Kamala Harris Wiki
Full name: Kamala Devi Harris
Date of birth: October 20,1964
Age: 61 years old (October 2o)
Place of birth: Oakland, California,U.S
Origin: United States of America.
Occupation: Businesswoman,Politician.
Spouse: Doug Emhoff
Citizenship: United States of America.
Website: kamalaharris.com
Page handles
X: @kamalaHarris
Instagram: @kamalaharris
TikTok: @kamalaharris
Net worth: $8 million.
Kamala Harris Biography
Kamala Devi Harris ( born October 20, 1964) is an American attorney and politician who held the office of the 49th Vice President of the United States from 2021 to 2025 during President Joe Biden’s administration.
She made history as the first woman, the first African American, and the first Asian American to serve as U.S. vice president, making her the highest-ranking female official and Asian American in the nation’s history.
Before becoming vice president, Harris represented California in the U.S. Senate between 2017 and 2021, and previously served as California’s attorney general from 2011 to 2017. A committed member of the Democratic Party, she emerged as the party’s nominee for the 2024 presidential election.
Harris was born in Oakland, California, and pursued her undergraduate studies at Howard University before earning her law degree from the University of California, Hastings College of the Law.
She began her legal career in the district attorney’s office in Alameda County, California, and later joined the San Francisco District Attorney’s Office. Eventually, she moved to the San Francisco City Attorney’s Office before being elected district attorney of San Francisco in 2003. She was later elected as California’s attorney general in 2010 and successfully re-elected in 2014.
In 2016, Harris was elected to the U.S. Senate, becoming the second Black woman and the first South Asian American ever to serve in that chamber. During her tenure, she strongly supported legislation on gun control, immigration through the DREAM Act, cannabis legalization at the federal level, and healthcare and tax reforms.
Her reputation grew nationwide due to her assertive questioning during Senate hearings involving members of the Trump administration, including then-Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh.
Harris entered the 2020 Democratic presidential race in 2019 but ended her campaign before the primaries. Joe Biden later chose her as his vice-presidential running mate, and they won the 2020 election against then-President Donald Trump and Vice President Mike Pence.
As vice president, Harris often presided over a divided Senate, casting a record-setting 33 tie-breaking votes. These included critical legislation such as the American Rescue Plan Act of 2021 and the Inflation Reduction Act.
In July 2024, following Biden’s decision not to run for re-election, Harris launched her own presidential campaign with his full endorsement. She became the Democratic nominee and selected Minnesota Governor Tim Walz as her vice-presidential running mate. However, the ticket was defeated by Republican candidates Donald Trump and Ohio Senator JD Vance.
Early Life and Education
Kamala Devi Harris was born on October 20, 1964, in Oakland, California. Her mother, Shyamala Gopalan (1938–2009), was a Tamil biologist who moved to the United States from India in 1958 to pursue graduate studies in endocrinology at the University of California, Berkeley.
Over her extensive research career spanning more than four decades, Shyamala made significant contributions to breast cancer research, especially through her work on the progesterone receptor gene.
Kamala’s father, Donald J. Harris (born 1938), is of Afro-Jamaican descent and immigrated to the U.S. in 1961. He also studied at UC Berkeley, specializing in development economics, and later became the first Black professor granted tenure in Stanford University’s economics department, where he now holds emeritus status. The couple met in 1962 and married the following year.
The Harris family initially settled in Berkeley but relocated in 1966, around Kamala’s second birthday. Over the next few years, they lived in several Midwestern college towns where Kamala’s parents held academic positions, including Urbana and Evanston in Illinois, and Madison, Wisconsin.
Kamala’s younger sister Maya was born in Urbana in 1966. By 1970, the couple’s marriage deteriorated, prompting Shyamala to return to Berkeley with her daughters. Kamala was seven when her parents officially divorced.
Throughout the early 1970s, Kamala frequently traveled with her mother to Chennai, India, where they stayed with her maternal grandfather. During these visits, Kamala embraced elements of her Indian heritage, including wearing traditional attire and learning basic Tamil phrases.
In 1972, Donald Harris joined Stanford University as a professor, and Kamala and Maya spent weekends with their father in Palo Alto while living with their mother in Berkeley during the week. Shyamala was closely connected to African-American intellectuals and activists in the Bay Area.
In 1976, she accepted a research post at McGill University’s School of Medicine, relocating with her daughters to Montreal, Canada. Kamala completed her high school education at Westmount High School on Montreal Island in 1981.
She attended Vanier College in Montreal for a year before enrolling at Howard University in Washington, D.C., a historically Black university. While at Howard, Kamala joined the Alpha Kappa Alpha sorority, one of the prominent historically Black Greek organizations known as the “Divine Nine.” She graduated in 1986 with a bachelor’s degree in political science and economics.
Pursuing a legal career, Kamala then attended the University of California, Hastings College of the Law in San Francisco, where she led the Black Law Students Association as president and earned her Juris Doctor in 1989.
Early Career
Kamala Harris began her professional career in 1990 as a deputy district attorney in Alameda County, California, gaining recognition as a capable prosecutor rising through the ranks.
In 1994, Willie Brown, then Speaker of the California Assembly and Harris’s partner, appointed her to the state Unemployment Insurance Appeals Board and later the California Medical Assistance Commission.
By February 1998, Harris was recruited by San Francisco District Attorney Terence Hallinan to serve as an assistant district attorney. She later became chief of the Career Criminal Division, overseeing five attorneys and prosecuting serious offenses including homicide, burglary, robbery, and sexual assault, with a particular focus on “three-strikes” law cases.
In August 2000, she transitioned to San Francisco City Hall, working under City Attorney Louise Renne. Harris managed the Family and Children’s Services Division, handling cases involving child abuse and neglect. Renne later supported Harris’s campaign for district attorney.
San Francisco district attorney (2002–2011)
In 2002, Kamala Harris campaigned for the position of San Francisco’s district attorney, running a vigorous campaign that highlighted distinctions between her and the incumbent, Terence Hallinan, whose record she criticized.
Harris secured the office with 56% of the vote, making history as the first person of color elected to the role in San Francisco. She ran unchallenged when seeking a second term in 2007.
Within just six months of assuming office, Harris successfully resolved 27 out of 74 pending homicide cases. She advocated for raising bail amounts for defendants charged with gun-related offenses, contending that previously low bail figures had made the city a target for outside criminals.
Officers in the San Francisco Police Department acknowledged her efforts in closing legal gaps that had previously benefited defendants. Throughout her campaign, Harris vowed not to pursue the death penalty, a promise she honored in high-profile cases including that of Isaac Espinoza, a police officer fatally shot in 2004, and Edwin Ramos, an undocumented immigrant allegedly linked to the MS-13 gang, accused of murdering a man and his two sons in 2009.
As district attorney, Harris established a Hate Crimes Unit dedicated to addressing hate crimes targeting LGBTQ+ youth in schools. She also championed A.B. 1160, known as the Gwen Araujo Justice for Victims Act.
In 2005, Harris launched an environmental crimes unit to tackle offenses harming the environment. She publicly supported San Francisco’s sanctuary city policy, which limits inquiries into individuals’ immigration status during criminal investigations.
In 2004, Harris introduced the San Francisco Reentry Division, aimed at assisting former inmates in reintegrating into society. Remarkably, over a six-year span, fewer than 10% of the roughly 200 participants in the program reoffended, a stark contrast to California’s overall 53% recidivism rate for drug offenders within two years of release.
To combat the city’s homicide rate, Harris spearheaded a campaign in 2006 focused on reducing truancy among at-risk elementary school children. In 2008, she classified chronic truancy as a public safety concern, noting that a significant portion of both prison inmates and homicide victims had histories of dropping out or habitual absenteeism.
That year, her office took the unprecedented step of citing six parents whose children missed at least 50 days of school, marking San Francisco’s first prosecutions of adults for their children’s truancy.
Over three years, seven parents faced such prosecutions, though none were incarcerated. By April 2009, the number of habitual or chronic truants in elementary schools had dropped to 1,330, a 23% decrease from the previous year and a substantial decline from numbers recorded in 2006 and 2007.
Attorney general of California (2011–2017)
Kamala Harris made history in 2010 when she was elected as California’s attorney general, becoming the first woman, as well as the first African American and South Asian American, to hold the position.
She officially assumed office on January 3, 2011, and secured reelection in 2014. Harris served until January 3, 2017, stepping down to begin her term as a U.S. senator.
During her 2010 campaign, Harris earned endorsements from key California Democratic leaders such as Senators Dianne Feinstein and Barbara Boxer, and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi.
After winning the Democratic primary, she narrowly defeated Republican Steve Cooley in the general election. Her time as attorney general was characterized by notable initiatives in consumer rights, criminal justice reform, and privacy protection.
In her 2014 reelection bid, Harris defeated Republican Ronald Gold with 58% of the vote. Interestingly, Donald Trump, who would later become her opponent in the 2024 presidential race, contributed a total of $6,000 to her campaign. Harris later donated this amount to a nonprofit dedicated to defending civil and human rights for Central American communities.
During her second term, Harris aggressively pursued consumer protection efforts, securing billions of dollars in settlements from corporations such as Quest Diagnostics, JPMorgan Chase, and Corinthian Colleges.
She played a leading role in establishing the Homeowner Bill of Rights, designed to curb abusive foreclosure tactics amid the housing crisis, resulting in multiple settlements exceeding hundreds of millions of dollars with mortgage servicers.
Harris also prioritized safeguarding privacy rights. She worked collaboratively with tech giants including Apple, Google, and Facebook to improve transparency around mobile app data sharing.
Her office created the Privacy Enforcement and Protection Unit to address cyber privacy issues and data breaches. California reached settlements with companies like Comcast and Houzz over privacy violations during her tenure.
On the criminal justice front, Harris pushed for reforms by launching the Division of Recidivism Reduction and Re-Entry and initiating the Back on Track LA program, which focused on providing education and vocational training for nonviolent offenders.
Despite these reforms, she faced criticism for defending the state in wrongful conviction cases and for the office’s position on prison labor. Nevertheless, she continued advocating for progressive changes, including banning the gay panic defense in California courts and opposing Proposition 8, the state’s ban on same-sex marriage.
U.S. Senator (2017–2021)
Election
Following Senator Barbara Boxer’s announcement on January 13, 2015, that she would not seek reelection after over two decades representing California in the Senate, Kamala Harris declared her candidacy for the open seat shortly thereafter. From the outset, she was regarded as a leading contender.
California’s 2016 Senate race employed the state’s new top-two primary system, which allows the two candidates with the most votes—regardless of party—to advance to the general election.
In February 2016, Harris secured 78% of the California Democratic Party’s endorsement, which boosted her campaign’s financial support. A few months later, Governor Jerry Brown publicly backed her.
In the June primary, Harris earned 40% of the vote, leading in most counties. She then faced fellow Democrat Loretta Sanchez in the general election.
In July, President Barack Obama and Vice President Joe Biden endorsed Harris. She won the November 2016 election decisively, capturing more than 60% of the vote and carrying nearly all counties.
After her victory, Harris pledged to defend immigrant rights against policies anticipated from President-elect Donald Trump and announced she would remain California’s attorney general through the end of that year. Her election made her the second Black woman and the first South Asian American to serve in the U.S. Senate.
Tenure and Political Positions
As a senator, Harris advocated for stronger gun control laws, supported the DREAM Act, pushed for federal legalization of cannabis, and pursued reforms in healthcare and taxation.
She gained national attention for her pointed questioning of several Trump administration nominees, including Jeff Sessions and Brett Kavanaugh.
In early 2017, Harris strongly opposed President Trump’s travel ban targeting citizens from several Muslim-majority countries, denouncing it as a “Muslim ban” and seeking detailed information directly from White House officials to challenge the policy.
She voiced opposition to Trump’s cabinet picks Betsy DeVos for Education Secretary and Jeff Sessions for Attorney General, later calling for Sessions’s resignation after revelations of his undisclosed meetings with Russian officials.
Harris voted against Neil Gorsuch’s confirmation to the Supreme Court and, in April 2017, made her first overseas trip as a senator, visiting U.S. troops in Iraq and a Syrian refugee camp in Jordan.
She attracted media attention in June for her rigorous questioning of Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein regarding the firing of FBI Director James Comey.
Her approach drew criticism from some Senate colleagues who urged a more respectful tone, sparking discussions about possible sexism in the Senate’s response to her. She continued pressing Sessions on related issues, with Sessions noting that her inquiries made him “nervous.”
In December 2017, Harris publicly called for Senator Al Franken’s resignation amid sexual misconduct allegations.
In 2018, after Franken’s departure, Harris was appointed to the Senate Judiciary Committee. She scrutinized Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen over comments on immigration and co-sponsored legislation to strengthen border security staffing. Harris vehemently opposed the Trump administration’s family separation policy, becoming the first senator to demand Nielsen’s resignation following visits to detention centers.
During the contentious Supreme Court confirmation hearings for Brett Kavanaugh, Harris challenged the nominee over potential conflicts related to President Trump’s legal team and questioned the FBI’s limited scope on sexual assault allegations. She voted against his confirmation.
Harris was targeted in the 2018 mail bombing incidents aimed at Democratic figures.
Later that year, she sponsored the Justice for Victims of Lynching Act, which sought to classify lynching as a federal hate crime, although the bill did not pass the House.
In 2019, Harris voiced support for busing as a tool to address school segregation and was an early supporter of the Green New Deal, aiming for 100% renewable electricity by 2030.
Following the release of Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s report, Harris demanded transparency from Attorney General William Barr, questioning his summary and calling for investigations into possible misrepresentations. She pressed Barr during Senate hearings and called for his resignation, citing his evasive responses.
Harris also criticized what she called “voter suppression” in the 2018 gubernatorial elections in Georgia and Florida, although some election experts disputed evidence of its impact.
She collaborated with Senator Kirsten Gillibrand and others to call for investigations into human rights abuses against Uyghurs in China and pushed for accountability over the death of Roxsana Hernández, a transgender immigrant who died in ICE custody.
Additionally, Harris led efforts to demand the removal of White House adviser Stephen Miller after revelations about his promotion of white nationalist content.
2020
In January 2020, as the Senate prepared to begin President Trump’s impeachment trial, Harris delivered a powerful speech emphasizing the rule of law and accountability.
She requested a pause on judicial nominations during the trial, a request Senate Judiciary Chair Lindsey Graham accepted. Harris voted to convict Trump on charges of abuse of power and obstruction of Congress.
Throughout her Senate career, she worked on bipartisan legislation with Republican colleagues, including bills focused on bail reform, election security, and workplace harassment.
2021
Following her election as Vice President of the United States, Harris resigned her Senate seat on January 18, 2021, just before taking office on January 20. California Secretary of State Alex Padilla was appointed to fill her seat.