Camaras Kamala Hari
Pemilihan presiden 2020
Harris telah dianggap sebagai calon teratas untuk nominasi Demokrat 2020 untuk presiden.[240] Pada Juni 2018, dia mengatakan "tidak menagkal kemungkinan itu".[241] Pada Juli 2018, diumumkan bahwa dia akan menerbitkan memoar, itu adalah tanda kemungkinannya untuk mencalonkan diri sebagai presiden.[242] Pada 21 Januari 2019, Harris secara resmi mengumumkan pencalonannya sebagai presiden Amerika Serikat dalam pemilihan presiden Amerika Serikat 2020.[243] Dalam 24 jam pertama setelah pengumuman pencalonannya, dia memecahkan rekor yang dibuat oleh Bernie Sanders pada 2016 untuk sumbangan terbanyak yang dikumpulkan pada hari setelah pengumuman. Lebih dari 20.000 orang menghadiri acara peluncuran kampanye resminya di kota kelahirannya di Oakland, California, pada 27 Januari 2020, menurut perkiraan polisi.[244]
Selama debat presiden pertama dari Partai Demokrat pada Juni 2019, Harris menegor mantan wakil presiden Joe Biden karena pernyataan "menyakitkan" yang dia buat, dimana Biden berbicara dengan hormat tentang para senator yang menentang upaya integrasi pada 1970-an dan bekerja dengan mereka untuk menentang Bus desegregasi.[245] Dukungan Harris naik antara enam dan sembilan poin dalam jajak pendapat setelah debat itu.[246] Dalam debat kedua di bulan Agustus, Harris dikonfrontasi oleh Biden dan anggota Kongres Tulsi Gabbard atas catatannya sebagai Jaksa Agung.[247] San Jose Mercury News menilai bahwa beberapa tuduhan Gabbard dan Biden ada benarnya, seperti memblokir tes DNA untuk narapidana dengan hukuman mati. Segera setelah itu, dukungan untuknya jatuh dalam jajak pendapat setelah debat itu.[248][249] Selama beberapa bulan berikutnya, jumlah jajak pendapatnya turun ke angka satu digit.[250] Pada saat liberal semakin khawatir tentang ekses sistem peradilan pidana, Harris menghadapi kritik dari para reformis untuk kebijakan yang dia kejar saat dia menjadi jaksa agung California. Misalnya, pada 2014, dia memutuskan untuk membela hukuman mati California di pengadilan.[251]
Sebelum dan selama kampanye kepresidenannya, sebuah organisasi online informal yang menggunakan hashtag #KHive dibentuk untuk mendukung pencalonannya dan membelanya dari serangan rasis dan seksis.[252][252][253][254] Menurut Daily Dot, Joy Reid pertama kali menggunakan istilah tersebut dalam tweetnya pada Agustus 2017 yang mengatakan "@DrJasonJohnson @ZerlinaMaxwell dan saya mengadakan pertemuan dan memutuskannua bawah itu disebut K-Hive."[255]
Pada 3 Desember 2019, Harris menarik diri dari pencalonan Partai Demokrat 2020, dengan alasan kekurangan dana.[256] Pada Maret 2020, Harris mendukung Joe Biden sebagai presiden.[257]
California Attorney General
Harris continued her political ascent by narrowly beating Los Angeles County District Attorney Steve Cooley for California attorney general in November 2010. As the first African American and woman to hold the position, she quickly made an impact by pulling out of negotiations for a settlement from the country’s five largest financial institutions for improper mortgage practices. Eventually, in 2012, she scored a $20 million payout, five times the original proposed figure for her state.
The attorney general also made waves for her refusal to defend Proposition 8, a 2008 California ballot measure that outlawed same-sex marriage. The constitutional amendment was later deemed unconstitutional by a federal court. After the U.S. Supreme Court dismissed an attempt to appeal the ruling in 2013, Harris officiated the first same-sex marriage in California since Prop 8 passed.
Elsewhere, Harris oversaw a successful lawsuit against the false advertising of the for-profit Corinthian Colleges chain and continued legal pursuit of the classified advertising service Backpage, which led to its CEO pleading guilty to facilitating prostitution and money laundering after she moved on to the U.S. Senate.
During her Senate term, Kamala Harris became a well-known member of the chamber’s Judiciary Committee.
In November 2016, Harris handily defeated Congresswoman Loretta Sanchez for a U.S. Senate seat from California, becoming just the second Black woman and the first South Asian American to enter the chamber. She served on the Senate’s Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, the Select Committee on Intelligence, as well as the Judiciary and Budget committees.
Harris made a name for herself from her spot on the Judiciary Committee, particularly for her pointed questioning of Brett Kavanaugh, who was accused of sexual assault after being nominated for the Supreme Court in 2018, and of then-U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions during a 2017 hearing that delved into alleged collusion between President Donald Trump’s campaign team and Russian agents.
The senator supported a single-payer healthcare system and introduced legislation to increase access to outdoor recreation sites in urban areas and provide financial relief in the face of rising housing costs. She resigned from the Senate in January 2021, two days before taking office as U.S. vice president.
Early life and education
Kamala Devi Harris[a] was born in Oakland, California,[3] on October 20, 1964.[4] Her mother, Shyamala Gopalan (1938–2009), 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. A research career of over 40 years followed, during which her work on the progesterone receptor gene led to advances in breast cancer research.[5] Kamala's father, Donald J. Harris (1938–),[6] is an Afro-Jamaican who immigrated to the United States in 1961 and also enrolled in UC Berkeley, specializing in development economics. The first Black scholar to be granted tenure at Stanford University's economics department, he has emeritus status there.[7] Kamala's parents met in 1962 and married in 1963.[8]
The Harris family lived in Berkeley until they moved in 1966, around Kamala's second birthday. The Harrises lived for a few years in college towns in the Midwest where her parents held teaching or research positions:[9] Urbana, Illinois (where her sister Maya was born in 1966); Evanston, Illinois; and Madison, Wisconsin.[c][10][9][11] By 1970, the marriage had faltered, and Shyamala moved back to Berkeley with her two daughters;[12][13][9] the couple divorced when Kamala was seven.[8] In 1972, Donald Harris accepted a position at Stanford University; Kamala and Maya spent weekends at their father's house in Palo Alto and lived at their mother's house in Berkeley during the week.[14] Shyamala was friends with African-American intellectuals and activists in Oakland and Berkeley.[11] In 1976, she accepted a research position at the McGill University School of Medicine, and moved with her daughters to Montreal, Quebec.[15][16] Kamala graduated from Westmount High School on Montreal Island in 1981.[17]
Kamala Harris attended Vanier College in Montreal in 1981–82,[18] and then Howard University, a historically black university in Washington, D.C.[19][20] At Howard, she became a member of Alpha Kappa Alpha, one of the "Divine Nine" historically black sororities.[21] She graduated in 1986 with a degree in political science and economics.[22][23] Harris then attended the University of California, Hastings College of the Law in San Francisco,[24] where she served as president of its chapter of the Black Law Students Association.[25] She graduated with a Juris Doctor in 1989.[26]
In 1990, Harris was hired as a deputy district attorney in Alameda County, California, where she was described as "an able prosecutor on the way up".[27] In 1994, Speaker of the California Assembly Willie Brown, who was then dating Harris, appointed her to the state Unemployment Insurance Appeals Board and later to the California Medical Assistance Commission.[27] In February 1998, San Francisco district attorney Terence Hallinan recruited Harris as an assistant district attorney.[28] There, she became the chief of the Career Criminal Division, supervising five other attorneys, where she prosecuted homicide, burglary, robbery, and sexual assault cases—particularly three-strikes cases. In August 2000, Harris took a job at San Francisco City Hall, working for city attorney Louise Renne.[29] Harris ran the Family and Children's Services Division, representing child abuse and neglect cases. Renne endorsed Harris during her D.A. campaign.[30]
Early Life: Parents and Ethnicity
Kamala Devi Harris was born in Oakland, California, on October 20, 1964. She was raised in nearby Berkeley, then a predominantly African American neighborhood. As a toddler, she attended civil rights demonstrations and sang in a Baptist choir.
Harris’ mother, Shyamala, emigrated from India to attend the University of California, Berkeley, where she met Harris’ Jamaican-born father, Donald. Shyamala carved out a career as a renowned breast cancer researcher, while Donald became a Stanford University economics professor. Her mother also ensured that Harris and her younger sister, Maya, maintained ties to their Indian heritage by raising them with Hindu beliefs and taking them to her home country every couple of years.
Harris’ parents divorced when she was 7 years old, and at age 12, she moved with her mother and sister to Montreal. During her time in the Canadian city, she learned to speak some French and demonstrated her burgeoning political instincts by organizing a protest against a building owner who wouldn’t allow neighborhood kids to play on the lawn.
Harris attended Westmount High School just outside of Montreal and founded a dance troupe with a friend. Returning to the States to attend Howard University in Washington D.C., she was elected to the liberal arts student council and joined the debate team en route to a bachelor’s degree in political science and economics. Harris then enrolled at the University of California Hastings College of the Law (now UC Law San Francisco), where she earned her juris doctor in 1989.
After earning admittance to the State Bar of California in 1990, Harris began her career as a deputy district attorney in Alameda County. She became managing attorney of the Career Criminal Unit in the San Francisco District Attorney’s Office in 1998, and two years later, she was appointed chief of its Community and Neighborhood Division, during which time she established the state’s first Bureau of Children’s Justice.
Committee assignments
While in the Senate, Harris was a member of the following committees:[148]
Camara Harris Waltz Garden Flag, Harry Waltyard Sign, Camara Harris Waltz Cat Lady Garden Flag, Camara Harris President
© 1996-2013, Amazon.com, Inc. or its affiliates
Vice President of the United States since 2021
Official portrait, 2021
Kamala Devi Harris[b] (born October 20, 1964) is an American politician and attorney who has been the 49th and current vice president of the United States since 2021 under President Joe Biden. She is the first female U.S. vice president, making her the highest-ranking female official in U.S. history. She is also the first African American and the first Asian American vice president. A member of the Democratic Party, she was the party's nominee in the 2024 presidential election, becoming the second woman nominated for president by a major U.S. political party. From 2017 to 2021, she represented California in the U.S. Senate, and was Attorney General of California from 2011 to 2017. From 2004 to 2011, she served as District Attorney of San Francisco.
Born in Oakland, California, Harris graduated from Howard University and the University of California, Hastings College of the Law. She began her law career in the office of the district attorney of Alameda County. She was recruited to the San Francisco District Attorney's Office and later to the office of the city attorney of San Francisco. She was elected district attorney of San Francisco in 2003 and attorney general of California in 2010, and reelected as attorney general in 2014. Harris was the first woman, the first African American, and the first Asian American to hold each office.
Harris was the junior U.S. senator from California from 2017 to 2021. She won the 2016 Senate election, becoming the second Black woman and first South Asian American U.S. senator. As a senator, Harris advocated for stricter gun control laws, the DREAM Act, federal legalization of cannabis, and reforms to healthcare and taxation. She gained a national profile while asking pointed questions of officials within the first administration of President Donald Trump during Senate hearings, including Trump's second U.S. Supreme Court nominee, Brett Kavanaugh.
Harris sought the 2020 Democratic presidential nomination in 2019, but withdrew from the race before the primaries. Biden selected her as his running mate, and their ticket defeated the incumbent Republican president and vice president, Trump and Mike Pence, in the 2020 presidential election. Presiding over an evenly split U.S. Senate upon entering office, Harris played a crucial role as President of the Senate. She cast more tie-breaking votes than any other vice president, which helped pass bills such as the American Rescue Plan Act of 2021 stimulus package and the Inflation Reduction Act. After Biden withdrew from the 2024 presidential election, Harris launched her campaign with Biden's endorsement and soon became the presumptive nominee. She lost the election to Trump.
Presidential Campaign
On January 21, 2019, during a Martin Luther King Jr. Day interview on Good Morning America, Harris announced she was running for president in 2020. One of the top Democratic candidates, the California senator joined a field that already included Massachusetts Senator Elizabeth Warren and New York Senator Kirsten Gillibrand in a bid to push President Donald Trump from the White House after one term.
One week after her GMA announcement, Harris formally kicked off her campaign before an estimated 20,000 supporters at Frank Ogawa Plaza in Oakland, California. She remained near the top of the Democratic polls over the following weeks, withstanding the brouhaha that ensued when she admitted to smoking marijuana in a February interview and another when an animal rights activist confronted her onstage at a political event in June.
Harris stood out as one of the top performers of the first Democratic primary debate in late June, garnering headlines for taking Joe Biden to task over his history of opposing federal busing for school integration. During the second debate the following month, she found herself a target of attacks, with Biden and the rest criticizing her healthcare plan and aspects of her record as California attorney general.
Her support in the polls slipping by the fall of 2019, Harris sought to thrust herself back into the top tier by calling for the impeachment of Trump over his dealings with Ukraine and a focus on women’s access to reproductive health care. Meanwhile, her campaign staff reportedly bickered over strategy and the chain of command, the dysfunction noted in a resignation letter from the state operations director that became public via The New York Times.
In early December 2019, Harris announced she was ending her once-promising presidential campaign. But months later, she had another chance to make it on the Democratic ticket.
Wakil presiden (2021–sekarang)
Setelah terpilihnya Joe Biden sebagai Presiden Amerika Serikat pada pemilu 2020, Harris akan menjabat sebagai wakil presiden Amerika Serikat pada 20 Januari 2021.[268] Dia akan menjadi wakil presiden wanita pertama, serta orang kulit berwarna pertama yang memegang jabatan tersebut sejak Charles Curtis, seorang penduduk asli Amerika, yang bertugas di bawah Herbert Hoover dari 1929 hingga 1933. Dia juga akan menjadi orang ketiga dengan keturunan non-Eropa yang diakui untuk mencapai salah satu jabatan tertinggi di cabang eksekutif, setelah Curtis dan mantan Presiden Barack Obama.[269]
Harris mengundurkan diri dari kursi Senatnya pada 18 Januari 2021, dua hari sebelum pelantikannya sebagai Wakil Presiden. Ia kemudian dilantik pada 20 Januari 2021, memegang dua Alkitab pada saat pengambilan sumpah; satu dimiliki oleh Regina Shelton, seseorang yang penting baginya dan kakaknya, Maya Harris, dan Alkitab lain yang dulu dimiliki oleh mantan Hakim Agung Amerika Serikat Thurgood Marshall.
Pengambilan sumpah Kamala Harris dilakukan didepan Hakim Agung Sonia Sotomayor, yang menjadi Hakim Agung wanita pertama yang mengadministrasi pengambilan sumpah sebanyak dua kali setelah ia melakukan hal serupa dengan pengambilan sumpah Joe Biden kala ia masih menjadi Wakil Presiden Barack Obama pada 2013. Dalam pengambilan sumpahnya, ia membacakan pernyataan berikut:
Saya, Kamala Devi Harris, bersumpah dengan sungguh-sungguh bahwa saya akan mendukung dan membela Konstitusi Amerika Serikat dari semua musuh, baik asing maupun domestik; bahwa saya akan memegang teguh kesetiaan dan kesetiaan itu; bahwa saya menerima kewajiban ini dengan sukarela, tanpa ada keraguan atau maksud untuk mengelak; dan bahwa saya akan melaksanakan tugas jabatan yang akan saya emban dengan baik dan setia. [Tuhan, tolonglah saya.]
Tindakan pertamanya sebagai Wakil Presiden adalah melantik penggantinya, Alex Padilla, dan Senator Georgia Raphael Warnock dan Jon Ossoff yang terpilih dalam pemilihan putaran kedua Georgia 2021.[270]
Saat Kamala Harris mulai menjabat, Senat Amerika Serikat terbagi menjadi 50 anggota Partai Demokrat dan 50 anggota Partai Republik.[271] Ini mengartikan bahwa Kamala Harris harus dipanggil ke Senat Amerika Serikat untuk menggunakan wewenangnya untuk memberikan suara penentu sebagai presiden Senat AS. Pada tanggal 5 Februari, Kamala Harris memberikan suara penentu sebanyak dua kali. Pada bulan Februari dan Maret, peran Kamala Harris dalam memberi suara penentu dinilai sangat krusial bagi pengesahan Undang Undang Rencana Penyelamatan Amerika 2021, sebuah kebijakan stimulus ekonomi yang dicanangkan Biden, karena tidak ada Senator Partai Republik yang menyetujui UU tersebut.[272][273] Pada 20 Juli, Kamala Harris memecahkan rekor wakil presiden sebelumnya, Mike Pence dalam memberikan suara penentu pada tahun pertama sebagai wakil presiden[274] pada saat Kamala memberikan suara penentu yang ketujuh pada 6 bulan pertamanya.[275] Ia memberikan 13 suara penentu di Senat AS, memecahkan rekor sebagai wakil presiden pemberi suara penentu terbanyak dalam satu tahun sebagai wakil presiden, mengalahkan Wakil Presiden John Adams yang memberi suara penentunya pada tahun 1790 sebanyak 12 kali.[275][276] Pada 5 Desember, ia kembali memecahkan rekor sebagai wakil presiden dengan suara penentu terbanyak setelah memberikan suara penentu ke-32, mengalahkan Wakil Presiden John Calhoun yang memberi suara penentu sebanyak 31 kali selama 8 tahu menjabat sebagai Wakil Presiden Amerika Serikat.[275][277] Pada 19 November 2024, Kamala menjadi penjabat presiden dari jam 10:10 sampai 11:35 Waktu Timur saat Biden menjalankan operasi kolonoskopi.[278] Ia menjadi wanita pertama dan orang ketiga yang menjabat sebagai presiden sementara dibawah bagian 3 Amendemen Kedua Puluh Lima Konstitusi Amerika Serikat.[279][280]
Sejak awal Desember 2021, peran Kamala Harris dinilai sangat penting dalam keberlangsungan pemerintahan Joe Biden karena tugasnya dalam memberi suara penentu di Senat AS yang terbagi rata dan rumor kuat bahwa Kamala Harris bisa saja menggantikan Joe Biden dalam pemilihan umum 2024 apabila Biden tidak ingin berkontestasi sebagai petahana.[281]
U.S. Senator (2017–2021)
After more than 20 years as a U.S. senator from California, Senator Barbara Boxer announced on January 13, 2015, that she would not run for reelection in 2016.[80] Harris announced her candidacy for the Senate seat the next week.[80] She was a top contender from the beginning of her campaign.[81]
The 2016 California Senate election used California's new top-two primary format, where the top two candidates in the primary advance to the general election regardless of party.[81] On February 27, 2016, Harris won 78% of the California Democratic Party vote at the party convention, allowing her campaign to receive financial support from the party.[82] Three months later, Governor Jerry Brown endorsed her.[83] In the June 7 primary, Harris came in first with 40% of the vote and won with pluralities in most counties.[84] Harris faced representative and fellow Democrat Loretta Sanchez in the general election.[85]
On July 19, President Barack Obama and Vice President Joe Biden endorsed Harris.[86] In the November 2016 election, Harris defeated Sanchez with over 60% of the vote, carrying all but four counties.[87] After her victory, she promised to protect immigrants from the policies of President-elect Donald Trump and announced her intention to remain Attorney General through the end of 2016.[88][89] Harris became the second Black woman and first South Asian American senator in history.[90][91][92]
Presidential campaign
Harris had been considered a top contender and potential front-runner for the 2020 Democratic nomination for president.[152] In June 2018, she said she was "not ruling it out".[153] In July 2018, it was announced that she would publish a memoir, a sign of a possible run.[154] On January 21, 2019, Harris officially announced her candidacy for president of the United States in the 2020 presidential election.[155] In the first 24 hours after her announcement, she tied a record set by Bernie Sanders in 2016 for the most donations raised in the day after an announcement.[156][157] More than 20,000 people attended her campaign launch event in her hometown of Oakland, California, on January 27, according to a police estimate.[158]
During the first Democratic presidential debate in June 2019, Harris scolded former vice president Joe Biden for "hurtful" remarks he made, speaking fondly of senators who opposed integration efforts in the 1970s and working with them to oppose mandatory school bussing.[159] Harris's support rose by between six and nine points in polls after that debate.[160] In the second debate in August, Biden and Representative Tulsi Gabbard confronted Harris over her record as attorney general.[161] The San Jose Mercury News assessed that some of Gabbard's and Biden's accusations were on point, such as blocking the DNA testing of a death row inmate, while others did not withstand scrutiny. In the immediate aftermath of the debate, Harris fell in the polls.[162][163] Over the next few months her poll numbers fell to the low single digits.[164][165] Harris faced criticism from reformers for tough-on-crime policies she pursued while she was California's attorney general.[166] In 2014, she defended California's death penalty in court.[167]
Before and during her presidential campaign, an online informal organization using the hashtag #KHive formed to support Harris's candidacy and defend her from racist and sexist attacks.[168][169][170] According to the Daily Dot, Joy Reid first used the term in an August 2017 tweet saying "@DrJasonJohnson @ZerlinaMaxwell and I had a meeting and decided it's called the K-Hive."[171]
On December 3, 2019, Harris withdrew from the 2020 presidential election, citing a shortage of funds.[172] In March 2020, she endorsed Joe Biden for president.[173]
