Current affairs

Kamala Harris: How the woman of Chennai descent has become an influential face in the US Elections?

By alagu, 12 August, 2020
India, United States, Donald Trump, Joe Biden, Kamala Harris

82 days left for November 3 and the clock is ticking to unfold what could be the toughest, crucial, and important election that the world's oldest democracy has ever witnessed. As the date nears, the fight gets strong between the rivals and the rest of the countries are watching the fight as the audience to know who would be America's choice to lead the country for the next four years. 

Whether it's plus four for Trump or fresh four for former Vice President Joe Biden? The final answer would be determining America's place on the global stage. While Trump prepares for his next term amid nationwide disdain and outrage on his handling of the COVID-19 pandemic, economy, and racial injustice, Obama's VP Joe Biden, who is the Democratic Presidential nominee, has been exemplifying that he will be rebuilding the country what Trump had collapsed in his four years in office. In the race to win the White House, Joe Biden has made a significant decision to pillar his campaign and strengthen his track. 

 

On Tuesday, Biden, who is leading the incumbent President according to several polls, has announced his running mate for November 3 elections- his Vice Presidential candidate as Kamala Devi Harris (55). It has been one of the major announcements from the Democratic party signaling to the country and the world that the party is ready to take on and oust President Trump from the Oval office. Kamala Harris's nomination has come when she has long been considered the front-runner for the number two slot. 

Kamala Harris is the first black woman and South Asian American in the history of the United States of America to be awarded the ticket from the major political party to contest as the vice-presidential candidate to make sure that Trump won't get a second term. Kamala Harris, whom Joe Biden described as one of the country's finest public servants when he picked her as the running mate, has rich experience both in the judicial and political front -served as attorney general and serving as a Senator from California, America's most populous state. 

While getting selected as the running mate for Joe Biden has honored her, it was a moment of pride and privilege for her descent, for her maternal ancestors, and for India - Tamil Nadu especially, as Kamala Harris's mother was from Chennai and Joe Biden's pick to America's top post used to visit Besant Nagar in Chennai where her ancestors lived. Kamala Harris was born in Oakland, California. Her mother Shyamala Gopalan was a breast cancer researcher from Chennai who migrated to the United States in 1960. 

 

When Shyamala Gopalan did a doctorate at UC Berkeley, she met Donald Harris, a Jamaican, and they got married. Shyamala Gopalan had two daughters - Kamala Harris and Maya Harris and they were raised by their mother after Shyamala and Harris got divorced when Kamala Harris was seven years old. Kamala Harris's identity had perfectly fit the mold of America's tone of diversity. During her childhood, Kamala Harris had visited Chennai and she has spent summers with her grandfather who was a civil servant in the government of India. 

From the county's attorney's office to the office of the Attorney General of the most populous state of the country, Kamal Harris, a law graduate from the University of California, Hastings, has decorated and fitted herself on some of the major roles in the judicial front. With a tight hold for law and justice, Kamala Harris had served as the attorney general for San Francisco in 2003, and then she got elected as the first woman and the first black person to serve as California's attorney general, the top lawyer of the state. Being comfortable with her identity, Harris served as California's Attorney General for six years. 

 

On January 3, 2017, she assumed the office of the US Senator from California, representing the populous state at the US Congress and through entering the Senate, she has become the first South Asian- American and the second African- American woman to serve in the United States Senate. She was highly accredited for her statesmanship in the Senate and lauded for her prosecutorial style questioning in the Senate chamber. It was visible and gained a national profile when she questioned some of the loyalists of Trump in the senate hearings including Jeff Sessions, William Barr, and Justice Brett Kavanaugh. 

Last year, when Democrats were at the ad-hoc to take on Trump, Senator Kamala Harris had announced her presidential bid with the hope of getting the honor of what Hillary Clinton missed in 2016 - becoming the first woman President of the United States. She found a tough race in the party with a handful of national figures. While her campaign found potential grounds initially, it then got trailed after Harris met with a failure in projecting clear road for her candidacy when it came to key policy areas like healthcare. 

Joe Biden was Kamala Harris's rival in the campaign that they had fierce debates on the national stage. However, beginning with enthusiasm, she ended her campaign for the President of the United States in December 2019 by citing a lack of funds to continue. When Biden came to lead, all eyes were on Kamala Harris when the former announced that he would name a woman as his running mate in March. By keeping a low profile, Harris endorsed Joe Biden in March and said she would do everything in her power to help elect him as the next President of the United States. 

 

When the COVID-19 outbreak has faltered the United States, the homicide of George Floyd had erupted the voice of justice for the social injustices faced by the black people in America. As the call for social justice clinched from the African Americans over the social unrest and police brutality, Joe Biden has announced his pick as it was one of the components that, according to experts, pushed Biden for Kamala Harris to show support for the African Americans, a safe vote bank for the Democratic party. 

As the woman from Chennai descent has got the ticket for one of America's influential roles, the hardcore democratic voters, Indians in the US, and the supporters of Joe Biden and the Democratic party  have been commending her on the pick while her family members express their happiness for where she is now. Kamala's sister Maya Harris took to Twitter and said, "You can’t know who @KamalaHarris is without knowing who our mother was. Missing her terribly, but know she and the ancestors are smiling today". Through getting the party ticket, she has become the influential face of the US Presidential elections by being as a woman, being as the first Asian American, being as the strong critique of President Trump, and being as a voice of America's diversity.

 

Often nicknamed as the 'female Barack Obama' for her identity, Kamala Harris's path has been as hopeful now as it was tough before. Her selection has become significant in the party. With Biden, who would turn 78 in November, less likely would seek a second term in 2024 and if Harris succeeds the race now, she would likely run for the President in 2024. According to the reports, Joe Biden has picked Kamala Harris as his running mate after extensive discussion with many friends, including his former boss, President Barack Obama. If elected, Kamala Harris will be the first woman, first South Indian-American, and 49th Vice President of the United States. On Tuesday, President Trump said that he was surprised Joe Biden has picked Kamala Harris as his running mate. Trump said Kamala Harris was the most meanest, the most horrible, and the most disrespectful of anybody in the US Senate. 

 

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