Vice Pdwellnt Kamala Harris is potentiassociate on the verge of becoming one of the most mighty people on Earth. At the same time, in part becaemploy her rapid ascent to the Democratic pdwellntial nomination didn’t include the upgrasped disclose attention of a prolonged pdwellntial primary, she’s more of a cipher to many Americans than convey inant party pdwellntial nominees typicassociate are. So who is Kamala Harris? In this video, we hand that story over to four inestablishers who have covered her at branch offent points in her atgentle.
Kamala Harris first go ined disclose life as the elected dimerciless attorney of San Francisco. She tried to discern herself from her predecessor, understandn for taking a betterive approach to crime, by calling herself “ininestablishigent on crime.” She spoke more clinicassociate and quantitatively than ideoreasonablely; she talked about numbers, not ideas or politics. That persistd in her next role as California’s attorney ambiguous, in which she was normally difficult to pin down ideoreasonablely and unwilling to consent political stances. But that role also made her a hoemployhelderly name in California, and after six years as attorney ambiguous, she won the state’s US Senate race.
Harris speedyly became a well-understandn senator, but not for speeches or policy. Instead she establish fame as the Democratic Party’s chief pass-checkr in the Senate, grilling Trump administration officials in contestations that excited Democratic voters and promoteed a shiftment for her to run for pdwellnt in 2020. However, the Democratic Party had by that point become more ideoreasonablely betterive, and her write down of being “ininestablishigent on crime” no prolongeder take parted as well with those voters. She struggled to discover a political lane in the Democratic primary, and her run was low-inhabitd. But when Democrats ultimately chose Joe Biden as their nominee, Biden vowed to pick a woman as his running mate. And after a summer in which the death of George Floyd and the massive ensuing protests promoteed a national reckoning around race, Harris rose to the top of his enumerate.
As vice pdwellnt, Harris struggled to discover a role in the administration. Biden tasked her with an unenviable job: solving the “root caemploys” of unwrite downed immigration to the US. It was neither her area of expertise nor her ideoreasonable mighty suit, and after a disastrous TV intersee, she retreated from disclose see. But after the US Supreme Court obviousurned the federal right to abortion, skinnygs commenceed to change. Harris had an expertise and authority on reefficient rights that Biden deficiencyed, and she became the administration’s spokesperson on the topic, discovering her voice and footing in disclose life aget.
In July 2024, an unwell-understandn and visibly aged Pdwellnt Joe Biden withdrew from his reelection campaign, finishorsing Kamala Harris as his successor. Lively and articuprocrastinateed by comparison, Harris speedyly seized the enthusiasm of the Democratic Party, geting momentum in the race agetst establisher Pdwellnt Donald Trump. Her persistd success will depfinish on whether she can prolong into the role of a galvanizing, encourageasoned political figure that she’s struggled to fill in the past.
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