Vice President of the United States since 2021 - Kamala Devi Harris (born October 20, 1964) is an American politician and attorney who is the 49th and current [[Vice President of the United States | vice president of the United States]] since 2021, serving with President [[Joe Biden]]. She is the first female vice president, making her the highest-ranking female official in U.S. history, as well as both the first [[African Americans | African American]] and the first [[Asian Americans | Asian American]] vice president. She served as a [[United States Senate | U.S. senator]] from [[California]] from 2017 to 2021, and earlier as the [[Attorney General of California | attorney general of California]]. Harris is the Democratic Party's presidential nominee in the [[2024 United States presidential election | 2024 U.S. presidential election]]. - Born in [[Oakland, California]], Harris graduated from [[Howard University]] and the [[University of California College of the Law, San Francisco]]. She began her law career in the office of the [[District attorney | district attorney]] (DA) of [[Alameda County, California | Alameda County]], before being recruited to the [[San Francisco District Attorney's Office | San Francisco DA's Office]] and later the city attorney of San Francisco's office. In 2003, she was [[2003 San Francisco District Attorney election | elected DA of San Francisco]]. She was [[2010 California Attorney General election | elected attorney general of California in 2010]] and [[2014 California Attorney General election | reelected in 2014]]. Harris served as the junior U.S. senator from California from 2017 to 2021. She defeated [[Loretta Sanchez]] in the [[2016 United States Senate election in California | 2016 Senate election]] to become the second Black woman and the first [[South Asian Americans | South Asian American]] to serve in the U.S. Senate. - As a senator, Harris [[Political positions of Kamala Harris | advocated]] for stricter [[Gun politics in the United States | gun control]] laws, the [[DREAM Act]], [[Legalization of non-medical cannabis in the United States | federal legalization of cannabis]], and healthcare and [[Progressive tax | taxation]] reforms. She gained a national profile for her pointed questioning of [[President of the United States | Trump administration]] officials during Senate hearings, including Trump's second [[Supreme Court of the United States | Supreme Court]] nominee, [[Brett Kavanaugh]]. - Harris [[Kamala Harris 2020 presidential campaign | sought the 2020 Democratic presidential nomination]] in 2019, but withdrew from the race before [[2020 Democratic Party presidential primaries | the primaries]]. Biden [[2020 Democratic Party vice presidential candidate selection | selected her as his running mate]], and their ticket defeated the incumbent president and vice president, [[Donald Trump]] and [[Mike Pence]], in the [[2020 United States presidential election | 2020 election]]. Presiding over an evenly split Senate upon entering office, Harris played a crucial role as president of the Senate, casting the most tie-breaking votes of any vice president, which helped pass bills such as the [[American Rescue Plan Act of 2021]] stimulus package and the [[Inflation Reduction Act | Inflation Reduction Act of 2022]]. After [[Withdrawal of Joe Biden from the 2024 United States presidential election | Biden withdrew from the 2024 presidential election]], Harris launched [[Kamala Harris 2024 presidential campaign | her own campaign]] with Biden's endorsement. ## Sources - [wikipedia_page](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kamala_Harris)