A prosecutor judged harsh in her decisions, then a charismatic senator, the Californian Kamala Harris is the first black woman to appear on a presidential ticket.
Kamala Harris is the first African-American woman on a presidential ticket, Democrat or Republican. In the event of victory, she would become the first woman at all to hold the office of vice president. This has never happened in the United States.
At 55, the daughter of a Jamaican immigrant and a Kouli (Indian) mother from Martinique, she grew up in northern California where she worked her way up as an attorney general, a kind of attorney general of the Golden State. She became a senator in 2016. While she is the only black woman in the upper house, her firmness in congressional hearings – often televised – gave her national visibility.
It should be noted that in 2019 California gained fifth place in the list of the world’s largest economies. The U.S. state has managed to surpass Great Britain in terms of GDP. The “Golden State” boasts of being ahead of large countries such as France, Italy and Spain. Its former Minister of Justice is therefore an experienced woman who held important positions at the head of a ministerial department in a powerful state.
But as the daughter of poor immigrants who had been educated on coal and merit, she explicitly embodies the American dream.