We are presenting diaries about upcoming Democrats who are running or are considering running to be the Democratic nominee for president in 2020. We are breaking these expositions into multiple parts, biography and by positions on issues. We are starting now because of how important the 2020 race will be. This diary will focus on the biography of Senator Kamala Harris.
Senator Harris is a woman of color whose mother was born in Tamil Nadu India. Her mother was a breast cancer researcher and her father was an economics professor at Stanford University. They both attended graduate school at the University of California at Berkeley. She clearly came from a family who valued education and were educated at one of the best universities in the world.
Senator Harris graduated from high school in Quebec Canada, graduated from Howard University (an historically black college) with a degree in political science and economics (Ms. AOC should like that), and graduated with her doctor of jurisprudence from the University of California, Hastings College of Law. She passed the California bar in 1990.
From 1990 to 1998, she was the deputy district attorney of Alameda County. In 2003, she won her election to become the District Attorney for the city and county of San Fransisco. Her biography shows a smart and progressive approach to crime, especially narcotics. While in the next diary we will be addressing her positions on issues, her biography confirms her stances are real. In fact, in 2009 she literally wrote the book, “Smart on Crime: A career prosecutor’s plan to make us safer”
Her history also shows her opposition to propositions 8 and 22. In 2010, she won the race to become Attorney General for California. She prosecuted financial crimes as the attorney general for California. She won the election to take beloved, environmental activist and retiring Senator Barbara Boxer as the junior senator from California.
As senator, she strongly opposed what she rightly called the “Muslim ban” and voted against and spoke out against many of Trump’s nominees including Jeff Sessions who famously said that her prosecutorial questioning of him “made him nervous” and private education supporter ( and brother of the private military company Blackwater owner Eric) Betsy DeVos. She also opposed Rex Tillerson and Mike Pompeo.
She is a dynamic and charismatic speaker who is young and a woman of color. She would be a great choice as the Democratic candidate for president in 2020 inasmuch as her prosecutorial background would be of great use considering the current environment. If Trump somehow is on the ticket for the republicans in 2020, then she would be able to present the evidence of the numerous crimes he committed against him effectively in the campaign. That would be a very useful skill to have.
She is one of three prominent female front runners. Senator Elizabeth Warren, a progressive hero, and ambitious Senator Kirsten Gillibrand who famously took down Senator Al Franken are the other two.
Ms. Harris, 53, told reporters in a Greenville library on Friday morning that matters of economic policy and identity had to be intertwined in the Democratic agenda. Having clashed with Justice Kavanaugh in the Senate, Ms. Harris said the country was perched at an “inflection moment,” including on matters of gender and sexual assault.
Here is the bio listed about her on her senate web page.
In 2017, Kamala D. Harris was sworn in as a United States Senator for California, the second African-American woman and first South Asian-American senator in history. She serves on the Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, the Select Committee on Intelligence, the Committee on the Judiciary, and the Committee on the Budget.
Having completed two terms as the District Attorney of San Francisco, Kamala was elected as the first African-American and first woman to serve as California's Attorney General. In this role, she worked tirelessly to hold corporations accountable and protect the state’s most vulnerable people.
Over the course of her nearly two terms in office, Kamala won a $25-billion settlement for California homeowners hit by the foreclosure crisis, defended California’s landmark climate change law, protected the Affordable Care Act, helped win marriage equality for all Californians, and prosecuted transnational gangs that trafficked in guns, drugs, and human beings.
In the United States Senate, Kamala’s mission remains unchanged: fighting for the rights of all communities in California. Since taking office, she has introduced and cosponsored legislation to raise wages for working people, reform our broken criminal justice system, make healthcare a right for all Americans, address the epidemic of substance abuse, support veterans and military families, and expand access to childcare for working parents.