1. Kamala Devi Harris is an American politician and attorney who served as the 49th vice president of the United States from 2021 to 2025.
103 Facts About Kamala Harris
1. 2.
Kamala Harris was the first female, first African American, and first Asian American US vice president, and the highest-ranking female and Asian American official in US history.
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Kamala Harris represented California in the US senate from 2017 to 2021 and was attorney general of California from 2011 to 2017.
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Kamala Harris began her law career in the office of the district attorney of Alameda County.
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Kamala Harris was recruited to the San Francisco District Attorney's Office and later to the office of the city attorney of San Francisco.
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Kamala Harris was elected district attorney of San Francisco in 2003 and attorney general of California in 2010, and reelected as attorney general in 2014.
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Kamala Harris was the junior US senator from California from 2017 to 2021 after winning the 2016 Senate election.
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Kamala Harris was the second Black woman and first South Asian American US senator.
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Kamala Harris gained a national profile while asking pointed questions of officials in the first administration of Republican president Donald Trump during Senate hearings, including Trump's second US Supreme Court nominee, Brett Kavanaugh.
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Kamala Harris sought the 2020 Democratic presidential nomination in 2019, but withdrew from the race before the primaries.
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When her vice presidency began, Kamala Harris presided over an evenly split US Senate.
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Kamala Harris cast 33 tie-breaking votes, more than any other vice president, to pass the American Rescue Plan Act of 2021 and the Inflation Reduction Act.
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In July 2024, after Biden withdrew his candidacy from the 2024 presidential election, Kamala Harris launched her own presidential campaign with his endorsement.
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Kamala Harris later became the nominee and selected Minnesota governor Tim Walz as her running mate.
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Kamala Harris ultimately lost the election to the Republican nominees, former president Trump and Ohio senator JD Vance.
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Kamala Devi Harris was born in Oakland, California, on October 20,1964.
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Kamala Harris's mother, Shyamala Gopalan, was a biologist who arrived in the United States from India in 1958 to enroll in graduate school in endocrinology at the University of California, Berkeley.
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The Harris family lived in Berkeley until they moved in 1966, around Kamala's second birthday.
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Kamala Harris graduated from Westmount High School on Montreal Island in 1981.
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Kamala Harris graduated in 1986 with a degree in political science and economics.
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Kamala Harris then attended the University of California, Hastings College of the Law in San Francisco, where she served as president of its chapter of the Black Law Students Association.
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In 1990, Kamala Harris was hired as a deputy district attorney in Alameda County, California, where she was described as "an able prosecutor on the way up".
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In 1994, Speaker of the California Assembly Willie Brown, who was then dating Kamala Harris, appointed her to the state Unemployment Insurance Appeals Board and later to the California Medical Assistance Commission.
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Kamala Harris ran the Family and Children's Services Division, representing child abuse and neglect cases.
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In 2002, Kamala Harris ran for district attorney of San Francisco, running a "forceful" campaign and differentiating herself from Hallinan by attacking his performance.
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Kamala Harris ran unopposed for a second term in 2007.
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Kamala Harris pushed for higher bail for criminal defendants involved in gun-related crimes, arguing that historically low bail encouraged outsiders to commit crimes in San Francisco.
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SFPD officers credited Kamala Harris with tightening the loopholes defendants had used in the past.
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Kamala Harris expressed support for San Francisco's sanctuary city policy of not inquiring about immigration status in the process of a criminal investigation.
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In 2006, as part of an initiative to reduce the city's homicide rate, Kamala Harris led a citywide effort to combat truancy for at-risk elementary school youth in San Francisco.
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Kamala Harris was elected attorney general of California in 2010, becoming the first woman, African American, and South Asian American to hold the office in the state's history.
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Kamala Harris took office on January 3,2011, and was reelected in 2014.
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Kamala Harris served until resigning on January 3,2017, to take her seat in the United States Senate.
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In 2010, Kamala Harris announced her candidacy for attorney general and was endorsed by prominent California Democrats, including US Senators Dianne Feinstein and Barbara Boxer and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi.
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Kamala Harris won the Democratic primary and narrowly defeated Republican nominee Steve Cooley in the general election.
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Kamala Harris's tenure was marked by significant efforts in consumer protection, criminal justice reform, and privacy rights.
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Kamala Harris spearheaded the creation of the Homeowner Bill of Rights to combat aggressive foreclosure practices during the housing crisis, recording multiple nine-figure settlements against mortgage servicers.
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Kamala Harris collaborated with major tech companies like Apple, Google, and Facebook to ensure that mobile apps disclosed their data-sharing practices.
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Kamala Harris created the Privacy Enforcement and Protection Unit, focusing on cyber privacy and data breaches.
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Kamala Harris launched the Division of Recidivism Reduction and Re-Entry and implemented the Back on Track LA program, which provided educational and job training opportunities for nonviolent offenders.
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Kamala Harris continued to advocate for progressive reforms, including banning the gay panic defense in California courts and opposing Proposition 8, the state's same-sex marriage ban.
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Kamala Harris announced her candidacy for the Senate seat the next week.
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Kamala Harris was a top contender from the beginning of her campaign.
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Kamala Harris faced representative and fellow Democrat Loretta Sanchez in the general election.
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Kamala Harris became the second Black woman and first South Asian American senator in history.
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Kamala Harris became well known nationally after questioning several Trump appointees such as Jeff Sessions and Brett Kavanaugh.
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Kamala Harris called White House Chief of Staff John F Kelly at home to gather information and push back against the executive order.
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In June, Kamala Harris garnered media attention for her questioning of Rod Rosenstein, the deputy attorney general, over the role he played in the May 2017 firing of James Comey, the director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation.
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Kamala Harris was a target of the October 2018 United States mail bombing attempts.
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Kamala Harris was an early co-sponsor of the Green New Deal, a plan to transition the country towards generating 100 percent renewable electricity by 2030.
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In March 2019, after special counsel Robert Mueller submitted his report on Russian interference in the 2016 election, Kamala Harris called for US attorney general William Barr to testify before Congress in the interests of transparency.
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Later that month, Kamala Harris was one of 12 Democratic senators led by Mazie Hirono to sign a letter questioning Barr's decision to offer "his own conclusion that the President's conduct did not amount to obstruction of justice", and called for an investigation into whether Barr's summary of the Mueller report and his statements at a news conference were misleading.
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Kamala Harris later called for Barr to resign, accusing him of refusing to answer her questions because he could open himself up to perjury, and saying his responses disqualified him from serving as US attorney general.
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Two days later, Harris demanded again that Department of Justice inspector general Michael E Horowitz investigate whether Barr acceded to pressure from the White House to investigate Trump's political enemies.
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On May 5,2019, Kamala Harris said "voter suppression" prevented Democrats Stacey Abrams and Andrew Gillum from winning the 2018 gubernatorial elections in Georgia and Florida; Abrams lost by 55,000 votes and Gillum by 32,000.
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Kamala Harris later asked Senate Judiciary chairman Lindsey Graham to halt all judicial nominations during the impeachment trial, to which Graham acquiesced.
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Kamala Harris voted to convict Trump on charges of abuse of power and obstruction of Congress.
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Kamala Harris worked on bipartisan bills with Republican co-sponsors, including a bail reform bill with Rand Paul, an election security bill with James Lankford, and a workplace harassment bill with Lisa Murkowski.
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Kamala Harris had been considered a top contender and potential front-runner for the 2020 Democratic nomination for president.
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On January 21,2019, Kamala Harris officially announced her candidacy for president of the United States in the 2020 presidential election.
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Kamala Harris's support rose by between six and nine points in polls after that debate.
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Kamala Harris faced criticism from reformers for tough-on-crime policies she pursued while she was California's attorney general.
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On December 3,2019, Kamala Harris withdrew from the 2020 presidential election, citing a shortage of funds.
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Kamala Harris was the first African American, the first Indian American, and the third woman after Geraldine Ferraro and Sarah Palin to be the vice-presidential nominee on a major-party ticket.
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Kamala Harris is the first resident of the Western United States to appear on the Democratic Party's national ticket.
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Kamala Harris is the United States' first woman vice president, first African-American vice president, and first Asian-American vice president.
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Kamala Harris is the third person with acknowledged non-European ancestry to become president or vice president.
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Kamala Harris's first act as vice president was to swear in three new senators: Alex Padilla and Georgia senators Raphael Warnock and Jon Ossoff.
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Kamala Harris cast 13 tie-breaking votes during her first year in office, the most tie-breaking votes in a single year in US history, surpassing John Adams, who cast 12 in 1790.
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On December 5,2023, Harris broke the record for the most tie-breaking votes cast by a vice president, casting her 32nd vote, exceeding John C Calhoun, who cast 31 votes during his nearly eight years in office.
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Kamala Harris was the first woman, and the third person overall, to assume the powers and duties of the presidency as acting president of the United States.
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Kamala Harris conducted her first international trip as vice president in June 2021, visiting Guatemala and Mexico in an attempt to address the root causes of an increase in migration from Central America to the United States.
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Kamala Harris met with French president Emmanuel Macron in November 2021 to strengthen ties after the contentious cancellation of a submarine program.
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Kamala Harris weighs in during those meetings, often providing unique perspectives.
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In November 2023, Kamala Harris pledged that the Biden administration would place no conditions on US aid to Israel in its war with Hamas in Gaza.
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Kamala Harris was endorsed by Jimmy Carter, Bill and Hillary Clinton, Barack and Michelle Obama, the Congressional Black Caucus, and many others.
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Kamala Harris is the first nominee who did not participate in the primaries since Vice President Hubert Humphrey in 1968.
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Kamala Harris had the shortest general election presidential campaign in history, at 107 days.
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Kamala Harris was declared the winner of the debate by several political analysts, including columnists from CNN, Politico, The New York Times, and USA Today.
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Some analysts noted that for Kamala Harris, this was the "best debate performance of her career," in which she forcefully highlighted her strengths and rattled former president Trump.
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However, the polls remained close and showed Kamala Harris had a hard time conveying that she could represent a "change".
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Kamala Harris lost the 2024 United States presidential election to Trump, conceding the next day in a speech at her alma mater, Howard University, becoming the first defeated nominee since Hillary Clinton in the 2016 election to do so.
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On January 6,2025, in her role as president of the Senate, Kamala Harris oversaw the certification of Trump and Vance as the winners of the election.
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Kamala Harris left office on January 20,2025, succeeded by the 50th vice president of the United States, JD Vance.
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On February 18,2025, Kamala Harris signed with Creative Artists Agency to focus on speaking and publishing opportunities.
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On February 22,2025, Kamala Harris received the Chairman's prize at 56th NAACP Image Awards.
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Kamala Harris has been mentioned as a possible candidate for both the 2026 California gubernatorial election and the 2028 United States presidential election.
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On foreign policy, Kamala Harris supports continued military aid to Ukraine and Israel in their respective wars, but insists that Israel should agree to a ceasefire and hostage deal and work toward a two-state solution.
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Kamala Harris has departed from Biden on economic issues, proposing what has been called a "populist" economic agenda.
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Kamala Harris officiated at the wedding of the plaintiffs in the case, Kris Perry and Sandy Stier, at San Francisco City Hall.
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In July 2018, Kamala Harris led her colleagues in introducing the Gay and Trans Panic Defense Prohibition Act of 2018, a nationwide bill that would curtail the effectiveness of the so-called gay and trans panic defenses, an issue she pioneered as district attorney of San Francisco.
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Kamala Harris drew attention to the epidemic of hate crimes committed against Black trans women, noting that LGBTQ people of color are doubly discriminated against.
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In December 2018, Kamala Harris voted for the First Step Act, legislation aimed at reducing recidivism rates among federal prisoners by expanding job training and other programs, in addition to forming an expansion of early release programs and modifications on sentencing laws such as mandatory minimum sentences for nonviolent drug offenders, "to more equitably punish drug offenders".
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In 2020 Kamala Harris tweeted in support of donations to the Minnesota Freedom Fund, a bail fund assisting those arrested in the George Floyd protests, though she did not donate to the fund herself.
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Kamala Harris learned to wear traditional Indian dress and speak a few phrases of the Tamil language.
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Kamala Harris met her husband, attorney Doug Emhoff, through a mutual friend who set them up on a blind date in 2013.
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Kamala Harris is stepmother to Emhoff's two children, Cole and Ella, from his previous marriage to the film producer Kerstin Emhoff.
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Kamala Harris is a Baptist, holding membership of the Third Baptist Church of San Francisco, a congregation of the American Baptist Churches USA.
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Kamala Harris is a member of The Links, an invitation-only social and service organization of prominent Black American women.
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For most of her tenure, Kamala Harris had one of the lowest approval ratings of any vice president.
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Since the launch of her 2024 presidential campaign, that and other Kamala Harris remarks have been widely shared as memes, resulting in press coverage of her public image.
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Kamala Harris says she got her laugh from her mother.
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Kamala Harris has written two nonfiction books and one children's book.