On Tuesday, Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden announced Sen. Kamala Harris (D-Calif.) as his official running mate, making her the first Black woman and first South Asian-American woman to be selected as the vice presidential nominee of a major party.
In an email announcement to his supporters, Biden welcomed Harris to his team saying, “I need someone alongside me who is smart, tough and ready to lead. Kamala is that person.”
Harris, who is the first South Asian-American woman and second Black woman in history to serve in the U.S. Senate, was born in Oakland, California to an Indian mother and a Jamaican father. She is a graduate of the historically Black college Howard University, and the University of California, Hastings College of the Law.
After law school, she started her career in the Alameda County District Attorney’s Office before transferring to the San Francisco District Attorney’s Office in 1998, according to her website. In 2010, she became the first woman and first African-American elected to serve as attorney general for the state of California.
Harris, who was a former 2020 presidential candidate, has since received a lot of praise for her nomination from political leaders and Black women voters who have used the hashtag #WinWithBlackWomen to show their solidarity for her leadership and representation in politics.
Former National Security Adviser Susan Rice, who was rumored to be on Biden’s shortlist of possible VP picks, also took to Twitter to congratulate Harris on her nomination saying, “I am confident Biden-Harris will prove to be a winning ticket.”
Former President Barack Obama said that Biden “nailed this decision” in a statement via Twitter and said that Harris is “more than prepared for the job.”
Biden’s nomination of Harris is not only a historic one, but it is also a strategic one with Black women voters historically playing a huge role in past elections. Despite making up 7% of the population, Black women tend to vote at higher rates than other racial groups, voting at or above 60% in the past five presidential cycles, reports The Washington Post. Additionally, Black women voters are the most loyal voters to the Democratic Party with 94% of Black women voting for Hillary Clinton in 2016, the highest rate of any group.
In a tweet released on Tuesday, Harris thanked Biden for the nomination and said “she’s honored to join him” as the Democratic party’s nominee for vice president.
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