A lawyer and politician from the United States is Kamala Devi Harris. Since 2021, she has held the position of 49th vice president under President Joe Biden. Before joining politics, Kamala worked as a great attorney. After becoming a prosecutor, Kamala concentrated on cases involving child sexual harassment. After losing to Trump in a nationally televised deliberation, Biden endorsed Harris as his successor and withdrew from the reelection contest in July 2024. Harris has this position as the first Asian American, Black American, and woman. This article will give a detailed overview of Kamala Harris life as a good politician and an attorney.
Early life struggles
Kamala Devi Harris was born on October 20, 1964, in Oakland, California. Both of their parents were both foreigners. Shyamala Gopalan Harris, her mother, was an Indian oncology researcher, and her father, Donald Harris, is a Jamaican economist. Harris’s mother and sister, Maya, raised her after her parents divorced in 1971. She is quite culturally rich, with strong roots in South Asian and African American history, having attended a Baptist church and a Hindu temple. Harris later received degrees from the University of California Hastings College of Law and Howard University. She married attorney Douglas Emhoff. Their children, Cole and Ella, are part of their large blended family.
Throughout his tenure as the Alameda Country district attorney from 1990 to 1998, Harris is thought to have been tough on crime. To date, Kamala Harris remains California’s first person of color and its top attorney general. She set out on her agenda of change after re-election in 2014 and has emphasized consumer protection, women rights, and environmental justice. Kamala Harris was elected to the U.S. She was elected to the Senate from California, the first step of her political ascent. Barbara was not only the second African American woman to enter the Senate but she was also the first South Asian American senator.
Career as an attorney
She began her career as a county magistrate in the Bay Area’s Alameda County and rose to become elected district attorney of San Francisco in 2004. Appointed to two terms as San Francisco’s first woman prosecuting attorney from 2004 to 2010, she made history as the first woman of color and South Asian American. She became the first South Asian, Black, and female attorney general in the state’s history, replacing Jerry Brown in 2010. She went into office after winning her election in 2016 and served until January of 2017, when she moved to the U.S. Senate.
Homeowner protection
Kamala Harris, the state lawyer general, was met with a thunderous ovation at the February California Democratic Party convention. As she explained how she had called on the nation’s five largest financial institutions to help reach a historic $25 billion national settlement. The mortgage contract is one of Harris’ most noteworthy accomplishments as state attorney general and the cornerstone of her campaign plan as a self-described “fearless” California leader in her Senate run against Representative Loretta Sanchez of Orange County. Across the nation, she has received recognition for her tenacious bargaining during the settlement discussions, which greatly increased the level of direct help awarded to her state.
Death penalty
The shooting death of San Francisco law enforcement officer Isaac Espinoza in 2004 presented Harris with one of the first challenges of his time as a state prosecutor. Throughout the course of his campaign, Harris resisted calls for the death punishment from police organizations, state Liberal politicians, and the detective’s family. When Harris ran for California attorney general for the first time in 2010, tensions remained between her and police organizations.
According to a 2016 New York Times Magazine article, she attempted to mend those ties during her first term and garnered the backing of multiple police organizations when running for election.
Big banks
In 2011, Harris, then the Attorney General of California, pulled away from a $4 billion deal. With some of the biggest mortgage lenders in the country for their foreclosure policies and other dishonest and illegal acts that contributed to the financial crisis of 2009. Attorneys general from several states were negotiating the settlement at the Obama administration’s insistence.
Career as politician
Among the many firsts in Kamala’s path from lawyer to legislator was her appointment as the nation’s first Indian-American lawmaker. Harris is the first female vice president and the first Asian American or Black lady to hold the position. Harris ran for the US Congress in 2015 in an attempt to replace Barbra Boxer, a persistent senator from California.
Hillary would say in her memoir that the 2016 election night was “surreal” for many reasons than just her victory. Her campaign drew the endorsement of the former President of the United States and Vice President Joe Biden. In the tweet, she said that she was the second Black woman in the nation’s history to be voted to the US Senate and the first from her state. Harris became a member of the Senate Judiciary Committee and of the Senate Committee of Select Committee on Intelligence during her US Senate tenure. In 2019, she announced her candidacy for the presidency. However, Harris said she revised her initial speech, which she had written assuming the nation would elect its first female president. To state that the admirers “should be committed to bringing our country together” after it became apparent that Donald Trump was going to be the 45th President of the United States. Prior to her 2019 presidential campaign, Harris was a member of the Senate Judiciary Committee and the House Select Committee on Intelligence during her time in the US Senate.
Healthcare and public health
Oversaw the White House Maternal Health Crisis Response Blueprint. Established the first federal health and safety regulations about hospital maternal emergency care. 46 states expanded postpartum Medicaid coverage from two to twelve months to offer life-saving coverage. 38,000 individuals were connected to the new National Maternal Mental Health Hotline, which offers free, round-the-clock help. Close down fraudulent medical websites.
Reproductive right
- At Trump’s highest court applicants’ confirmation trials, they spoke up for reproductive rights. Started a national campaign to advocate for reproductive rights and became the Vice President’s first trip to visit a female health center.
- Economic justice and consumer protection
- received a $20 billion compensation for homeowners during the problem of foreclosure.
- Exposed American scams at for-profit universities. Fought against large companies that exploited working people and established a program to waive college loans for mental health practitioners. Negotiated settlements with businesses that broke labor rules and underpaid their employees’ administration’s intentions to delete medical debt from credit records were made public. Defended elderly people against exploitation and fraud.
Voting rights
Harris also spearheaded the administration’s efforts to formalize safeguards for voting rights. She advocated for Congress to enact the Freedom to Vote: John R. Lewis Act, which would have expanded the 1965 Voting Rights Act’s safeguards and mandated federal approval for some modifications to local election laws. “The vice president “dove into” the “opportunity to leave her mark on a vitally important topic,” Eugene Daniels wrote in Politico.
Journey of Kamala Harris in 2024
Harris has repeatedly and unambiguously declared that she works in public “for the people,” by which she means all people. She loves her HBCU legacy, though, and has seized every opportunity to promote her Alma University. After starting her first presidential campaign in 2019, she held her first press conference at Howard. She visited often while serving as vice president to discuss economic development and reproductive rights. She threw the opening coin at the 2023 Celebration Bowl in Atlanta between the Howard Bison and the Florida A&M Rattlers and invited Bison players to visit her at the Naval Observatory.
Likewise, she returned home to Howard many times during her landmark 2024 political advertisement, citing the campus as a place of comfort and renewal. Not only that, but she has shown her dedication to her alma mater and her interest in its continued growth in numerous noteworthy ways, both overt and covert. Millions of bison around the country are exceptionally grateful and proud.
The 49th and current Vice President of the United States, Kamala Harris, declared her 2024 presidential campaign on July 21, 2024, the same day incumbent Joe Biden backed her and dropped his reelection bid. A virtual roll call vote on August 5 made Harris the official Democratic Party nominee. The next day, she chose Minnesota Governor Tim Walz to be her running partner.
Campaign
Announcement
Harris declared her desire to seek the Democratic nomination on July 21, 2024, and the “Biden for President” campaign group submitted documentation to the Federal Election Commission to rename itself “Harris for President.”
Presumptive nominee
Harris was endorsed by enough state delegates on July 22 to secure the nomination and take the lead. On July 23, CNN calculated that she had gathered enough delegates to win the nomination, even though the endorsements were not legally binding.
Music
On the day of her first rally, Harris secured permission from Park wood Entertainment to use Beyoncé’s song “Freedom” as the official campaign song. Republican Party presidential primary spokesperson Steven Cheung shared a 13-second video of Trump arriving in Detroit, Michigan, for a rally on Twitter on August 20, 2024, with the caption, “Freedom”.
What she would modify if elected
Despite her late entry into the race following President Biden’s announcement that he was withdrawing, Harris offered a few suggestions and has a record as vice president.
Tax plan
- Trump has stated he would prolong the tax cuts implemented in 2017, while Harris says she will increase corporate taxes to offset the expenses of her proposed tax benefits for families.
- The beginning expense deduction will be increased tenfold, from $5,000 to $50,000, as part of her plan to give small firms a financial cushion. In their initial year of operation, when many incur losses, new enterprises would not be required to claim the deduction. Alternatively, companies could wait to take use of the deduction until they are lucrative. Additionally, companies would be able to claim a portion of the deduction in a single year and put the remainder aside for later.
- Harris is in favor of doing away with federal tip taxes, something Trump initially suggested.
Housing shortage
Harris says she will take a number of steps to alleviate the housing deficit in the country. She offers tax benefits to builders who create homes for first-time homebuyers, and she pledges to build 3 million affordable new homes and rentals by the conclusion of her first term. In addition, she is suggesting a $40 billion fund to assist local governments in addressing the shortage of available homes.
Education
- A bill that Harris supported as a senator would have given most families free college tuition.
- In addition, the Democratic Party’s program advocates for universal free college education. Harris hasn’t been talking about this concept during the campaign.
Israel and Gaza
- Despite calling the carnage in Gaza “devastating,” Harris promised that his stance for Israel would not alter.
- She advocated for a cease-fire agreement that would free the remaining captives that Hamas is holding.
- She supports a two-state deal.
Why she lost to Trump
When we reflect on it, I believe we will see the seeds of Vice President Kamala Harris’ defeat in her presidential debate against Donald Trump at the time. Yes, Trump seemed irate and hardly able to think. Harris, however, pointed to the backing of investment firm Goldman Sachs for her financial plans as evidence of her economic credentials and a reason to vote for her rather than Trump.
Harris attempted to emphasize during the last days of her campaign that her administration would not be a continuation of Biden’s, but she was unable to properly lay out her plans and frequently avoided talking about apparent shortcomings. But in the closing moments, Harris strategically chose to once more emphasize the risks of a second Trump administration, branding the president a “fascist” and running for office with disgruntled Republicans tired of his rhetoric.
“When Kamala Harris changed her focus to almost solely criticize Donald Trump, she lost this election,” prominent Republican pollster Frank Lutz stated Tuesday evening.“Voters already understand every detail regarding Trump – but they continued to desire to find out more regarding Harris’ strategies for the very initial hourly rate, initially, first period, and the first twelve months of her presidency.” Her campaign failed miserably in its attempt to elevate Trump above Harris’s beliefs.
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