Meet Kamala Harris, America's vice president, who was endorsed by Joe Biden after he dropped his reelection bid

After dropping out of the 2024 race, President Joe Biden endorsed his vice president, Kamala Harris, as the 2024 Democratic nominee.

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• After dropping out of the 2024 race, Joe Biden endorsed Kamala Harris as the Democratic nominee.
• Harris made history as first vice president who is a woman, Black, or of Indian descent. 
• She previously served as a US senator and attorney general of California.

Joe Biden chose Kamala Harris as his running mate in 2020. Now, she could replace him on the ticket in 2024.

After dropping out of the presidential race, Biden endorsed Harris as the 2024 Democratic nominee, saying in a statement that choosing her to be vice president was "the best decision I've made."

Here's a look at the history and career of America's groundbreaking vice president.

Kamala Harris was born in 1964 in Oakland, California. She has one younger sister, Maya.

Kamala Harris.

Cliff Hawkins/Getty Images

Harris' mother, Shyamala Gopalan Harris, immigrated to the US from India, while her father, Donald Harris, immigrated to the US from Jamaica. They met as graduate students at UC Berkeley and divorced when Harris was young.

Kevin Sullivan wrote for The Washington Post that Harris visited India on vacations and that her mother cooked her and Maya Indian food at home.

Harris spent a good portion of her childhood in Berkeley, where she attended Thousand Oaks Elementary School, Berkeleyside reported. Both parents brought Harris to civil-rights protests in Berkeley as a young child. Her family lived in Montreal for a few years before returning to the US.

As a young child, Harris took a bus that transported her to a different neighborhood as part of desegregation efforts.

A busing program in Berkeley.

AP Photo/RWK

The goal of busing — transporting students to schools in different neighborhoods — was desegregation.

One of the most memorable moments of the 2020 Democratic presidential primary came during a debate when Harris, addressing Biden, said: "There was a little girl in California who was part of the second class to integrate her public schools, and she was bused to school every day, and that little girl was me," before criticizing Biden's opposition to federally mandated busing in the 1970s.

Biden responded: "I did not oppose busing in America. What I opposed is busing ordered by the Department of Education. That's what I opposed." 

Nellie Bowles reported for The New York Times that Harris took a bus to a predominantly white neighborhood to attend Thousand Oaks Elementary School starting in 1970 when busing was still in its early years.

Harris attended Howard University and the University of California's Hastings College of Law.

Kamala Harris spoke at Howard University's commencement in 2017.

Marvin Joseph/The Washington Post via Getty Images

The Los Angeles Times reported that Harris' political identity began to take shape at Howard, a historically Black university. 

Harris was a member of the Alpha Kappa Alpha sorority at Howard. She told The Washington Post that she "became an adult" as a student there.

Harris gave the commencement address at Howard in 2017.

When she became Biden's running mate in 2020, Wayne A. I. Frederick, the president of Howard, released a statement calling Biden's choice "a milestone opportunity for our democracy to acknowledge the leadership Black women have always exhibited, but has too often been ignored."

Harris worked at the Alameda County District Attorney's Office in Oakland for eight years, until 1998.

Kamala Harris in 2006.

Christina Koci Hernandez/San Francisco Chronicle by Getty Images

The Los Angeles Times' Michael Finnegan reported that she prosecuted murder, rape, assault, and drug cases in her first job after law school, as a deputy district attorney for Alameda County in Oakland.

At about the same time, Harris was dating Willie Brown, then the California State Assembly speaker and the future mayor of San Francisco, the San Francisco Chronicle reported. The couple ended their relationship before Brown became mayor.

Brown wrote in the San Francisco Examiner that Harris should decline Biden's offers to join his ticket, saying that the vice presidency often ends up being a "dead end," The Hill reported.

Harris served as district attorney of San Francisco from 2004 to 2010.

Kamala Harris in San Francisco.

D. Ross Cameron/MediaNews Group/The Mercury News via Getty Images

Harris was the first woman to serve as the district attorney of San Francisco and the first Black woman and the first Indian American woman to hold that role, according to the California Department of Justice.

In 2003, while running for the office, she said she would oppose the death penalty. She stuck to the campaign promise four months later, when police officer Isaac Espinoza was fatally shot by a gang member. Other prominent California Democrats including Dianne Feinstein and Barbara Boxer criticized the decision, which Harris defended in an op-ed in the San Francisco Chronicle.

Meagan Flynn reported for The Washington Post, however, that the death penalty was a "complex" part of Harris' legal career.

During her time as district attorney, she instituted "Back on Track," a reentry program "aimed at reducing recidivism among low-level drug-trafficking defendants."

The program, meant to last 12 to 18 months, set goals defined by a personal-responsibility program tailored to each person. The program measured parenting, educational, and professional achievements and required several hundred hours of achievement. To graduate from the program, the participants were required to have secured employment, enrolled in school, and met their personalized requirements from the program.

In 2011, Harris became the attorney general of California.

Harris at a memorial service for the San Jose police officer Michael Johnson.

Gary Reyes/MediaNews Group/The Mercury News via Getty Images

Harris served as the attorney general of California for six years. During that time, she litigated against mortgage companies, for-profit colleges, and human trafficking, securing major settlements for the state.

The Washington Post's Matt Viser reported that President Donald Trump and Ivanka Trump donated to two of Harris' bids for attorney general.

In her first year as attorney general, Harris supported a law signed by Republican Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger that fined parents of "chronically truant" children several thousand dollars for missing more than 10% of school without a valid excuse. The penalty also included jail time. At the time, Julianne Hing wrote for Color Lines that it was "likely to disproportionately affect communities of color." Harris apologized for supporting the law on a 2019 episode of "Pod Save America."

In 2018, The New York Times columnist Nicholas Kristof called Harris a "flawed political leader" while discussing the case of Kevin Cooper, a death row inmate convicted of murder. Kristof named Harris and then-Gov. Jerry Brown as lawmakers who didn't allow "newly available DNA testing," and said new DNA evidence might vindicate Cooper.

That same year, Harris said California should allow DNA testing for Cooper's case, CBS News reported. In 2023, DNA evidence confirmed Cooper's guilt, the San Bernardino County District Attorney's Office said in a statement.

In the past, civil-rights groups have criticized Harris' responses to instances of police shootings, saying she needs to be stricter on excessive force by police officers, the Los Angeles Times reported. 

A representative for Harris did not immediately respond to Business Insider.

In 2017, Harris became the second Black woman and first American of South Asian ancestry to be elected to the US Senate.

Kamala Harris at a Senate Intelligence Committee hearing.

AP Photo/Alex Brandon

Harris served on multiple Senate committees — the Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, the Select Committee on Intelligence, the Committee on the Judiciary, and the Committee on the Budget.

She often won praise for her prosecutorial lines of questioning during congressional hearings.

TechCrunch described Harris as putting Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg "between a rock and a hard place" in an April 2018 congressional hearing on data-mining misuse.

In May 2019, her fiery line of questioning during a congressional hearing on the Robert Mueller report made several headlines — specifically her tough treatment of Attorney General William Barr.

California Gov. Gavin Newsom appointed Alex Padilla to replace Harris' Senate seat when she was elected vice president.

Harris launched a bid for the Democratic nomination for president in 2019, dropping out in December.

Kamala Harris launched her 2020 presidential campaign in Oakland.

REUTERS/Elijah Nouvelage

During her run, participants in a Business Insider poll said they viewed Harris as one of the most progressive candidates in a crowded field of Democrats.

Business Insider's Eliza Relman previously wrote that her platform expressed support for universal paid leave, better wages for teachers, and a public option for healthcare.

Harris married Doug Emhoff, an entertainment lawyer, in 2014.

Doug Emhoff and Kamala Harris.

Jon Kopaloff/FilmMagic

Emhoff is an outspoken supporter of his wife's political career.

Emhoff was a partner at DLA Piper until he left to support Harris as vice president and fulfill his duties as second gentleman. According to his company profile, which is no longer online, he represented individuals as well as corporations in complex business, real estate, and intellectual-property litigation. 

The couple met on a blind date set up by a mutual friend. Harris is a stepparent to Emhoff's two children from a previous marriage.

In an op-ed article for Elle, Harris described her stepchildren as "brilliant, talented, funny kids who have grown to be remarkable adults."

In 2020, Harris made history as America's first vice president who is a woman, Black, or of Indian descent.

Vice President Kamala Harris was sworn in by Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor.

Saul Loeb/Pool Photo via AP

On Inauguration Day in 2021, Harris was sworn in on two Bibles. One of them belonged to Thurgood Marshall, the first Black Supreme Court justice. The other was Regina Nelson's, a close family friend.

After dropping out of the 2024 presidential race, Biden endorsed Harris as the Democratic nominee.

President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris.

Saul Loeb/AFP via Getty Images

"My very first decision as the party nominee in 2020 was to pick Kamala Harris as my Vice President. And it's been the best decision I've made," Biden wrote on X. "Today I want to offer my full support and endorsement for Kamala to be the nominee of our party this year. Democrats — it's time to come together and beat Trump. Let's do this."

It is yet to be seen if Harris will officially replace Biden as the Democratic nominee. Delegates will select a nominee at the Democratic National Convention, which begins on August 19.

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