Kamala Harris made history on Wednesday when she was sworn in as Joe Biden’s vice president, becoming the first woman, the first Black American and the first Asian American to hold the second highest US office.
Looking ahead, Harris, 56, is seen as an obvious contender for the Democratic Party’s 2024 presidential nomination should Biden, 78, decide not to seek a second term. Harris has yet to weigh in publicly on such speculation.
A US senator from California the past four years, Harris has shattered many a glass ceiling. She served as San Francisco’s first female district attorney and was California’s first woman of colour to be elected attorney general.Harris has resigned her Senate seat, but she still will play a prominent role in the chamber. The US vice president serves as Senate president, casting any tie-breaking votes in the 100-member chamber. With it split evenly between Democrats and Republicans, Harris gives her party control of the Senate.
Her background in criminal justice could help the new Biden administration tackle the issues of racial equality and policing after the country was swept by protests last year. She is expected to be a top adviser on judicial nominations.
Harris is the daughter of immigrants, with her mother coming to the United States from India and her father from Jamaica.
She had her sights set on becoming the first woman US president when she competed against Biden and others for their party’s 2020 nomination. Harris dropped out of the race after a campaign hurt by her wavering views on healthcare and indecision about embracing her past as a prosecutor.
Biden looked beyond some of the harsh words she had for him in that campaign to name Harris as his running mate last August. She has proven to be a valuable and polished stand-in, appealing especially to women, liberals and voters of colour.
Harris developed a deep fundraising network during her Senate and White House bids. She was instrumental to Biden’s raking in record sums of money in the closing months of the campaign against Republican incumbent Donald Trump. Her selection sparked a burst of excitement in the Democratic voter base and among the party’s donors.
A team player
Accusations from liberals that Harris did not do enough to investigate police shootings and wrongful conviction cases when she was California’s attorney general helped doom her own presidential run but surfaced little during her time as Biden’s running mate.
Harris defended her record, saying she had worked her whole career “to reform the criminal justice system with the understanding that it is deeply flawed and in need of repair.”
A tiny, lush Indian village surrounded by rice paddy fields is beaming with joy, hours before its descendant, Kamala Harris, takes her oath of office and becomes the vice president of the United States.
Harris is set to make history as the first woman, first Black American and first person of South Asian descent to hold the vice presidency.
In her maternal grandfather’s village of Thulasendrapuram, about 320km (200 miles) south of Chennai, the capital of Tamil Nadu state in southern India, people were jubilant as they set off firecrackers and distributed food.
“We are feeling very proud that an Indian is being elected as the vice president of America,” said Anukampa Madhavasimhan, 52, a teacher.
Calendars featuring the faces of Biden and Harris have been distributed throughout the village by a co-operative.Harris’ grandfather moved to Chennai decades ago. Her late mother was also born in India, before moving to the US to study at the University of California. She married a Jamaican man and they named their daughter Kamala, a Sanskrit word for lotus flower.
Harris visited Thulasendrapuram when she was five and has recalled walks with her grandfather on the beach at Chennai.
“A local politician conducted a special prayer and villagers have been distributing sweets and letting off crackers since [Wednesday] morning,” said village shopkeeper G Manikandan, 40.
The scenes were in contrast to the sombre mood in Washington – locked down due to security concerns and the threat of the novel coronavirus – where Biden and Harris are due to be sworn in later on Wednesday.
Ahead of the US elections in November, villagers in Thulasendrapuram had pulled together a ceremony at the main Hindu temple to wish Harris good luck.
After her win, they set off firecrackers and distributed sweets and flowers as a religious offering.Posters of Harris from the November celebrations still adorn walls in the village and many hope she ascends to the presidency in 2024.
President-elect Joe Biden has skirted questions about whether he will seek re-election or retire.
“For the next four years, if she supports India, she will be the president,” said Manikandan, who has followed her politically and whose shop proudly displays a wall calendar with pictures of Biden and Harris.
Ahead of the inauguration, special prayers for her success are expected to be held at the local temple during which the idol of Hindu deity Ayyanar, one of the forms of Hindu god Lord Shiva, will be washed with milk and decked with flowers by the priest.
“I wish her well, success and I wish after four years she [Kamala Harris] becomes the president of the US, that is my wish, sincere wish,” said Sheshadri Venkatraman, the temple administrator.
On Tuesday, an organisation that promotes vegetarianism sent food packets for the village children as gifts to celebrate Harris’ success. Separately, artist Sudarsan Pattnaik has created a sand sculpture featuring Biden and Harris.
