Kamala Harris: What to know about Biden's backed successor

Kamala Harris's life has been full of milestones.

His elementary school class in the 1970s was the second to integrate into Berkeley schools.

Harris was the first woman elected district attorney in San Francisco.

She was the first woman to be elected Attorney General of California.

She was the first person of color to be elected to the United States Senate from California.

She was the first woman elected Vice President of the United States.

Now, with President Biden announcing Sunday that he will step down as the Democratic presidential nominee and endorse Harris, she is close to becoming the party's Democratic nominee for president.

The Times has been covering Harris extensively for two decades. Here is a summary of her story from our pages.

President Biden listens as Vice President Kamala Harris speaks.

(Susan Walsh/Associated Press)

California Roots

From Oakland to Canada and back, with inspiration from India

Vice President Kamala Harris speaks out on sexual violence.

Political beginnings

A prosecutor with ambition for Bay Area politics

Harris began her career in politics and law enforcement in the Bay Area. From 1990 to 1998, she prosecuted murder, rape, assault and drug cases in the Alameda County District Attorney's Office in Oakland.
San Francisco District Attorney Terence Hallinan had hired Harris in 1998 to head his organized crime unit. She ended up running against him and won in 2003. The campaign was a tough one, with critics citing her relationship with San Francisco's colorful and controversial mayor, Willie Brown. Her record as a prosecutor included some progressive policies, but others that critics would later say were too “tough on crime.”
In 2010, Harris moved into state politics, defeating Republican Steve Cooley for attorney general.

Tony West, left, and Kamala Harris look at poll results with family Maya Harris, Meena Harris and their parents Frank and Peggy Harris on Nov. 2, 2010, in San Francisco.

(San Francisco Chronicle/Hearst Newspapers/Hearst Newspapers via Getty Images)
As attorney general, she initiated an implicit bias training program for law enforcement, and as district attorney, she launched a program that allowed nonviolent first-time offenders to have their charges dismissed if they completed job training. But critics have criticized her for working in the courts to defend the death penalty in California, despite her personal opposition, and for her threats to jail parents of children who chronically miss school.
In 2016, the Times editorial board praised Harris for being willing to stand up to ordinary citizens as attorney general, but issued this warning: “Harris has at times seemed more focused on her political career than on the job she was elected to do. She has been overly cautious and unwilling to take a stand on controversial issues, even when her voice would have been valuable to the debate.”
Harris received national attention for her efforts to have the courts overturn California's ban on gay marriage and allow same-sex couples to legally marry.

An illustration of Kamala Harris at an Oakland campaign office in 2019 with comments written around it.

National stage

Breaking barriers with the rise to Washington

Her next step was the 2016 campaign to replace the retiring Barbara Boxer as U.S. senator. With Democrats dominating in California, a historic battle emerged between her and Southern Californian Loretta Sanchez. When Harris won, The Times declared that she had broken down “a racial barrier that has existed as long as California has been a state.”
In 2019, he began his campaign for the US presidency. He gained momentum from the start, drawing a crowd of around 20,000 people to a lavish rally in Oakland. He raised $1.5 million in just 24 hours and was supported by a number of California politicians.
But her campaign slowly lost steam. As The Times reported in March 2019, the decline “is partly due to Harris’s failure to make a compelling case for her candidacy beyond her experience as a prosecutor, her upbeat personality and a deep disdain — shared by others in the race — for President Trump.”
In December, she suspended her campaign. The Times called it a “lackluster end to an initially promising presidential bid based on the California senator’s personal biography and prosecutorial acumen. Ultimately, her campaign foundered on confused purpose, campaign infighting and an inability to maintain support from vital Democratic voting blocs, particularly African Americans.”

Senator Kamala Harris waves in front of an American flag.

Biden secured the nomination, but there was no guarantee he would choose her as his running mate. Some felt Biden’s team was angry about her treatment of him during the campaign. But Biden ended up choosing Harris. The Times said at the time: “In many ways, Harris is a safe choice: She is broadly popular in the Democratic Party and well versed in the rigors of a national campaign. But her selection also carries symbolic weight at this moment when race relations are voters’ top concern.”
Harris held her own during her debate with Vice President Mike Pence and served as an effective surrogate. The Times reported: “Those who have spoken to Harris say she sees the changes — in style, in her approach to the campaign, in the faces around her — as worthwhile for the goals she now pursues: replacing Trump with Biden and becoming the first female vice president in history.”
Harris was elected as the country's first female vice president (and the first person of color to serve as vice president) in November 2020.

President Biden speaks from the Roosevelt Room with Kamala Harris standing behind him and at his side.

Vice president

Struggling to find your place in an important job

Harris made history when she took office, but her tenure has been marked by successes and struggles.
After her first year in office, The Times offered this assessment: “Harris has struggled to tell her own story, leaving others to fill the void. Conservative media have attacked her while mainstream media have published a series of stories about low morale and high staff turnover in her office. Like many vice presidents, Harris is learning how difficult it is to define herself as a No. 2.”
In those early months, she was given a difficult task: leading diplomatic efforts to stem migration from Central America. There were early controversies, such as when she told would-be migrants not to come to the United States. Now that the immigration issue has become a hot topic in the 2024 race, Harris faces tough questions about her role in Biden’s policies.
Democrats worried about Harris’ weak poll numbers, as they viewed her as a party front-runner after Biden. “Harris has emerged as a source of tension among Democrats as growing concerns about Harris’s political stature clash with worries that any move to sideline her would alienate voters needed to win elections and undermine the party’s promise of fairness,” The Times wrote in 2021.
Some fear Harris is shrinking in office. “Caution has long been a hallmark of Harris’s political career, and the servile nature of the vice presidency, as well as the scrutiny of Biden loyalists sensitive to the slightest hint of personal ambition, reinforce that inclination,” Times columnist Mark Z. Barabak wrote in 2021.
After the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, Harris emerged as a leading voice in protecting reproductive rights.

Vice President Kamala Harris walks onto the stage near a man in a suit.

In early 2024, Barabak called her this: “Harris finally appears to have found her place in a role she is accustomed to and adept at: prosecutor.”
Harris has endured unprecedented levels of hate on social media. “Research shows that Harris may be the most attacked American politician on the internet, one who ticks all the boxes for anti-hater hate: She’s a woman, she’s a person of color, and she has power,” the Times concluded.
Before Biden’s disastrous debate performance, Harris was still struggling to present herself as a successor. “More than three years after the oldest president in history served his first term, his deputy has failed to win over a majority of voters or convince them that she is ready to step in if Biden falters, polls show,” The Times reported in April.
Harris’ star rose as Democrats began calling for Biden to step aside and end his reelection campaign. She had continued to publicly support Biden even as calls for her to replace him at the head of the ticket grew louder.