All about the first black female vice-president candidate
The election of the Democrat as vice presidential candidate in Joseph R. Biden's presidential race is quite an event .
Kamala Harris is the new vice presidential running for candidate Joe Biden. / Photo: instagram.com/kamalaharris
The Woman Post | Maria Lourdes Zimmermann
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At 55, Senator Kamala Harris has all the merits to be the next vice president of the United States from the hand of Joseph R. Biden. It is premature but she is victorious and confident.
Just being the first black woman of Indian descent and the fourth woman in the history of the United States to approach the presidency , since her nomination as vice president, places her on a special podium in the history of the most powerful country in the world.
Harris, from California, has an inspiring story that makes her a key piece in the Biden camp for the upcoming elections.
I was so proud to stand with @JoeBiden earlier today as our party's nominee for Vice President, and I do so mindful of all the heroic and ambitious women before me whose sacrifice, determination, and resilience makes my presence here even possible.
— Kamala Harris (@KamalaHarris) August 13, 2020
Being a woman, empowered, black and democrat can favor the vote of women regardless of the party, of migrants who identify with their roots, their origin and their historical and multiracial condition, of the Afro-descendant communities of the North country that fight for respect and equality and from anyone who feels that the United States needs a change and a woman can balance the burdens in running the country.
The New York Times defined her history and her origin: “Throughout her rise, Harris has touched Democrats with a personal story that sets her apart even in the diverse political melting pot that is California – the daughter of two immigrant academics, an Indian-American mother and a Jamaican father. Ms. Harris was raised in Oakland and Berkeley, California, attended Howard University in Washington, DC, and pursued a career in criminal justice before becoming the second black woman elected to the Senate."
Harris, one of Biden's former rivals in the presidential race, was a prosecutor who broke barriers before being elected to the Senate in 2016.
She was a former California attorney general and a former San Francisco district attorney, her experience will allow her to express very well in debates what she has already done in public life and she will surely have a lot to say when talking about police brutality and systematic racism, a topic of discussion in the United States.
There are symbolic events in her political life such as having announced her candidacy for the Presidency in 2019 on the birthday of Martin Luther King and also paying tribute to Shirley Chisholm, the congresswoman from New York who became the first woman to seek the Democratic Party nomination for president according to The New York Times.
But not everything is good for Kamala Harris, her time at the Prosecutor's Office generated criticism for her way of facing some cases that generated clear controversies in the country.
As attorney general, she rarely prosecuted police officers who killed civilians, although when she left that office, she had opened some reviews of police departments. She was also criticized for refusing to allow advanced DNA testing that could have exonerated Kevin Cooper, a black man on death row, and for defending some convictions against prosecution misconduct allegations, expressed an article in The New York Times.
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An opponent of the death penalty, she refused to seek it out when a police officer was killed in San Francisco in 2004, an episode that sparked protests at the time but which she has pointed to as an example of her commitment to a fairer criminal justice system. But ten years later, when a judge declared California's death penalty unconstitutional, she appealed the decision, saying she was obligated to do so as the state attorney general. The criminal justice plan that she launched during her presidential campaign contained a series of progressive policies that she had opposed earlier in her career, explains the US media.
In 2016, Harris was the first black woman on the floor in more than a decade to be elected to the Senate. She has supported racial justice legislation in response to the murder of Mr. Floyd, and has clear intentions to reform the police and make lynching a federal crime, even though she has a history of challenging these ideas. She has proposed the review of the country's finances and has served on high-profile committees in the Senate.
In 2019, she retired from the presidential race due to lack of money, but when she returned in January 2020, again with her firm intention, there was support for her figure as a candidate because she has a strong, forceful, empowered speech and is not afraid of Donald Trump.
Biden and Harris unite at the request of the first and have in their favor a management that has left bitterness in the United States with the presence of Trump in power. While the President launches taunts and attacks, they will grow hand in hand in the presidential race for the United States.
Married and without children, she has spoken about the personal relationship she has with her two stepchildren and has expressed in her networks that “Of all the titles I have had, Momala is my favorite”. It is the name that the children of Douglas Emhoff have affectionately designated to her. Her husband, who is used to Harris's public life, will have to face a new race for power.
https://t.co/JYqRuJRVD3 pic.twitter.com/w6gFwhzud6
— Douglas Emhoff (@douglasemhoff) May 10, 2019