Kamala Harris has been elected Vice-president, becoming the highest-ranking woman ever in American politics. She is also the first African-American and first Asian-American Vice-president.

Harris was born in Oakland on Oct. 20 1964. Her mother, Shyamala Gopalan, came to the United States in 1958 to attend the University of California, Berkeley, studying endocrinology and nutrition. She achieved both bachelor's and master's degrees and then, in 1964, earned a PhD. Donald Harris, Kamala's father, came to America from Jamaica in 1961. He got his PhD in economics in 1966 and then taught that subject at Stanford University for many years.

Kamala Harris attended school in Berkeley for a time. She had a younger sister, Maya, and they moved with their mother to Montreal in 1978, their parents having divorced five years earlier. Her mother went to work at Jewish General Hospital, which was affiliated with McGill University, and became known for her work in breast cancer research. Kamala graduated from Westmount (Quebec) High School in 1981. She attended Howard University, graduating from there in 1986 with a degree in economics and political science. The transitioned to the law by attending the University of California, Hastings College of the Law, graduating from there in 1989 and gaining admittance to the California state bar in 1990.

Harris served as deputy district attorney in California's Alameda County for a time and then, after being appointed an assistance district attorney in San Francisco, headed up that city's Career Criminal Division and established the state's Bureau of Children's Justice. She won election as San Francisco district attorney in 2004 and served two three-years terms in that position. She won election as the state's Attorney General in 2010 and served two four-year terms in that office as well.

Harris married Douglas Emhoff in 2014. He has two children, Ella and Cole.

She won election to the U.S. Senate in 2016, succeeding the retiring Barbara Boxer. A member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, she gained a high profile for interrogations for various presidential appointments. She has also served on the Budget Committee, the Governmental Affairs Committee, and the Homeland Security Committee.

Harris ran for President in 2020. She gained a high profile early in the race but did not sustain that support during her campaign and withdrew from the race. The Democratic Party nominee, Joe Biden, named her his running mate, and the two won the presidential and vice-presidential election in November.

Harris is the third woman to run for Vice-president in the general election on the ticket of one of the two major political parties. The first two were Democrat Geraldine Ferraro, who ran with Walter Mondale unsuccessfully in 1984, and Republican Sarah Palin, who ran with John McCain unsuccessfully in 2008. Hillary Clinton, in 2016, remains the only woman to be a major party's presidential nominee. She was unsuccessful.