Meet Kamala Harris, America’s vice president, who was endorsed by Joe Biden after he dropped his reelection bid

The goal of busing — transporting students to schools in different neighborhoods — was desegregation.

One of the most memorable moments of the 2020 Democratic presidential primary came during a debate when Harris, addressing Biden, said: “There was a little girl in California who was part of the second class to integrate her public schools, and she was bused to school every day, and that little girl was me,” before criticizing Biden’s opposition to federally mandated busing in the 1970s.

Biden responded: “I did not oppose busing in America. What I opposed is busing ordered by the Department of Education. That’s what I opposed.” 

Nellie Bowles reported for The New York Times that Harris took a bus to a predominantly white neighborhood to attend Thousand Oaks Elementary School starting in 1970 when busing was still in its early years.

The Los Angeles Times‘ Michael Finnegan reported that she prosecuted murder, rape, assault, and drug cases in her first job after law school, as a deputy district attorney for Alameda County in Oakland.

At about the same time, Harris was dating Willie Brown, then the California State Assembly speaker and the future mayor of San Francisco, the San Francisco Chronicle reported. The couple ended their relationship before Brown became mayor.

Brown wrote in the San Francisco Examiner that Harris should decline Biden’s offers to join his ticket, saying that the vice presidency often ends up being a “dead end,” The Hill reported.

Harris served as the attorney general of California for six years. During that time, she litigated against mortgage companies, for-profit colleges, and human trafficking, securing major settlements for the state.

The Washington Post‘s Matt Viser reported that President Donald Trump and Ivanka Trump donated to two of Harris’ bids for attorney general.

In her first year as attorney general, Harris supported a law signed by Republican Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger that fined parents of “chronically truant” children several thousand dollars for missing more than 10% of school without a valid excuse. The penalty also included jail time.

At the time, Julianne Hing wrote for Color Lines that it was “likely to disproportionately affect communities of color.” Harris apologized for supporting the law on a 2019 episode of “Pod Save America.”

In 2018, The New York Times columnist Nicholas Kristof called Harris a “flawed political leader” while discussing the case of Kevin Cooper, a death row inmate convicted of murder.

Kristof named Harris and then-Gov. Jerry Brown as lawmakers who didn’t allow “newly available DNA testing,” and said new DNA evidence might vindicate Cooper.

That same year, Harris said California should allow DNA testing for Cooper’s case, CBS News reported. In 2023, DNA evidence confirmed Cooper’s guilt, the San Bernardino County District Attorney’s Office said in a statement.

In the past, civil-rights groups criticized Harris’ responses to instances of police shootings, saying she needed to be stricter on excessive force by police officers, the Los Angeles Times reported. 

During her run, participants in a Business Insider poll said they viewed Harris as one of the most progressive candidates in a crowded field of Democrats.

Business Insider’s Eliza Relman previously wrote that her platform expressed support for universal paid leave, better wages for teachers, and a public option for healthcare.

On Inauguration Day in 2021, Harris was sworn in on two Bibles. One of them belonged to Thurgood Marshall, the first Black Supreme Court justice.

The other belonged to Regina Nelson, a close family friend.

“My very first decision as the party nominee in 2020 was to pick Kamala Harris as my Vice President. And it’s been the best decision I’ve made,” Biden wrote on X.

He added: “Today I want to offer my full support and endorsement for Kamala to be the nominee of our party this year. Democrats — it’s time to come together and beat Trump. Let’s do this.”

In a statement posted to X, Harris said that she was “honored to have the president’s endorsement” and declared her intention “to earn and win this nomination.”

“I will do everything in my power to unite the Democratic Party — and unite our nation — to defeat Donald Trump and his extreme Project 2025 agenda,” she wrote.

It is still unclear if Harris will officially replace Biden as the Democratic nominee, though many in the party have already come out in support of her candidacy.

Delegates will select a nominee at the Democratic National Convention, which begins on August 19.