Guest Post: Hannah Toner
Californian Senator Kamala Harris has announced her intention to run for the Presidency.
Born to immigrant Jamaican and Indian parents, Kamala Harris started off her political career back in 2004, as she served two terms as District Attorney of San Francisco (2004-2011), before being elected as Attorney General of California (2011-2017), the first woman of colour to do so. In 2017, she was eventually sworn in as California's Junior US Senator.
As described by BBCs Northern American reporter Anthony Zurcher, "Kamala Harris is the kind of Democrat who could stick around and prevail in what is sure to be a gruelling nomination battle." She has a tough reputation as a solid attorney but she has an even tougher stance on the failings of Donald Trump as President. Kamala Harris is probably best noted for her tough questioning of Justice Brett Kavanaugh about his views on abortion and the ongoing investigation into alleged Russian interference which attracted attention from Democrats and pushed her into primacy for a potential Presidential candidate.
Born to immigrant Jamaican and Indian parents, Kamala Harris started off her political career back in 2004, as she served two terms as District Attorney of San Francisco (2004-2011), before being elected as Attorney General of California (2011-2017), the first woman of colour to do so. In 2017, she was eventually sworn in as California's Junior US Senator.
As described by BBCs Northern American reporter Anthony Zurcher, "Kamala Harris is the kind of Democrat who could stick around and prevail in what is sure to be a gruelling nomination battle." She has a tough reputation as a solid attorney but she has an even tougher stance on the failings of Donald Trump as President. Kamala Harris is probably best noted for her tough questioning of Justice Brett Kavanaugh about his views on abortion and the ongoing investigation into alleged Russian interference which attracted attention from Democrats and pushed her into primacy for a potential Presidential candidate.
What is possibly most significant for Ms Harris is that she announced her campaign on Martin Luther King Jr Day as she stated in her announcement speech that "The thing about Dr King that always inspires me is that he was aspirational." But what is also poignant is that 47 years ago this week, Shirley Chisholm, an African-American New York congresswoman, became the first woman to run for the Democratic nomination. It seems that Ms Harris picked the same campaign colours, red and yellow, and additionally both candidates professed to be the "candidate of the people".
However, Kamala Harris is not completely perfect, her failure to support California's criminal justice reforms coupled with her failure to recognise sexual harassment claims against one of her aides who resigned in 2016, has meant that Ms Harris' campaign may come under heavy fire at some stage by her Republican and even liberalist critics.
However, with more Democrats to announce their Presidential run, but only time will tell if Kamala will be the next female Obama.
However, Kamala Harris is not completely perfect, her failure to support California's criminal justice reforms coupled with her failure to recognise sexual harassment claims against one of her aides who resigned in 2016, has meant that Ms Harris' campaign may come under heavy fire at some stage by her Republican and even liberalist critics.
However, with more Democrats to announce their Presidential run, but only time will tell if Kamala will be the next female Obama.
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