Democrats are coalescing around United States Vice President Kamala Harris to replace President Joe Biden as the party’s nominee in the wake of Biden’s shocking decision Sunday to drop out of the presidential race—thrusting Harris into the spotlight in the final months of the race, just weeks before Democrats will formally select their nominee.
Harris said it is her “intention to earn and win this nomination” and that she will “do everything in [her] power to unite the Democratic Party” in the wake of Biden’s announcement.
Biden backed Harris almost immediately after dropping his bid, offering his “full support and endorsement for Kamala to be the nominee of our party this year”—a surprise announcement for Biden that followed weeks of backlash from within his own party after a rocky debate performance that exacerbated concerns he is too old to serve another term.
Before Biden’s announcement, it was widely believed Harris would be the de facto nominee if he were to drop out of the race, since she is the second-most powerful Democrat in the country, has name recognition as VP and is already part of his campaign, which allows her to seamlessly take over his $91 million war chest—and Biden’s endorsement likely means the delegates who were beholden to him will now be inclined to vote for Harris next month.
Harris, 59, spent nearly 30 years as a prosecutor in California, where she was the state’s first female, the first African American and the first South Asian American elected as attorney general in 2010, prior to her election to the Senate in 2016.
A coalition of top Democrats echoed Biden’s endorsement of Harris on Sunday, including President Bill Clinton and his wife, former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton; Congressional Progressive Caucus Chair Pramila Jayapal, D-Wash.; and the Congressional Black Caucus PAC.
What Biden Said About Kamala Harris
Biden called tapping Harris as his VP the “best decision” he’s made in Sunday’s announcement, and he’s praised her on several occasions in the last few weeks. During a speech at a NAACP convention last week, Biden said Harris is “not only a great vice president, she could be president of the United States.”
Who Could Serve As Her VP?
Names commonly floated include rising stars in the Democratic party who were on the shortlist of potential Biden replacements: California Gov. Gavin Newsom, Colorado Gov. Jared Polis, Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker, North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper, Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear, Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro and Maryland Gov. Wes Moore. Other potential picks include Sen. Amy Klobuchar, D-Minn., Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg and Sen. Raphael Warnock, D-Ga. So far, none have indicated publicly they are interested in the job.
Kamala Harris’ Family Background
Harris was born in Oakland, Calif., to Shyamala Gopalan, originally from southern India, and Donald Harris, who is from Jamaica, making Harris the first vice president of Black or South Asian descent. Both her parents are graduates of the University of California, Berkeley, and divorced when Harris and her younger sister, Maya, were children. Gapalan worked as a breast cancer research scientist, and Donald Harris was an economics professor at Stanford University. Harris’ mother died in 2009 at the age of 71; her father is 85. Emhoff and Harris married in 2014, and Harris became stepmother to his two children from a previous marriage: Cole Emhoff, 30, and Ella Emhoff, 25.
How Rich Is Kamala Harris?
We estimate Harris and Emhoff, a successful Los Angeles-based entertainment lawyer, are worth about $8 million. The couple’s net worth is largely made up of the money Emhoff earned as a lawyer (more than $1 million a year), sales from books Harris published before taking office and their real estate assets, including a multi-million dollar home in Los Angeles.
Trump’s Criticism About Harris So Far?
Donald Trump on Saturday told a crowd at his rally in Grand Rapids, Michigan, “I call her laughing Kamala. Have you seen her laughing? She is crazy . . . she’s nuts.” The pro-Trump super PAC, MAGA Inc., released an ad shortly after Biden’s announcement accusing Harris of helping hide Biden’s “mental decline.” “Kamala knew Joe couldn’t do the job, so she did it,” the ad alleged. The ad is part of a $5 million/week TV commercial campaign in Pennsylvania, Georgia and Arizona, the super PAC tweeted.
How Does Harris Poll Against Trump?
Similar to Biden, who narrowly trailed Trump in most polls. Trump led Harris by three points and Biden by five in a July 16-18 CBS/YouGov poll of likely voters. An Economist/YouGov July 13-16 poll found Biden would lose to Trump by two points, and Harris would lose by five, while a July 16 Reuters/Ipsos poll found Harris and Biden were both tied with Trump.
Kamara Harris Record As A Senator
In 2016, she became the second Black woman in history to be elected to the Senate. Harris played a high-profile role on the Senate Judiciary Committee questioning Trump’s Supreme Court nominees, including Justice Brett Kavanaugh. She co-sponsored legislation to expand abortion rights, introduced a bill that would have provided a tax credit to middle- and low-income families and co-sponsored legislation in the wake of the police killing of George Floyd that would have made it easier to prosecute police officers accused of misconduct.
Her Record As A Prosecutor
Kamala Harris served as San Francisco district attorney from 2004-2010 and as California attorney general from 2011-2017. In her 2009 book “Smart On Crime,” Harris endorsed diversion programs for first-time offenders but also called for more police on the streets. Progressives have accused her of not doing enough to investigate police misconduct and have pointed to the nearly 2,000 convictions for marijuana-related offenses that she oversaw during her time as attorney general. Harris’ views on criminal justice have evolved, however. She backed drug decriminalization legislation during her time in the Senate and she declared “nobody should have to go to jail for smoking weed” when Biden pardoned thousands of people convicted of federal marijuana possession in 2022.
What Happened In Her 2020 Campaign for President?
Kamala Harris ran for the Democratic nomination but dropped out before the primaries began, citing a lack of fundraising. She was briefly viewed as a top contender in the race, but she faced a series of setbacks, including low polling numbers, criticism from progressives about her record as a prosecutor and reports of operational problems within her campaign.
