Kamala Harris: Who is she and why did joe biden pick her as his running mate?

Kamala Harris will have a second chance to make it to the White House after her selection is made as Biden's deputy.  (GETTY IMAGES)

Months after her dreams of running for president, Kamala Harris will now have another chance in the Democratic nominations in the race to reach the White House.

A year ago, US Senator from California, Kamala Harris, rushed to the forefront of a crowded field of contestants aspiring to the Democratic presidential nomination through strong performances in a series of debates, and harsh criticism of her rival Joe Biden on issues related to race in the United States, but By the end of 2019, her campaign was over and she was out of the race to run.

Now, with Biden the presumptive Democratic nominee for the presidency, this 55-year-old woman is being chosen as the vice president.

Thus, Kamala Harris entered the race to reach the White House again, but under a second classification. We will shed light here on her rise and her political career.

Who is Kamala Harris?

Harris, 55, was born on Oct. 20, 1964, in Oakland, California, making her a natural-born U.S. citizen.

Her father, an economist from Jamaica, and her mother, a cancer researcher from India, met at the University of California, Berkeley, as graduate students.

Kamala has been closely associated with her Indian heritage and has accompanied her mother to visit India several times. But she says her mother embraced black culture in Oakland, and infused her two daughters; Kamala and her younger sister, Maya, are in that culture.

In her autobiography, she wrote: "The truth is that my mother realized very well that she was raising two black daughters."

She added, "She knew that her new home, to which she decided to belong, would see me and Maya as two black girls, but she was insisting on making sure that we would become two black women who were confident and proud of themselves."

Kamala Harris' campaign failed to reach its target after a promising start (GETTY IMAGES)

Kamala lived in her early years for a short period in Canada as well, when her mother worked as a teacher at McGill University. She and her younger sister traveled with her and studied at a school in Montreal for five years.

Then she enrolled in college in the United States, and spent four years at Howard University, one of the prominent colleges and universities in which blacks historically study in the country, which she described as being among the most experiences she had in her life and contributed to its construction and formation.

Harris says she has always been in line with her ethnic identity and describes herself simply as "American."

And in 2019, she told the Washington Post that politicians should not be forced to limit themselves to the classifications imposed by their color or social background. She added, "My point was: I am as I am, and reconciled with myself. You may need to know this, but I am comfortable with it."

Between the Senate and the Prosecutor General

After spending four years at Howard, Harris transferred to a law degree from the University of California, and later began her career in the Public Prosecution Department of Alameda County.

Harris took over as the county attorney general and in 2003 became the chief attorney general of San Francisco, before being elected as the first woman and first black person to serve as a California attorney general, and the largest attorney and law enforcement official in America's most densely populated state.

During her two terms as Attorney General, Harris built a reputation as one of the rising stars of the Democratic Party, and she used that momentum to be elected to the California Senate in 2017.

Since her election to the US Senate, the former attorney has enjoyed support among progressives for her biting interrogation of then-Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh and Attorney General William Barr at the main Senate hearings.

While in the US Senate, Harris won praise for her questioning of then-Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh, and Attorney General William Barr.(GETTY IMAGES)

Aspirations to the White House

When Harris launched her presidential bid early last year with a crowd of more than 20,000 in Oakland, California, her bid for 2020 was met with initial enthusiasm. But the senator failed to provide a rationale for her campaign, providing muddled answers to questions in key policy areas such as health care.

Nor did she clearly make use of her strength during her candidacy: her strong debating performance that demonstrated the pilgrimage skills she trained on during her career as a prosecutor, and she often put Biden in the line of attacking characters.

Harris, a California Democrat and law enforcement worker, tried to follow a line that combined the progressive and moderate wings of her party. But she ended up not winning the endorsement of either, as she ended her candidacy campaign in December, ahead of the first Democratic candidates running in Iowa in early 2020.

In March, Harris endorsed former Vice President Joe Biden, saying she would do everything in her power to help elect him as the next president of the United States.

Her record in fighting crime

After Harris competed in the 2020 race, her record as California's highest-ranking public prosecutor is in the spotlight.

Despite her left-wing leanings on issues such as same-sex marriage and the death penalty, she faced repeated attacks from progressives because she was not progressive enough and was the subject of a bad opinion piece by University of San Francisco law professor Lara Basilon.

After withdrawing from the race in January, Harris backed Joe Biden (GETTY IMAGES)

Bazilon wrote at the start of Harris' campaign that Harris had largely evaded progressive battles that involved issues such as reforming the police service, reforming drug trafficking laws and wrongful convictions.

The plaintiff, who describes herself as a "progressive plaintiff", tried to emphasize the focus on left-leaning acts of her legacy, such as her request for cameras attached to the bodies of some special agents in the California Department of Justice, the first government agency to adopt, and the launch of a database that provides public access to crime statistics. But it still failed to gain the desired popularity.

The phrase "Kamala Harris Is a Cop" continued throughout the election campaign, marring her attempts to gain the more liberal democratic base during the primaries. But these law enforcement credentials could be useful in general elections when Democrats need to win over moderate and independent voters.

As the United States continued to confront the flare-ups of racial prejudices and investigations into police brutality, Harris took a front row seat, using her distinctive rhetorical training to bolster progressive voices.

On talk shows, she called for changes in police practices across the United States, and urged her Twitter account to arrest the officers who killed Briona Taylor, a 26-year-old African American activist from Kentucky, who spoke a lot about The need to dismantle the country's systemic racism.

And when it comes to calling the progressive wing of the party in disagreement over continuing to demand that the police not be funded; Calling for shrinking police budgets and diverting money to social programs - which Biden opposes - Harris evades comment and instead calls for a "re-image" of public safety.