Kamala Devi Harris, born in Oakland and grew up in Berkeley. Harris’ parents were both immigrants; her father was African American, and her mother was Indian American. Therefore, she is the first African and Indian American woman to be a vice presidential running mate, the first to be elected for the position of county district attorney for San Francisco, and being the first woman to serve as California’s attorney general.

Harris has an impressive resume being former District Attorney of San Francisco, county district attorney, state attorney general, serving on the homeland security and governmental affairs committee, the select committee on intelligence, the committee on the judiciary, the committee on the budget, and is currently the U.S Senator.

Modern world history teacher Edgar Beteta ’85 stated, “A lot of people were angry at her for her decision as the D.A of San Francisco to refuse seeking the death penalty for a man who killed a police officer in 2004.”

Harris first announced her nomination to run for President on Jan. 21, 2019 during an appearance on Good Morning America. Coming from a family of civil rights activists she chose to announce her decision on Martin Luther King Jr. Day as a remembrance. She started her campaign on Jan. 27 at a rally in Oakland, where over 20,000 people attended. She spoke about her life, economic issues, Universal pre-K, debt free-college, a tax cut for working middle class families, Medicare for all, abolition of private insurance, and her will to fight and not give up.

Harris ended her presidential campaign on Dec. 3 2019 due to insufficient funds to support it as it got increasingly difficult to raise money. Another factor was the declining rate of her polling average while other candidates’ averages were rising.

On Aug. 11, former Vice President Joe Biden chose Senator Kamala Harris as running mate. On Oct,. 7, Vice President Mike Pence and Harris, his challenger, faced off in the only vice presidential debate. Less of a personality show than the presidential debate, people watching the debate got to see more ideas and views from both parties.

Organizers took extensive safety precautions in protecting the people in the building from contracting the virus due to President Donald Trump testing positive only a week before. The debate touched on the topics of the coronavirus, climate change, Supreme Court-packing, economy, jobs, taxes, race, the justice system, and foreign policy. Like the presidential debate, the candidates evaded questions, and left many unanswered.

Kamala Harris’s views on key issues plays a huge factor in whether people want her and Joe Biden to become President and Vice President. Her views on healthcare are, she believes that there should be medicare for all, to provide government run medical insurance for all Americans. She supports the elimination of private health insurances. Harris wants to create a path to citizenship to the numerous undocumented immigrants living in the U.S. She supported decriminalizing border crossings by undocumented immigrants and providing them with free healthcare. Harris is pro-choice and fully supports taxpayer funded abortions, she suggests large companies should required to be equal pay certified to close the gender pay gap.

Harris has what some consider to be extreme gun control agendas. She believes there should be more strict gun rules and control. She supports bans on assault weapons, mandatory background checks, tightening loopholes, and the idea of mandatory buyback forcing the owners to turn in the assault weapons.

Beteta said, “Gun control has to be sensible, you can’t just take away everyone’s guns.”

Harris believes in climate change and that the government should tackle the issue. While she personally opposes fracking and has called for federal legal action against the fossil fuel industry, Biden does not. In regards to police and race relations, she supports law enforcement reforms.

In addition, Harris released plans establishing her vision to stand up for Black America.