Harris, Kamala

Impact on the world

Became the first woman of color nominated for vice president by a major U.S. political party when Joe Biden selected her as his running mate in 2020, then took office in January 2021 as the first Black, first South Asian American, and first woman to serve as vice president of the United States; in 2024 she became the second Black woman, after Shirley Chisholm, to seek a major party's presidential nomination, and the first to be formally nominated.

Life & background

The daughter of a Jamaican father and an Indian mother, Harris built a career as a prosecutor and California's attorney general before her election to the U.S. Senate. After an unsuccessful 2020 Democratic presidential primary campaign, she was selected as Joe Biden's running mate, and the ticket's victory made her the first Black, first South Asian American, and first woman to hold the vice presidency, taking office in January 2021. In July 2024, following President Biden's withdrawal from the presidential race, Harris launched her own presidential campaign, accepting the Democratic Party's nomination and becoming the first Black woman formally nominated for president by a major party, doing so 47 years to the day after Shirley Chisholm's own 1972 presidential campaign announcement, an echo Harris made deliberately, including in her campaign's visual branding.

Sources

1. NMAAHC (Black Women in the Race for the White House); The Conversation; Britannica (Kamala Harris); U.S. House History, Art & Archives (HARRIS, Kamala Devi)