KAMALA HARRIS: Will She Upset The Table Against Donald J. Trump?
Since Democratic Presidential hopeful, Joe Biden named Kamala Harris as his Vice Presidential candidate over 48 hours ago, the Democratic orbit has been agog with high enthusiasm and celebration for a potential game-changer in the US presidential election in November this year.
There’s every reason for the Democrats and the leftists to celebrate; especially with palpable fear and anxiety over the stability and agility of Joe Biden to face Donald Trump and match him strength for strength and policy for policy. Kamala Harris, it is believed, has the necessary stamina to withstand Trump.
The euphoria of a win in the coming election has been also heightened by the good rating the former presidential hopeful was receiving while campaigning for nomination for presidency; before crashing out of the race. Further credit has been accorded her pick for being the first African American to clinch the position. Hence, high hopes are on the sky for her important role in wooing black and people of colour votes for Biden.
Notwithstanding, watchers are keen to see her translate the present goodwill into electoral victory in November, given the fact that Donald Trump has a strong base of voters and high rating amongst the Republicans, evangelicals and white voters.
For the Democrats to upturn the elections in their favour, pundits have advised that they need to work harder than the euphoria generated by her choice for vice president.
Born in Oakland, California, Harris is a graduate of Howard University and the University of California, Hastings College of the Law. She began her career in the Alameda County District Attorney’s Office, before being recruited to the San Francisco District Attorney’s Office and later the City Attorney of San Francisco’s office. In 2003, she was elected district attorney of San Francisco. She was then elected attorney general of California in 2010; she was re-elected in 2014.
She defeated Loretta Sanchez in the 2016 Senate election to succeed Barbara Boxer, becoming California’s third female senator as well as the second African-American woman and the first South Asian American to serve in the United States Senate. As a senator, she has supported healthcare reform, federal descheduling of cannabis, a path to citizenship for undocumented immigrants, the DREAM Act, a ban on assault weapons, and progressive tax reform. She gained a national profile for her pointed questioning of Trump administration officials during Senate hearings.
Harris ran for the 2020 Democratic presidential nomination and attracted national attention before ending her campaign on December 3, 2019. She was announced as former vice president Joe Biden’s running mate for the 2020 United States presidential election on August 11, 2020, becoming the first African American and the first Asian American to be chosen as the running mate of a major party’s presidential candidate.
