Harris breaks barriers as first woman US vice-president

WASHINGTON • Ms Kamala Harris crashed through one of the world's highest glass ceilings yesterday to be elected America's first woman vice-president, making history and helping bring to an end Mr Donald Trump's turbulent rule.

Ms Harris came into last Tuesday's election already a repeat trailblazer as California's first black attorney-general and the first woman of South Asian heritage elected to the United States Senate.

By winning the vice-presidency, she will be a heartbeat away from leading the US and poised on a stepping stone to the ultimate prize.

With Mr Joe Biden, 77, expected to serve only a single term, Ms Harris would be favoured to win the Democratic presidential nomination four years from now.

That could give her a shot at more history-making - as the first female president of the US.

"This election is about so much more than Mr Joe Biden or me," she wrote on Twitter after US news media called the election in their favour based on state results.

"It's about the soul of America and our willingness to fight for it.

"We have a lot of work ahead of us. Let's get started."

Since being tapped as Mr Biden's running mate in August, she has slammed Mr Trump not only on his chaotic handling of the Covid-19 pandemic, but also racism, the economy and his crackdown on immigration.

Ms Harris, 56, was born to immigrants to the US - her father was from Jamaica, her mother was from India. Their lives and her own have in some ways embodied the American dream.

She was born on Oct 20, 1964, in Oakland, California, then a hub for civil rights and anti-war activism.

Her diploma from historically black Howard University in Washington was the start of a steady rise that took her from prosecutor, to two elected terms as San Francisco's district attorney and then California's attorney-general in 2010.

However, Ms Harris' self-description as a "progressive prosecutor" had been seized upon by critics who said she fought to uphold wrongful convictions and opposed certain reforms in California, like a Bill requiring that the attorney-general probe shootings involving police.

"Time after time, when progressives urged her to embrace criminal justice reforms as a district attorney and then the state's attorney-general, Ms Harris opposed them or stayed silent," law professor Lara Bazelon wrote in The New York Times last year.

Yet Ms Harris' work was key to forging a platform and profile from which she launched a successful Senate campaign in 2016, becoming just the second black female senator ever.

Her stint as attorney-general also helped her forge a connection with Mr Biden's son Beau, who held the same position in the state of Delaware, and died of cancer at the age of 46 in 2015.

"I know how much Beau respected Kamala and her work, and that mattered a lot to me, to be honest with you, as I made this decision," Mr Biden said during his first appearance with Ms Harris as running mates.

A veteran campaigner, Ms Harris oozes charisma but can quickly pivot from her megawatt smile to her prosecutorial persona of relentless interrogation and cutting retorts.

Clips went viral of her sharp questioning in 2017 of then Attorney-General Jeff Sessions during a Capitol Hill hearing on Russia.

"I'm not able to be rushed this fast! It makes me nervous," an exasperated Mr Sessions replied at one point.

Ms Harris also clashed with Mr Biden during the first Democratic debate, chiding the former senator over his opposition to 1970s busing programmes that forced integration of segregated schools.

"There was a little girl in California who was part of the second class to integrate her public school, and she was bused to school every day," she said. "And that little girl was me."

That clash did not stop him from picking Ms Harris, who has brought that feisty energy to Mr Biden's carefully stage-managed campaign.

During her only debate against Vice-President Mike Pence, Ms Harris raised her hand as he tried to interrupt her.

"Mr Vice-President, I'm speaking. I'm speaking," she said with a glare, silencing Mr Pence.

Within hours of the debate, T-shirts bearing her words were being offered for sale online.

AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE