Who is Kamala Harris?

American President Joe Biden announced his withdrawal from the 2024 election on July 24, endorsing his current Vice President Kamala Harris as his choice for the Democrat’s nomination.

Harris now appears to be the candidate the Democratic Party is rallying behind to oppose Trump in the 2024 election after Joe Biden’s surprise withdrawal.

His withdrawal came amid mounting pressure within his own party to step aside and let the party unite behind a candidate that may inspire more confidence among voters. Voters had long questioned the 81-year-old’s mental fitness to preside over the country, citing many examples of gaffes in public speaking events, losing his train of thought in interviews, and most notably, a very lacklustre performance in the first presidential debate on June 27.

Polling Data

According to The Hill, a right-leaning American media outlet,  in aggregates of six of the largest national polls, Trump still appears to lead with a 5.7 per cent lead over Harris, with 42.6 per cent to Harris’s 36.9 per cent. Polling done by the left-leaning New York Times tells a closer story, with their data indicating Trump only leads 48 per cent to Harris’s 46 per cent.

Career as California prosecutor

Kamala Harris was born in Oakland, California, in 1964. After graduating with her law degree from the University of California-Hastings in 1989, she served as San Francisco’s District Attorney, then later was appointed as California’s Attorney General for six years from 2011-2017.

During her time in California as district attorney, Harris made headlines as she launched the ‘Bureau of Children’s Justice’ (BCJ), an initiative that aimed to decrease student truancy rates by launching investigations into child welfare services, local school districts, and private schools.

This initiative lowered truancy rates and was praised by many, particularly for its attention given to the situation of poorer, marginalised families.

“She had an interest in, ‘how do we reframe the role of a prosecutor as thinking much more long-term about how do we create safe and thriving communities?’ And you can’t have that conversation without children.” Said Jill Habig, an assistant to Harris who worked under Harris during her time as district attorney,.

Later, as state attorney general, she was the lead prosecutor in the 2012 National Mortgage Settlement, winning $18 billion for California homeowners who had fallen victim to wrongful foreclosures, predatory loan practices, and deliberate obfuscation of options available to homeowners who, as a result of the 2008 housing crash, had owed more on their mortgage than their home was even worth.

She, however was not without controversy during her time as a state prosecutor. After winning her seat as district attorney, she inherited a deep investigation into alleged sex crimes perpetrated by Catholic priests of the San Francisco diocese, and despite having access to these files and a Supreme Court ruling lifting the statute of limitations of these crimes ruled in civil courts, Harris’s office did not pursue these crimes with the same vigour as her preceding District Attorney, Terrence Hallinan.

“It went from Terence Hallinan going a hundred miles an hour, full speed ahead, after the Catholic Church to Kamala Harris doing absolutely nothing and taking it backward a hundred miles an hour,” said Joey Piscitelli, a sexual assault survivor while he was a high school student at Salesian Preparatory College in Richmond, California.

Senatorial Career

As a Senator, Harris has headed several initiatives, including the First Step Act, a bipartisan bill that decreased mandatory minimum sentences for non-violent crimes, as well as the DREAM Act, a bill that provided a legal pathway for undocumented immigrants who came to the U.S. as children, a spiritual successor to the ‘Dreamers’ Act, which was repealed by Trump.

Since becoming Vice President, she has kept a much lower profile; much of her focus since Biden’s election in 2020 has been devoted to the US’s covid response, and the execution of Operation Warp Speed, the US government’s collaboration with pharmaceutical companies to develop a vaccine for covid-19.

Americans will have to wait to see how she stands up to Trump on the debate stage, as the next televised presidential debate will be held September 10.