20 Things to Know About Kamala Harris, New Democrat Frontrunner

By Jackson Richman, Joseph Lord

With President Joe Biden’s tectonic announcement that he will not run for reelection, Vice President Kamala Harris appears on the path to clinch the nomination. She has quickly secured endorsements from President Biden and many key Democrats.

If she is formally nominated at the Democratic National Convention next month, she will face former President Donald Trump in November in the race to the White House.

Here are 20 things to know about Ms. Harris:

1. She’s 59 Years Old

Ms. Harris was born Oct. 20, 1964, in Oakland, California, and is currently 59 years old.

2. Her Father Is Black and Her Mother Was Indian

Ms. Harris’s father is Donald Harris, a black man of Jamaican descent, and her mother was Shymala Gopalan, now deceased, who was an immigrant from India. Her parents were both academics, which caused the young family to move around often. Her father is an economist who teaches at Stanford University, while her late mother was a biologist.

Mrs. Gopalan was a breast cancer scientist and pioneer in her field. She came to the United States from India at age 19 and earned her doctorate around the time Ms. Harris was born.

Ms. Harris’s mother had a significant influence on her while growing up. She once remarked, “My mother would look at me and she’d say, ‘Kamala, you may be the first to do many things, but make sure you are not the last.’”

3. She Explored Both of Her Parents’ Religious Traditions

Coming from a mixed-race couple, Ms. Harris explored the religious traditions of both of her parents as a child. Her neighbor often took Ms. Harris and her sister to predominantly black churches in Berkeley. Through her mother, a Hindu, she was also exposed to the religious tenets and core ideas of Hinduism. Ms. Harris is currently a Baptist. She delivered an address to the National Baptist Convention annual meeting in 2022.

4. She’s Married to Doug Emhoff and has 2 Stepchildren

Ms. Harris married entertainment lawyer Doug Emhoff in 2014. The two were set up by a mutual friend. Mr. Emhoff has two children, Ella and Cole Emhoff, who are Ms. Harris’s stepchildren.

5. She Was an Early Participant in the National Desegregation Program

By the time Ms. Harris was ready to begin kindergarten, her parents had returned the family to California. Living in Berkeley at the time, Ms. Harris was among the first students to be bused into formerly white schools as part of the area’s desegregation program.

6. She Studied Law and Was Admitted to the California Bar in 1990

She obtained a degree in economics and political science at Howard University, a Historically Black College and University (HBCU) in Washington, D.C. She obtained her law degree from University of California, Hastings.

       Ms. Harris took the bar exam and was admitted to the California bar in 1990.

Not long after, she was appointed deputy district attorney (DA) for Alameda County, California, her first job in a legal field.

7. She Prosecuted Mostly Violent and ‘Three-Strike’ Offenses

In 1998, San Francisco DA Terence Hallinan hired Ms. Harris as an assistant DA.

During her time with the office, Ms. Harris worked in the career criminal division, prosecuting mostly violent crimes and “three-strike” offenses.

8. She Campaigned Against Her Former Boss to Become DA

In 2004, Ms. Harris launched a campaign to become San Francisco DA against her former boss, Mr. Hallinan.  The two were at odds over Proposition 21, which would have allowed juveniles to be tried in superior court rather than juvenile court. Ms. Harris opposed, and campaigned against, the measure. Mr. Hallinan, who supported the measure, eventually barred Ms. Harris from responding to press inquiries on the proposition, leading to her resignation.

During her campaign, Ms. Harris promised to be “smart on crime,” vowing not to enforce the death penalty and to only use “three-strike” laws for violent offenders.

She criticized Mr. Hallinan for a low conviction rate and for failing to stem gun violence in poor, black neighborhoods.Ms. Harris ultimately won her election with 56 percent of the vote.

9. She Was the DA of San Francisco Between 2004 and 2011

Ms. Harris served as the DA of San Francisco between 2004 and 2011 and the first black woman in the position.

10. She Was Attorney General of California From 2011 to 2017.

In 2010, Ms. Harris narrowly defeated Republican Steve Cooley to become attorney general of California, winning by a narrow margin. As attorney general of the Golden State, she won settlements with Big Oil companies including BP and Chevron.

She was the first woman, the first black American, and the first South Asian American to hold the office of attorney general of California.

11. She Was Elected to the Senate in 2016.

Ms. Harris in 2016 defeated Rep. Linda Sanchez (D-Calif.) in a Senate race, winning with more than 20 percent of the vote. She served on the Senate Judiciary Committee, Homeland Security Committee, Intelligence Committee, and the Budget Committee. She was a U.S. Senator from Jan. 3, 2017, to Jan. 18, 2021.

12. Several Bills She Sponsored Passed the Senate

During her relatively short tenure in the Senate, Ms. Harris enjoyed a few legislative accomplishments. In 2018, her Pro Bono Work to Empower and Represent (POWER) Act was passed, ultimately becoming law in September 2018. The same year, her Justice for Victims of Lynching Act—which would have made lynching a federal hate crime—failed to pass the Senate. However, during her tenure as vice president, Congress passed a similar bill, the Emmett Till Antilynching Act. It was signed into law by President Biden in 2022.

In 2020, her final full year in the Senate, Ms. Harris sponsored and saw the successful passage of the Secure 5G and Beyond Act, which aimed to bolster telecommunications systems and infrastructure in the United States.

13. She Unsuccessfully Ran for President in the 2020 Cycle and Was Critical of Candidate Biden on the Campaign Trail

Ms. Harris mounted an ultimately unsuccessful bid for the Democratic presidential nomination in the 2020 election cycle. Though she was seen as a possible frontrunner prior to the election cycle, she lagged behind in early polling, which led Ms. Harris to drop out of the race on Dec. 3, 2019, one month before the Iowa Caucus.

        Though she eventually became his running mate, Ms. Harris was critical of presidential candidate Joe Biden on the primary campaign trail. During a 2019 debate, she condemned the former vice president for his opposition to desegregation bussing programs in the 1970s. She also criticized her Democratic rival for his work with segregationists such as Sens. James Eastland (D-Miss.) and Herman Talmadge (D-Ga.), saying that candidate Biden was “not ready” to be in the White House.

14. She Spotlighted CCP’s Human Rights Abuses

During her time in the Senate, Ms. Harris advanced legislation targeting the Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP) human rights record. Along with Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y.), she wrote a letter in 2020 to the secretary of state about the Chinese regime’s genocide against Uyghur Muslims and other minorities.

She also spotlighted the CCP’s trampling of freedoms in Hong Kong. The communist regime has taken virtual control over the previously semi-autonomous city in recent years. The senator successfully ushered in a bipartisan bill she co-sponsored through Congress that sanctions officials there for “undermining fundamental freedoms and autonomy” and advances human rights in the region.

As senator, Ms. Harris also co-sponsored the Uyghur Human Rights Policy Act, which became law in 2020, that “imposes sanctions on foreign individuals and entities responsible for human rights abuses” in China’s northwestern Xinjiang region.

15. She Voted to Convict Trump in 2020

She voted in favor of convicting President Trump during his impeachment trial for allegedly asking Ukraine to investigate former Vice President Biden in exchange for military assistance. While he was impeached by the House, he was acquitted by the Senate.

16. She Has Advocated for Gun Control

Ms. Harris has worked to advance tougher gun laws in the Biden administration. She oversees the White House Office of Gun Violence Prevention. In 2020, she had called for universal background checks and a ban on “assault weapons.”

17. She Was Elected the First Female, First Vice President of Color

Upon her election in 2020, Ms. Harris became the first woman, first Indian-American, and first black vice president. After her election, Ms. Harris remarked on the significance of her victory.

“I may be the first woman to hold this office. But I won’t be the last,” she said upon her and Mr. Biden’s being declared the winners of the 2020 election. Additionally, Ms. Harris’s husband, Mr. Emhoff, became the first Jewish spouse of a president or vice president. Their home, which is at the Naval Observatory in Washington, includes a mezuzah—a Jewish item required to be displayed at the entrances of Jewish homes in accordance with the Torah commandment.

18. She Supports Ukraine and Has Been Supportive and Critical of Israel

Ms. Harris has been supportive of Ukraine in its war against Russia and has backed the U.S. assistance that has been sent to Kyiv. With Israel, while she has reiterated that the administration’s support for the country is “ironclad” and condemned Iran’s attack on the Jewish state in April, she has been critical of Israel amid its war against the Hamas terrorist group in Gaza. “The Israeli government must do more to significantly increase the flow of aid. No excuses,” she said in March.

19. She’s a Hip-Hop Fan

She celebrated 50 years of hip-hop at the vice president’s residence, as seen in a viral video of her dancing to a song. She also danced with her 2020 campaign staff after she dropped out of the race.

“As a daughter of Oakland, California, hip-hop has been a part of my life since its very beginning—from growing up knowing every word to ‘Rapper’s Delight,’ to being in high school when my best friend from kindergarten, Stacey Johnson, who is here, would pick me up in her father’s black Cadillac Coupe DeVille—there she is—to drive to a club in the city where the DJ played and we danced until we needed to take off our shoes,” she said at the celebration.

20. She Was Endorsed by President Biden

After he dropped out of the 2024 race President Biden called for Americans to elect Ms. Harris.

President Biden’s exit was the first time a sitting president has decided to not run for re-election since 1968, when Lyndon Johnson dropped his bid after a disappointing showing in the New Hampshire primary.

Emel Akan contributed to this report.