Washington, SAEDNEWS, Nov. 8: Kamala Harris has made history with her election as Joe Biden's vice president, becoming the first woman, first Black American and first South Asian American to win the second-highest US office.
Harris on Saturday shattered barriers that have kept men, almost all of them white, entrenched at the highest levels of American politics for more than two centuries.
The 56-year-old California senator represents the multiculturalism that defines America but is largely absent from Washington's power centres.
Harris is widely seen as an obvious candidate for the Democratic Party nomination in 2024 should Biden, who will be 78 at their inauguration on January 20, decide not to seek a second term. She hasn't weighed in publicly on such speculation.
Edison Research and the major US television networks on Saturday projected their victory, based on unofficial final results, even though the incumbent president, Republican Donald Trump, vowed to continue fighting in courts.
A US senator from California, Harris has a track record of shattering glass ceilings. She served as San Francisco’s first female district attorney and was California's first woman of colour to be elected attorney general.
Her background in criminal justice could help a Biden administration tackle the issues of racial equality and policing after the country was swept by protests this year, despite criticism by the left. Harris sometimes struggled to navigate her complicated relationship with police when she sought the Democratic presidential nomination last year. Law enforcement leaders never fully embraced her, and some progressives also viewed her warily.
She is expected to be a top adviser on judicial nominations.
Harris, whose mother and father emigrated from India and Jamaica, respectively, had her sights set on becoming the first woman US president when she competed against Biden and others for their party's 2020 nomination.
She dropped out of the race last December after a campaign, hurt by her wavering views on healthcare and indecision about embracing her past as a prosecutor.
Biden looked beyond some of the harsh words Harris had for him in that campaign to name her his running mate in August. She has proven to be a valuable and polished stand-in, appealing especially to women, progressives and voters of colour, all critical to the party’s election hopes (Source: TRT).
The US President-elect Joe Biden Delivered His Victory Speech in Delaware
