“My mother would often tell me that if you’re the first to do something, make sure you’re not the last,” were the words that California senator Kamala Harris stood by during her unsuccessful run for the Democratic presidential nomination in Decmeber 2019.

Kamala Harris, born in Oakland, California to two immigrant parents – an Indian-born mother and Jamaican-born father – has a long list of firsts to her credit and the California democrat now is the first black running mate in a major party and, possibly, the first female vice-president of the United States.

A year ago, Harris had surged to the front of a crowded field of presidential candidates on the back of a series of strong debate performances but by end of 2019, her campaign came to a halt.

Also read: Joe Biden picks Kamala Harris as his running mate

Exactly after seven months of pulling out of the presidential race, Harris is making headlines again as Democratic nominee Joe Biden’s running mate. 

Harris, who made scathing remarks on Biden during her short-lived presidential campaign, shifted to a completely different tone in March, when she endorsed the former vice-president, saying she would do “everything in my power to help elect him the next President of the United States”.

Biden, who leads President Donald Trump in most polls, committed himself earlier to choosing a female running mate.

Harris was born to a Black father and an Indian mother. Her parents were both immigrants: her father, Donald Harris, from Jamaica, and her mother, Shyamala Gopalan, from Chennai.

Harris was raised in Oakland, during the 1960s, and is proud of her parent’s fight for civil rights. After serving two terms as district attorney for San Francisco from 2004-2011, she was twice elected as the California attorney general. Harris had the distinguishment of being both the first woman and the first African American to serve as the top law enforcement official of the most populous US state.

Some of her decisions as the attorney general raised heckles even among some on the Democratic left. She launched a ‘back on track’ programme to reduce recidivism. The programme encouraged first-time offenders to get a job, enroll in school and be able to lead a normal life. But what contradicted this move was her stance in court, where her lawyers argued for keeping people in prison, even those who were eligible for parole or had been proved innocent, as letting them out would ‘reduce the state’s prison labour pool’. She also pushed for reforms within the police system to tackle racial bias and police brutality. Under Harris, California became the first statewide agency to mandate body cameras. Harris also introduced a training program for law enforcement officers called “Principled Policing: Procedural Justice and Implicit Bias”.

In January 2017, Harris became the first India-American to ever serve in the chamber when she was sworn in as the California senator.

The California senator has been on good terms with Biden and was also close to his son Beau, who died of brain cancer in 2015.

But Harris surprised everyone when she attacked the 77-year-old during a Democratic primary debate in 2019 over his racial policies during the 1970s. Harris tore into Biden over his opposition to the mandatory school busing, a decision that was aimed at racial desegregation.

She recalled with some emotion how she, as a young girl, was one of the black students bused to schools in white neighborhoods in a program intended to give them greater opportunity.

The clash of words between Harris and Biden, even saw Harris move up in the polls, but she failed to keep the momentum going. After dropping out of the race in December, she threw her support to Biden in March.