FILE - Vice President Kamala Harris speaks in the East Room of the White House, March 18, 2024, in Washington. She’s already broken barriers, and now Harris could soon become the first Black woman to head a major party's presidential ticket after President Joe Biden’s ended his reelection bid. The 59-year-old Harris was endorsed by Biden on Sunday, July 21, after he stepped aside amid widespread concerns about the viability of his candidacy. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci, File)
From her time as a prosecutor to her term as vice president, Harris has been a strong advocate for reproductive rights and gun safety laws, pursued justice for victims of crime, and has sought to push back on growing right-wing extremism.
Before Kamala Harris was elected to be the first Black, South Asian, and female vice president of the United States, she spent nearly two decades racking up a long list of firsts and accomplishments.
She was the first Black woman to be elected as a local district attorney in California, the first woman to serve as California’s attorney general, and the first South Asian American senator.
But it’s what she did in those offices that stand out even more. And with President Joe Biden’s announcement that he’s dropping out of this year’s presidential race and endorsing Harris to replace him atop the Democratic ticket, it’s worth taking a look back at Harris’ journey as a public servant.
Kamala Harris the prosecutor and attorney general
Harris’ first experience as a public servant was as a local prosecutor, a profession she says she pursued because one of her best friends was sexually abused in high school—a horrific reality that she said pushed her to dedicate her life to protecting women and children from violence.
After passing the bar exam in 1990, Harris joined the Alameda County, California prosecutor’s office as an assistant district attorney focusing on sex crimes. During her time as a prosecutor, she pursued domestic violence perpetrators, child abusers, and sex traffickers. Harris also spent some time at the San Francisco District Attorney’s office, before deciding to run for district attorney in the city in 2003.
In 2010, she successfully ran for California Attorney General (AG), and served in the position from from 2011 to 2017. During her time as AG, Harris gained praise for her work on a range of issues.
On reproductive rights, she joined attorneys general from 13 other states in calling on the US Supreme Court to overturn a lower court ruling that significantly restricted abortion access in Texas.
“Every woman has the right to make informed choices about her health and well-being,” Harris said in 2016. “I strongly urge the Supreme Court to overturn the Fifth Circuit ruling, which undermines both public health and a woman’s right to choose.”
She secured a massive financial settlement with some of the nation’s biggest banks which were accused of illegally foreclosing on homeowners.
She also took on for-profit colleges, accusing them of saddling borrowers with an unmanageable amount of debt. She specifically sued Corinthian Colleges in 2013, accusing them of preying on low-income students. The chain ultimately shuttered all of its California schools.
She also sued multiple fossil fuel companies—such Chevron, BP, ConocoPhillips, and Phillips 66—during her time as attorney general. Harris’ actions led to nearly $50 million in settlements from lawsuits against these companies.
As AG, she also went after Mexican drug cartels, seizing tens of millions of dollars worth of meth and taking down dozens of individuals affiliated with Mexico’s Sinaloa Federation drug cartel. Harris also oversaw the seizure of more than 50 kilos of cocaine worth $5.1 million as part of a Department of Justice-led undercover operation targeting the Guadalajara Cartel.
Notably, Harris was also a strong supporter of gay marriage in 2010, before it was a consensus political position among Democrats. After becoming the state’s AG, she refused to defend Proposition 8, the state constitutional amendment approved by California voters in 2008 that took marriage rights away from California’s same-sex couples.
A lawsuit over Prop 8 ultimately made its way to the US Supreme Court which in 2013 overturned the measure, restoring gay marriage as the law of California. After the ruling, Harris immediately ordered local county clerks to begin performing marriages to comply with state law.
Harris is also well-known for her work addressing crime and gun violence as attorney general, and her office worked closely with the California Bureau of Firearms to investigate and seize firearms from those who unlawfully possess them during her time in office.
After serving as California AG, Harris was elected to the US Senate in 2016 and took office in 2017.
Harris the senator
Harris was only the second ever Black woman to serve as a US Senator, and focused on a range of issues during her time as a senator.
She sponsored bills to address housing issues and homelessness, pushed legislation to hold bad corporate actors accountable, and introduced bills to provide more benefits and protections for domestic workers and farm workers.
Harris also championed efforts to address extreme heat and the consequences of climate change, introduced legislation to advance women’s health research, worked to improve Black maternal health, and was a strong supporter of pandemic-era assistance programs for families and businesses.
Kamala Harris the vice president
As vice president, Harris has taken a leadership role on many key issues.
In the aftermath of the US Supreme Court’s decision overturning Roe v. Wade in 2022, she served as the Biden administration’s strongest defender of reproductive rights.
“Millions of women in America will go to bed tonight without access to the healthcare and reproductive care that they had this morning; without access to the same healthcare or reproductive healthcare that their mothers and grandmothers had for 50 years,” Harris said during an Illinois appearance the same day Roe was overturned.
In December, Harris announced her “Fight For Reproductive Freedoms” tour, which kicked off on January 22 of this year—the 51st anniversary of Roe v. Wade—and has seen the vice president address reproductive freedom and Republican-backed abortion bans across battleground states, including Arizona, Florida, and Nevada.
During her appearances, Harris has also taken a more direct approach in highlighting the stakes of a potential second Trump term.
“Donald Trump handpicked three members of the United States Supreme Court because he intended for them to overturn Roe. And as he intended, they did,” she told a crowd during an appearance in Florida in May. “Here’s what a second Trump term looks like: more bans, more suffering, less freedom.”
Harris even made history earlier this year when she became the first vice president to visit an abortion clinic–she toured a Planned Parenthood facility in Minnesota.
“Right now, in our country, we are facing a very serious health crisis,” Harris said at the event. “And the crisis is affecting many, many people in our country, most of whom are, frankly, silently suffering.”
Harris has also continued her work on gun violence as vice president, taking on a leadership role in addressing the issue on the federal level.
Last year, the White House announced the creation of the first-ever White House Office of Gun Violence Prevention to help address the systemic issue of gun violence in America; the office is overseen by Harris and aims to coordinate efforts across federal agencies to advance and implement gun safety measures.
Harris also worked closely with President Biden in 2022 to pass the Bipartisan Safer Communities Act, the most significant gun violence prevention legislation in nearly 30 years.
Harris the likely 2024 Democratic nominee for president
Democrats will still need to nominate Harris at the upcoming convention, and it’s possible delegates could look to other candidates, but most experts think it’s unlikely that others would seek the nomination and try to bypass Harris.
As for how she’ll campaign against Trump, it’s likely Harris will continue to hit the campaign trail as aggressively as she has in recent months, championing reproductive rights, efforts to lower costs, and protecting democracy, while also speaking out against right-wing extremism and painting a stark contrast between herself and Trump.
Harris may have previewed how she might approach her campaign against Trump during a speech in North Carolina last week, following the attempt on Trump’s life earlier this month. In the aftermath of the shooting, many Republicans issued vague calls for unity, while simultaneously continuing their push to restrict abortion access, deport up to 15 million Americans, and target LGBTQ Americans.
“You cannot claim you stand for unity if you are pushing an agenda that deprives whole groups of Americans of basic freedoms, opportunities, and dignity,” she said at the event, speaking of the Republican Party.
“You cannot claim to be for unity,” she added, “if you try to overturn a free and fair election.”
