The Heartfelt Way Kamala Harris Paid Tribute to Her Late Friend Beau Biden

From Oprah Magazine

• On August 11, President-elect Joe Biden announced that California Sen. Kamala Harris would be his Vice Presidential running mate for the 2020 election.

• "[Beau] had enormous respect for her and her work," Biden said of his late son. "There is no one’s opinion I valued more than Beau’s and I’m proud to have Kamala standing with me on this campaign."

• Here's a look at how Beau Biden and Vice President-elect Harris first met—and developed a close friendship.

When President-elect Joe Biden announced he had selected California Senator Kamala Harris as his running mate, it was a historic decision that will ultimately make her the first woman vice president (not to mention the first Black woman, the first South-Asian woman, and the first daughter of immigrants to hold the role). While Biden pointed to Harris's experience as a U.S. Senator, California's attorney general, and a district attorney in San Francisco as some of what influenced his decision, he also acknowledged another factor: her relationship with his late son, Beau, who served as the attorney general of Delaware prior to his death in 2015. "While I first knew Joe as vice president, I really got to know him as the father who loved Beau, my dear friend, who we remember here today," the Vice President-elect said in her victory address on November 7. (The other heartfelt nod to Beau during Saturday's celebration? Playing Coldplay's "Sky Full of Stars" as fireworks went off. "A friend of the family texted me to say this was Beau’s favorite song,” CNN anchor Dana Bash remarked during the network's coverage.)

"They were both Attorneys General at the same time. He had enormous respect for her and her work," Biden said in an email to his supporters, explaining his choice to select Harris. "I thought a lot about that as I made this decision. There is no one’s opinion I valued more than Beau’s and I’m proud to have Kamala standing with me on this campaign."

As it turns out, long before Biden announced Harris would be his veep—and even before their head-to-head battle as rival Democratic presidential candidates—the two first got to know each other through their mutual love and admiration for Beau.

In 2011, in the midst of the housing crisis, Harris—then in her first year as California's attorney general—was under pressure from the nation's biggest banks, the Justice Department, and nearly all of her fellow state attorneys general to accept a much-anticipated settlement from the mortgage-financing industry. But she was skeptical of the banks' initial settlement offer—in which California would have received $2 billion to $4 billion—saying it represented "crumbs on the table."

When she decided to pull out of the ongoing negotiations, friends, colleagues, and political advisors widely criticized her decision—with the exception of a few other state attorneys general, who were equally unhappy with the initial proposal. That included Beau, who was then in his second term as Delaware's attorney general and had "every reason to keep his head down and toe the line," according to Harris's 2019 memoir, The Truths We Hold: An American Journey. "But that wasn’t who Beau was," she wrote in the book. "Beau was a man of principle and courage."

As a result, Beau opened his own investigation into the banks, and they began sharing information. “That’s really where the two of them started to bond,” Doug Gansler, the former attorney general of Maryland, told The Daily Beast. “She was sort of an instant rock star, as Beau was. They were destined to get together and collaborate.”

In the end, Harris's gamble paid off: Not only did she secure a significant increase over the original settlement offer, but she also gained an "incredible friend and colleague" in Beau. "There were periods, when I was taking heat, when Beau and I talked every day, sometimes multiple times a day,” Harris wrote in The Truths We Hold. “We had each other’s backs.”

After the settlement, the two close friends continued working together on a number of issues, including fighting online child abuse imagery, sex trafficking, gun violence, and elder abuse in nursing homes. When Beau Biden passed away in May 30, 2015—after battling brain cancer—his closest staffers had a list of about 60 people they thought should first know about his death; Harris was on that list, according to the Washington Post. "Over the weekend, I attended the memorial service for my dear friend Beau Biden. It was a moving tribute to Beau, who cared so deeply for his family, the people of Delaware, and our country," Harris wrote in an Instagram post. "I feel fortunate to have known Beau as a friend and to have had the opportunity to work closely with him as Attorneys General. My heart and prayers go out to his family, which he loved so passionately."

Harris's friendship with Beau also lead to a warm relationship with his father, and in February 2016, she introduced Biden at the California Democrats Convention. "Joe has given so much to our country and on top of everything he has accomplished he gave us my dear friend Beau Biden," she said in her introduction. "In fact it is through my friendship with Beau that I truly came to know Joe Biden, not just as a leader but as a person. So California Democrats I say from my personal experience that the Biden family truly represents our nation's highest ideals—a powerful belief in the nobility of public service." That same year, Biden endorsed Harris in her race to fill the seat of retiring U.S. Senator Barbara Boxer, citing Beau's friendship with the attorney general. "Beau always supported her...I saw them take on big banks, lift up the voices of working people, and protect women and children from abuse and violence," Biden said in a statement. "Today's Senate needs people like her—leaders who will always fight to make a difference and who never forget where they come from."

In fact, one of Biden's last acts as vice president before leaving office? Swearing in Harris as part of his ceremonial duties as the president of the Senate. “Why don’t we just have a standing coffee, just get together?” Harris suggested as the two chatted after a photo with her extended family. “You can tell me some stories, give me some feedback, and advice?”

In the five years since Beau's passing, Harris has continued to honor the late attorney general, making personal statements about how much she misses him and their friendship. "We were AGs together, and you couldn’t find a person who cared more deeply for his family, the nation he served, and the state of Delaware," she said in a tweet marking the fourth anniversary of his death. "Four years after his passing, I still miss him." Biden responded to her tweet that evening, saying: "Thank you @KamalaHarris from me, Jill, & all the Bidens for your kind remembrance of Beau today. My dad used to say that you know you are a success as a parent when you turn & look at your child & realize they turned out better than you—I'm so proud of the man Beau became."

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