Who Is Kamala Harris?

Who Is Kamala Harris?

Before she was Vice President, Kamala Devi Harris was the junior U.S. senator from California, and state Attorney General before that. Born in Oakland on October 20, 1964, Harris is the product of immigrant parents; her mother was Shyamala Gopalan, a biologist who came over from India in 1958 to study at UC-Berkeley, and her father is Donald J. Harris, who arrived from Jamaica in 1961 and also went to Cal before becoming an economics professor at Stanford.

Harris spent her childhood crossing the Midwest while her parents built their careers as educators, but returned to California in 1970 when her parents split up. She then moved with her mother to Montreal, completed high school there, and went to Vanier College before returning to the States and enrolling at Howard, where Harris got her degree in political science and economics in 1986.

After that, it was back to California to study at the UC College of the Law in San Francisco. Harris earned her Juris Doctor in 1989, then was hired as deputy District Attorney for Alameda Country the following year. It’s been a rocket ride from there; Harris became San Fran’s 27th DA in 2004, then state attorney general in 2011, and senator in 2017.

What Are Kamala Harris’s Politics?

As you might expect from the Democratic veep, Harris tends to vote for the same liberal policies that Biden does – although The New York Times described her as a “pragmatic moderate” before the 2020 presidential election, having shown a willingness to accept some progressive approaches to crime fighting that she opposed during her time as a prosecutor.

Harris has certainly moved closer to the center these past four years. Her views on economic issues remain more “populist” than Biden’s; Harris opposed the Trans-Pacific Partnership in 2016, and said three years later that she wouldn’t have voted for NAFTA. However, Harris remains united with Biden when it comes to continued unconditional military aid for Israel, as well as ongoing support for Ukraine.

For a while there, it looked like the 2024 election was boiling down to reproductive rights, where Harris has done some of her most high-profile work as Vice President. Instead, Harris’s support for abortion protections and LGBTQ+ rights has been overshadowed in recent weeks by Trump’s rhetoric on immigration and crime – even though Harris has years of experience and expertise on both fronts, and is widely seen as tougher on border security than Biden.

But is it wide enough to win the vote? We’ll find out on November 5, or perhaps several days or weeks afterward if previous elections are any indication. In the meantime, Bookmakers Review is here for all your U.S. election betting needs as we enter the final stretch of the 2024 campaign.