WASHINGTON – President Joe Biden on Sunday Vice President Kamala Harris is set to be the recent Democratic presidential candidate, passing the baton to the California native who has led initiatives on reproductive rights and gun control in government.
Harris, 59, is a former U.S. senator from California who competed for her party’s presidential nomination in the 2020 primary. She would represent a recent generation at the top of the ballot after Biden, 81, dropped out of the race under pressure from Democratic leadership following a disastrous debate performance in overdue June.
Harris, the country’s first female vice president, now has a chance to become the first female president, depending on how the Democrats decide. She is also the first black vice president and the first person of South Asian descent to serve as vice president.
After the debate, some in the party publicly suggested she could be Biden’s successor. Biden initially refused to end his re-election campaign Despite growing calls within the Democratic Party for him to resign, he resigned on Sunday.
“Today, I want to express my full support and endorsement of Kamala being our party’s nominee this year. Democrats – it’s time to come together and defeat Trump. Let’s do that,” Biden said in a Sunday post on X.
Political initiatives
During her time as vice president, Harris became a leading voice in the administration’s fight for reproductive rights and abortion access – often seen as the most essential issue for Democrats since the U.S. Supreme Court in June 2022 overturned Roe v. Wade, which ended the nearly half-century-old right to abortion guaranteed by the federal constitution.
Harris launched a “Fight for reproductive freedoms” Tour in early 2024, which will take them to several swing states. And after a tour through Planned Parenthood Harris was the first sitting president or vice president to visit an abortion clinic in Minnesota.
Harris has also focused on gun safety during her tenure as vice president. In March, she announced the creation of the National Extreme Risk Protection Order Resource Center to aid states, local governments and others “optimize the use of red flag laws,” according to the White House.
She also called on states to pass so-called red flag laws. Enable criminal prosecution To ask civil courts to confiscate firearms from people who may pose a danger to themselves or others – and to apply funds from the bipartisan Safer Communities Act to “support the implementation of laws already passed.”
The government advocated the Bipartisan legislation for safer communitieswhich Biden enacted in June 2022. The measure was considered the most comprehensive Federal Gun Safety Act in almost 30 years.
She was also, along with Biden and other Democrats, a fierce opponent of Project 2025 — the nearly 900-page document from the Heritage Foundation that proposes a comprehensive conservative agenda in the event that former President Donald J. Trump is elected. Although Trump distanced itself from the platformSome former members of his government were involved in its drafting.
Harris also criticism attracted on both sides of the aisle for their efforts on immigration. Biden tapped it in 2021 to aid combat the “root causes” of migration in Central America.
She attended the US-Mexico border in June 2021, after stopping in Guatemala and Mexico earlier that month, it was her first foreign trip as Vice President.
Republicans have repeatedly called her a “border czar,” even though she focuses on the “root causes” of migration in Central American countries.
During the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee, Representative Matt Gaetz of Florida was one of several speakers who called her a “border czar,” adding that “appointing Kamala Harris as border supervisor is like appointing Bernie Madoff as pension overseer.”
Harris also holds the record for the highest number of Tie vote in the US Senate.
Public surveys and perception
Since the aftermath of the debate on 27 June a series of surveys have produced mixed results as to whether Voters would choose Harris about Trump if the two were to compete against each other.
A Economist/YouGov survey from 13 to 16 July shows both Harris and Biden just behind Trump, with Biden doing slightly better than Harris.
Only 39 percent of respondents said they would vote for Harris, while 44 percent would vote for Trump. Likewise, 41 percent said they would vote for Biden, while 43 percent would vote for Trump.
Since mid-July she has been Approval assessments The Americans’ opinion was also gloomy: 50.4 percent of Americans rejected it, 38.6 percent approved.
Californian background
Prior to serving as Vice President, Harris served as a U.S. Senator for California from 2017 to 2021. She has a long career in law enforcement, serving as Attorney General of California and District Attorney of San Francisco.
Harris competed for the Democratic nomination in the 2020 presidential election, but withdrew her candidacy months later and endorsed Biden. She withdrew her candidacy before the Iowa caucuses and ended her candidacy in December 2019, despite initially being considered one of the most promising Democratic candidates.
She was born in Oakland, California in 1964. Parents with a migration backgroundShe is married to Doug Emhoff, who according to the White HouseHe is also the first Second Gentleman in US history.
Harris is an alumna of Howard Universitya historically black institution, and received her law degree from the University of California, Hastings.
