Who is Kamala Harris? The new frontrunner to take on Trump in US election

Vice President Kamala Harris is likely to become the next Presidential candidate for the Democrats after Joe Biden announced he was stepping down from running for re-election.

Harris has been a firm supporter of Biden throughout the campaign and over the years, despite a disastrous debate that was aired on CNN last month.

If Harris happened to win the Democrat nomination and later Presidency, she would be the first female President and the first Black and Asian American President in the US.

But she faces low approval ratings in the US – we take a look at who Kamala Harris is below.

Who is Kamala Harris including her odds and approval ratings?

Harris first started her career at the Alameda County District Attorney’s Office and became the district attorney – the top prosecutor – for San Francisco in 2003.

She became the woman and the first black person to serve as California’s attorney general.

Harris became a well-known figure in the Democrats – rising to California’s junior US senator in 2017.

While her later presidential aims in 2020 were unsuccessful – she was picked as Biden’s VP.

Biden reflected on what her nomination meant for ‘little black and brown girls who so often feel overlooked and undervalued in their communities’.

‘Today, just maybe, they’re seeing themselves for the first time in a new way, as the stuff of presidents and vice presidents,’ he said.

Her time in the White House so far has led a nationwide ‘Fight for Reproductive Freedoms’ tour advocating for women to have the right to make decisions about their body. 

She also set a new record for the most tie-breaking votes cast by a vice president in the history of the Senate.

Harris has not been a particularly high-profile vice president across her three and a half years in the job, and she has come under criticism in the past for her handling of issues like migration at the US-Mexico border.

For most of her time in the role, more people have disapproved of her performance than approved: according to FiveThirtyEight’s poll tracker, the split is roughly 50% disapproval to 40% approval.

While polls in important swing states have suggested she is more likely to beat Donald Trump than Joe Biden was, bookies tend to favour Trump to win the November election.

Odds from before Biden exited the race suggested the Republican candidate was 4/7 to win, while Harris was 11/4.

What is Kamala Harris’s age and who is she married to?

Kamala Harris is 59-years-old and was Born in Oakland, California, to two immigrant parents.

Her Indian-born mother and Jamaican-born father divorced when she was five.

She was raised by her Hindu single mother, Shyamala Gopalan Harris, a cancer researcher and civil rights activist.

She later studied at Howard University, one of America’s top historically black colleges and universities.

Harris is married to American lawyer Doug Emhoff who she married in 2013.

She is stepmother to his two children – Cole and Ella.

What is Kamala Harris’s stance on Palestine?

Harris has told White House colleagues in the past that she wants the White House to show more concern publicly for people in Gaza.

She’s even urged Biden in the past to show more sensitivity to those impacted by the war in Palestine.

A person close to her office previously said she believes America should be ‘tougher’ on Benjamin Netanyahu; and called for him to be ‘more forceful at seeking a long-term peace and two-state solution.’

The Democrats have struggled to strike a balance between supporting Palestine and criticising Israel in the past.

Who is J.D. Vance – Trump’s running mate?

Meanwhile with the Republicans – Trump has named his running mate for the election as J.D. Vance.

Born in Middletown, Ohio, Vance was raised by his grandparents and has called his grandmother – affectionately known as ‘Mamaw’ – his ‘saving grace’.

Vance enlisted in the US Marines in 2005 and went on to serve in the Iraq War, before returning home to attend Ohio State University and Yale Law School.

He worked in venture capital for years and went on to marry his wife, Usha Chilukuri Vance, whom he shares three children with.

In 2016, Vance shot to stardom with his memoir entitled ‘Hillbilly Elegy’, documenting his life and reflecting on the hardships in rural Appalachia, where his grandparents were from. Vance, however, never lived there.

Vance then went on to run for a Senate seat in Ohio in 2022, which he won, with an endorsement from Trump.

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