A Brief Overview of Where Kamala Harris Stands on the Election's Pressing Issues
After months of speculation, presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden revealed his running mate this week: California Senator Kamala Harris. It's not a major surprise, as has long been considered a top contender with the role.
If elected, she'll be the first woman, African-American, and Asian-American ever to serve as vice president. But Harris isn't a stranger to firsts—she's also the first South Asian-American Senator, and the first woman and Black person ever to be elected Attorney General of California. Here's what you should know about her life so far, and where she stands on some of the issues.
Her Record
Here are some moments from her career that Harris is likely to run on as the Democratic nominee:
As San Francisco's DA, she ended the prosecution of underage sex workers, and treated them like victims instead of criminals.
While California's Attorney General, she fought for—and won—a $16 billion dollar increase in funds for her state in the wake of the foreclosure crisis.
She created a public database of violent encounters between the police and the public.
In the Senate, she drew praise for her pointed questioning of conservatives like Jeff Sessions and Brett Kavanaugh.
During her own presidential campaign Harris was similarly praised for commanding debate-stage performances, including an attack on her now-running mate Joe Biden's record on race that briefly catapulted her near the top of the Democratic primary heap.
Here are some of the more controversial parts of her record:
Early in her career, Harris was appointed to two state commissions by Willie Brown, then a member of the California assembly, while the two were in a romantic relationship.
She supported a 2010 law that criminalized truancy and found parents being arrested and even facing jail time when their children were chronically absent. She's since said that she regrets some aspects of the law.
As DA, her office was criticized for violating the rights of accused drug offenders by withholding information about a lab tech accused of stealing drugs from her office.
On multiple occasions, she's been accused of fighting to keep people jailed even in the face of credible evidence of their innocence.
In 2015, she opposed a bill that would have mandated the AG's office to investigate officer-involved shootings.
On the Issues
Health Care
Though she was a sponsor of Bernie Sanders's Medicare-for-all bill and signaled that she'd support ending private insurance during a primary debate, Harris later withdrew her support for Sanders's bill and retracted her remarks about private insurers. When she released her own health care plan, it found her to the right of Sanders and the left of Biden.
Criminal Justice
Though she's gone back and forth on the death penalty in the past, as a presidential candidate she released a criminal justice reform plan that called for abolishing capital punishment and cash bail, and creating a national police review board.
Immigration
During her presidential campaign, she pledged to expand DACA and said that if elected, she would use executive actions to give Dreamers easier access to green cards.
The Climate Crisis
Harris co-sponsored the Climate Equity Act, which would find all new environmental laws rated based on how they would impact people of color and low-income communities. She also co-sponsored the Green New Deal resolution.
Family and Background
Kamala Devi Harris was born in Oakland, California in 1964. Her mother, Shyamala Gopalan, was born in India, and moved to California to earn her doctorate at UC Berkeley, before becoming a breast cancer researcher. Her father, Donald Harris, was born in Jamaica, and met Gopalan while he was earning his PhD at Berkeley. Her parents divorced when she was seven. Gopalan died in 2009; Donald Harris, formerly an economics professor at Stanford, is now retired.
Harris spent part of her childhood living in Montreal, after her mother moved to the city for her work. She attended college at Howard University, then earned her J.D. at UC Hastings College of the Law.
After passing the bar, she was hired as a deputy district attorney in 1990. She was elected San Francisco district attorney in 2003, California's Attorney General in 2010, and to the Senate in 2016.
Harris has one sister, the lawyer and political advisor Maya Harris, and in 2014, she married corporate attorney Douglas Emhoff.
You Might Also Like
