Indian American Kamala Harris Becomes First Women Vice President of US

By: WE Staff | Monday, 9 November 2020

After a long wait and moment of tense, the results of US election are live. Democrat Joe Biden defeated President Donald Trump to become the 46th president of the United States. In the same time, Kamala Harris as his vice president, celebrated the victory, becoming the first woman to occupy the office. When Kamala Harris was elected the next Vice President of the United States, the moment instantly became a historic one, three times over, as Kamala has added several firsts to her name after winning the election.

Kamala, whose parents came to the US from Jamaica and India, will be the first Black Vice President, the first Indian American Vice President and the first woman to serve in that office. Kamala was only the third woman vice presidential nominee to be selected on a major party ticket. Then-Alaska governor Sarah Palin in 2008 and New York representative Geraldine Ferraro in 1984 were the other two. Kamala, a California senator and the state’s former attorney general, built a career in the tech industry’s front yard. Before becoming the vice president-elect, Kamala served as a county district attorney; the district attorney for San Francisco, the first woman and first African-American and Indian-origin to be elected to the position.

Kamala is also known as `Female Barack Obama’. She was born in Oakland and grew up in Berkeley, and her school education spent in French-speaking Canada. For her college education, she attended Howard University and in her autobiography, she terms it as the most formative experience of her life. From Howard University, she earned her Law Degree at the University of California, Hastings. Following which she started her career in the Alameda County District Attorney’s Office. Her mother Shyamala Gopalan, plays a very important role and had a strong influence in her life. After her parents divorced she was raised single-handedly by her mother a cancer researcher and civil rights activist from Chennai. Though Kamala embraced Indian culture, her mother had adopted the Black culture. Kamala proudly lives an American life, yet she joined her mother on visits to India and her sister Maya.

Kamala’s victory indicates that no door is closed to Indian-Americans in public life in the country. Around 1.3 million Indian-Americans were voters in this year’s election, with nearly 200,000 in battleground states like Pennsylvania and 125,000 in Michigan. It is believed that Indian-American voters played crucial role in the key battleground states.