US election: Who is Democratic candidate Kamala Harris?

When Kamala Harris clasped Joe Biden's hand on stage as his running mate in August 2020, the duo were on track to oust President Donald Trump and restore a sense of normalcy to the United States, thanks in large part to Biden's decadeslong political experience. Harris was a charismatic, energetic leader for the new age — a woman of color and child of immigrant parents — who came into politics after fighting her way up to become the top public prosecutor in California.

Nearly four years later, and after a catastrophic debate performance and the subsequent questions about his ability to lead the United States for another four years — let alone defeat Trump in November's election — Biden chose to end his reelection campaign in July 2024. As de facto candidate, Harris found herself swept to confirmation at the Democratic National Convention with a flurry of party and celebrity support. The question will be whether she can overcome the stigma attached to an unpopular incumbent and take the presidency for her own against Trump.

Harris was born into a highly educated migrant family in Oakland, California, in 1964. Her mother was India-born breast cancer researcher Shyamala Gopalan, and her father was economics professor Donald J. Harris from Jamaica. Both of Harris' parents were active in the civil rights movement of the 1960s.

According to Harris' autobiography, "The Truths We Hold," this experience influenced her own career. She recalled Gopalan telling her and her sister, Maya: "Don't just sit around and complain about things. Do something!"

Her parents' marriage fell apart when Harris was 7. Five years later, Gopalan landed research work in Canada and they moved to Montreal.

The future US vice president attended high school in Canada, before moving back to the United States to study political science and economics in Washington, and then to her home state of California to study law in 1986.

Harris passed the bar in 1990 and began her career as district attorney, rising through the ranks to become California's attorney general in 2011. She was the first female, Black and South Asian American to hold this post.

'Top cop' in California

Harris' career as a prosecutor was a mixed bag. She styled herself as California's "top cop," but angered the police with her refusal to seek the death sentence even in cases when police officers were killed. At the same time, she was criticized for not doing more to tackle corruption within law enforcement.

Kamala Harris (left, with her sister, Maya, and mother, Shyamala) was born in Oakland, CaliforniaImage: picture-alliance/dpa/Kamala Harris Campaign

She initiated a system of hefty fines and potential incarceration for parents whose children were skipping too many classes, which disproportionately affected families of color. She laughed off the issue of legalizing marijuana in 2014, only to say she was "absolutely in favor" of it while running for the Democratic presidential nomination five years later.

In 2015, she announced that she was running for the US Senate and secured the support of Biden and President Barack Obama. In 2017, she became the second Black woman to serve in the Senate. In 2019, she launched a campaign for the Democratic presidential nomination with Biden as one of her opponents.

Bickering with Biden

During one of the debates, Harris pressured Biden over his cooperation with US senators who opposed desegregation efforts in the 1970s and the 1980s. She accused Biden of working with them against "busing" — a practice that saw children from minority areas being transported to predominantly white schools to diversify classrooms.

Biden responded by saying she "mischaracterized" his position and noted that he chose to be a "public defender" rather than a prosecutor during the unrest following the assassination of Martin Luther King, Jr.

Harris' years as a prosecutor also came back to haunt her with the "Kamala is a cop" meme during her campaign. She eventually dropped out of the race and supported Biden, who later asked her to be his running mate.

'Border czar' during border crisis

Biden and Harris fought a tough campaign together and eventually defeated Trump and Vice President Mike Pence. They were sworn in on January 20, 2021. just two weeks after a violent mob broke into the Capitol demanding the vote to be overturned. Harris once again made history — she was the first woman, the first Black person and the first person of Indian origin to serve as a US vice president.

The job gave Harris the authority to take over the administration in the event of the president's death or if he were deemed unfit for duty. But Harris has struggled to raise her profile during her time in the White House.

In 2021, Biden assigned her the task of tackling immigration by combating the "root causes" of people leaving Latin America.

"I can think of nobody who is better qualified to do this," Biden said of Harris at the time. "When she speaks, she speaks for me." 

The gift turned out to be poisonous. Despite Harris' efforts and meetings with Latin American leaders, the number of   undocumented border crossings continued to grow, reaching record highs last year. The Republican Party was quick to dub Harris the "border czar," and then lambaste her for not stemming the number of people crossing the border.

'Everything is at stake'

Harris found a different battleground against her political rivals. When the US Supreme Court repealed Roe v. Wade and effectively rolled back the right to abortion in large parts of the country in 2022, Harris became a powerful voice in favor of protecting that right. Earlier this year, she kicked off a "Fight for Reproductive Freedoms" tour across the US.

"Extremists across our country continue to wage a full-on attack against hard-won, hard-fought freedoms," Harris was quoted as saying by the White House.

Trump has endorsed the Supreme Court decision and claimed credit for it.

Just days ahead of the Trump-Biden debate on June 27, Harris warned that "everything is at stake" regarding reproductive rights if Trump were reelected.

A candidate to save the Democratic Party, and democracy?

Following Biden's poor debate performance, Harris was among the president's quickest and most vocal supporters, even as other Democratic politicians were already floating her name, among others, to replace Biden on the presidential ticket.

White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said during a briefing shortly after the debate that one of the reasons Biden picked Harris back in 2020 "is because she is, indeed, the future of the party."

When Biden dropped his reelection campaign three weeks after the Trump debate, Harris firmed as favorite, though her closeness to Biden and the potential value in the party's switching to a star governor such as Gretchen Whitmer, Josh Shapiro or Gavin Newsom had some Democrats clamoring for another primary.

As the party fell in behind Harris, she was confirmed as the candidate — with running mate and Minnesota Governor Tim Walz — at the Democratic National Convention in August.

Front-and-center of her campaign has been a return of reproductive rights in the wake of the overturning of Roe v. Wade. Equally strong has been her positioning of her leadership as a choice for democracy over autocracy, given consistent and highly publicized authoritarian comments by Donald Trump and his supporters.

Though Harris led in the polls from the earliest days of her candidacy, the race tightened at the end of October, with many national polls suggesting that she and Donald Trump were tied in the popular vote, and 50/50 contests in swing states Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, Nevada, North Carolina, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin are likely to determine the outcome of the presidential election on November 5.

Editor's note: This story was updated on October 28, 2024, to reflect Kamala Harris' presidential candidacy.

Edited by: Sean M. Sinico and Manasi Gopalakrishnan