Kamala D. Harris was born in Oakland, California. She refers to her time at Howard as her “formative years” where she first was introduced to her love of politics. After earning an undergraduate degree from Howard University and a law degree from the University of California, Hastings, she began her career in the Alameda County District Attorney's Office. In 2003, Sen. Harris became the District Attorney of the City and County of San Francisco. Having completed two terms as the District Attorney of San Francisco, Kamala was elected as the first African-American and first woman to serve as California's Attorney General. In this role, she worked tirelessly to hold corporations accountable and protect the state’s most vulnerable people. In 2017, Harris was sworn in as a United States Senator for California, the second African-American woman and first South Asian-American senator in history. Harris serves on the Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, the Select Committee on Intelligence, the Committee on the Judiciary, and the Committee on the Budget. On January 21, 2019, she formally announced her run for president and hosted her first press conference at her alma mater, Howard University. Harris’s historic selection as the Democratic vice presidential candidate was announced in August of 2020. Harris is the first Black woman and the first Asian-American to run for vice president on a major party ticket in the United States. Harris’s candidacy represents a milestone opportunity for our democracy to acknowledge the leadership Black women have always exhibited, but has too often been ignored.
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