the neighborhood
were not allowed to play with them because
they were black.
When Harris was 12, she and her sister moved
to Montreal, Quebec, Canada with their mother
where she had accepted a research and teach-
ing position at McGill University.
Education
While living in Canada, Harris attended a French
speaking elementary school, Notre-Dame-des-
Neiges, and then Westmount High School,
graduating in 1981. While in high school, one of
Harris’ friends confided in her that she had been
molested by her stepfather. Harris told her
1

Spotlight of The Month
mother who insisted the friend live with them
until the end of high school. Harris considers
this a big moment in forming her commitment
for protecting women and children as a prose-
cutor.
In 1982, Harris attended Howard University,
a histortically black university in Washington
D.C. While at Howard, she interned as a mail-
room clerk for California senator Alan Cranston,
chaired the economics society, led the debate
team, and joined Alpha Kappa Alpha sorority.
Harris graduated from Howard in 1986 with a
degree in political science and economics.
Harris then returned to California to attend law
school at the University of California, Hastings
College of the Law through its Legal Education
Opportunity Program. While at UC Hastings, she
served as president of its chapter of the Black 2017)
Law Students Association. She graduated with
a Juris Doctor in 1989 and was admitted to the
California Bar in June 1990.
Harris, at her law school graduation in 1989
pictured with her mom and first grade teacher
Early Career
In 1990, Harris was hired as a deputy district
attorney in Alameda County, California. In 1998,
San Francisco district attorney Terence Hallinan
recruited Harras an as assistant district attor-
ney. While there, she became the chief of the
Career Criminal Division where she prosecuted
2 Women in Power, Issue 110
homicide, burglary, robbery, and sexual assault
cases. In August 2000, Harris took a new job at
San Francisco City Hall, working for city attorney
Louise Renne. She ran the Family and Children’s
Services Division representing child abuse and
neglect cases.
District Attorney of San Francisco
(2004-2011)
In 2002, Harris prepared to run for District Attor-
ney of San Francisco against Terence Halliman
(the incumbent) and Bill Fazio. She was the least
known candidate but she was still able to ad-
vance to the general election runoff with Halli-
nan. Harris ended up winning with 56 percent
of the vote and became the first person of color
elected as district attorney of San Francisco. She
ran unopposed for a second term in 2007.
Attorney General of California (2011-
Nearly two years before the 2010 California At-
torney General Election, Harris announced that
she planned to run. She was endorsed by both
of California’s senators, Dianne Feinstein and
Barbara Boxer, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi,
United Farm Workers cofounder Dolores Huerta,
and mayor of Los Angeles Antonio Villaraigosa.
In the June 8, 2010 primary, she was nominated
with 33.6 percent of the vote, defeating Alberto
Torrico and Chris Kelly.
In the general election, she faced Republican
Los Angeles County district attorney Steve
Cooley, who led most of the race. The election
was held on November 2 but after a prolonged
period of counting mail-in and provisional bal-
lots, Cooley conceded on November 25. Harris
was sworn in on January 3, 2011. She was the
first woman, the first African American, and the
first South Asian American to hold the office of
attorney general in the state’s history.
Over the course of her nearly two terms in
office, Harris 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, Spotlight of The Month
and prosecuted transnational gangs in trafficked
guns, drugs, and human beings. second, she started falling in the polls and even-
tually reaching the single digits. On December
U.S. Senate (2017-Present) 3, 2019, Harris withdrew from seeking the 2020
In 2017, Harris was sworn in as a United Democratic nomination, citing a shortage of
funds. In March 2020, she endorsed Joe Biden
States Senator for California. She is the sec-
ond African-American woman and first South for president.
Asian-American senator in history.
She serves on the Homeland Security and Gov-
ernmental Affairs Committee, the Select Com-
mittee on Intelligence, the Committee on the
Judiciary, and the Committee on the Budget.
Logo for Harris’s presidential campaign
2020 Vice Presidential Campaign
In May 2019, senior members of the Congres-
sional Black Caucus endorsed the idea of a
Biden-Harris ticket. In April 2020, Harris re-
sponded to media speculation and said she
“would be honored” to be Biden’s running
mate. In late May, in relation to the death of
Harris pictured on the Senate floor in 2017
George Floyd and ensuing protests and demon-
In the Senate, Harris’ mission remained fighting strations, Biden faced renewed calls to select a
for the rights of all communities in California. black woman to be his running mate.
Since taking office, she has introduced and co- On August 11, 2020, Biden officially announced
sponsored legislation to raise wages for working that he had chosen Harris. She is the first African
people, reform the broken criminal justice sys-
American, the first Indian American, and the
tem, make healthcare a right for all Americans, third woman to be picked as the vice-presiden-
address the epidemic of substance abuse, sup-
tial nominee for a major party ticket.
port veterans and military families, and expand
access to childcare for working parents.
2020 Presidential Campaign
Harris had been considered a top contender
and frontrunner for the 2020 Democratic nom-
ination for president. On January 21, 2019,
Harris officially announced her candidacy for
president of the United States. Campaign logo for the Biden-Harris ticket
Harris rose between six and nine points after
Biden was projected by the Associated Press,
after the first presidential debate but after the
Fox News, and others on November 7, 2020 as
Women in Power, Issue 110 3
 Spotlight of The Month Harris’s Political Positions
Capital Punishment/Death Penalty
the winner of the 2020 United States presiden- Abolish it
tial election, with the highest vote of any candi-
date in U.S. history. Harris thus became the Vice Income Inequality
President-elect of the United States. Expand tax benefits for middle class and
low income Americans
Vice President-elect of the United States
Minimum Wage
Following the election of Joe Biden in the 2020 Raise the federal minimum wage to $15/
presidential election, Harris will assume office as hour
vice president of the United States on January
20, 2021.She will be the first female vice presi- Paid Leave
dent, as well as the first person of color to hold Support several months of broad paid leave
the post since 1933.
Cost of College
Students shouldn’t have to take on debt

Student Debt
Expand or fix existing debt-relief programs

Assault Weapons
Support a ban on assault weapons

Biden and Harris celebrating their victory Abortion

Few limits, if any
Personal Life & Other Accomplishments
Harris married attorney Douglas Emhoff on Au- Medicare For All
gust 22, 2014, in Santa Barbara, California. She Opposes Medicare for all, but would ex-
is a stepmother to Emhoff’s two children from pand coverage
his previous marriage. Emhoff is now the first
Jewish spouse of a vice president. Legalizing Marijuana
Legalize it
In 2006, Howard University awarded Harris its
Outstanding Alumni Award for “extraordinary Defense Spending
work in the fields of law and public service.” In Slash the defense budget
2010, California’s largest legal newspaper The
Daily Journal designated Harris as one of the Sources:
top 75 women litigators in the state and one of
https://www.harris.senate.gov/about
the top 100 lawyers in the state. In 2013, Time
named Harris as one of the “100 Most Influential https://www.britannica.com/biography/Kamala-Harris

People in the World.” In 2016, the 20/20 Bipar- https://www.cnn.com/2019/04/10/politics/gallery/kamala-harris/index.html

tisan Justice Center awared Harris the Bipartisan https://www.politico.com/news/magazine/2020/08/11/kamala-harris-vp-background-bio-

Justice Award. In 2018, Harris was named the biden-running-mate-2020-393885

recipient of the ECOS Environmental Award for

her leadership in environmental protection.

4 Women in Power, Issue 110