Kamala Harris is sworn in as vice president by Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor as her husband Doug Emhoff holds the Bible during the 59th Presidential Inauguration at the U.S. Capitol in Washington, Wednesday, Jan. 20, 2021.
Erin Schaff/AP
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Erin Schaff/AP
Kamala Harris is sworn in as vice president by Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor as her husband Doug Emhoff holds the Bible during the 59th Presidential Inauguration at the U.S. Capitol in Washington, Wednesday, Jan. 20, 2021.
Erin Schaff/AP
Vice President Kamala Harris has garnered support from enough delegates to become the democratic presidential nominee next month.
And unofficially, pop stars and viral memes are juicing up the engine too, with dozens of edited videos of Harris gaining traction among Gen Z.
Harris’ family history contains plenty of firsts for a possible U.S. president.
Her mother was Indian and her father is Jamaican. Her career itself a series of firsts: She was the first woman and first person of color to hold jobs like San Francisco district attorney, California attorney general, and now vice president.
In 2019, Harris said in a CNN town hall: “My mother used to have a saying and she would say to me, ‘Kamala you may be the first to do many things, but make sure you’re not the last.'”
Looking back to look forward
Harris has often stressed that while she may be a first, others paved the way.
In her victory speech four years ago after being elected vice president, she paid tribute to women of color who fought for gender equality:
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“Tonight, I reflect on their struggle, their determination and the strength of their vision — to see what can be, unburdened by what has been. And I stand on their shoulders.”
NPR White House correspondent Asma Khalid has covered Harris for years, and has some ideas on how Harris’ long history of breaking barriers informs her, and the campaign that she might run.
“Former staffers and supporters of the vice president tell me this all the time, that Harris has indeed been the first person like her in pretty much every public role that she has held,” Khalid said.
“I will say, though, that she herself doesn’t talk a whole lot about it, but she is aware of it.”
The road ahead
Khalid says that Harris’ nuanced background is both a source of strength, and possible weakness.
“I mean, there has never been a woman as president. And there’s actually never even been a Black woman who’s been a governor of any state in the country,” Khalid said.
“One former Harris staffer told me that Harris doesn’t fit neatly into identity boxes, and sometimes it’s hard for the broad public to understand her, because they haven’t seen anybody like her in that position before.”
So will she be emphasizing the barriers broken by her campaign?
Khalid says it might not be necessary, given the swell of grassroots support.
“There were thousands of Black women on a Zoom call the other night. I’ve spoken to organizers in key states like Georgia, African-American women who are quickly rallying behind her. In the Indian-American community, there is this photo of Harris being shared online that reads,’In Sanskrit, Kamala means Lotus. In America, Kamala means POTUS'”
The U.S. has changed since the days of Obama’s campaign for office, says Khalid.
“And so I do think that the way they talk about this will be different than what we’ve seen in the past.”
This episode was produced by Megan Lim and Elena Burnett, with audio engineering by Tiffany Vera Castro and Ted Mebane. It was edited by Courtney Dorning and Roberta Rampton. Our executive producer is Sami Yenigun.
