Kamala Harris: History made as first woman elected US Vice President
After 45 administrations and 231 years, a woman will finally enter the White House as Vice President, with the 2020 US Election called for the Joe Biden Kamala Harris presidential ticket.
The call was made in the early hours of Sunday morning by networks including CNN, ABC, Fox News and others, with thousands of people taking to the streets to celebrate in cities across the United States.
The win will see Joe Biden sworn in as the 46th President in January 2021, along with Kamala Harris as Vice President.
Harris became one of only a small number of women to ever join a presidential ticket when Biden announced her as his running mate earlier this year. She is the first Black and the first South Asian vice president-elect.
Harris shared a video of her call with Biden as the announcement was made.
“We did it,” she said. “We did it, Joe. You’re going to be the next president of the United States.”
The first woman to run for President, Hillary Clinton, tweeted that it’s a history-making ticket and a “repudiation of Trump.”
We did it, @JoeBiden. pic.twitter.com/oCgeylsjB4
— Kamala Harris (@KamalaHarris) November 7, 2020
Harris is yet to officially speak at the time of publishing, but did release a tweet saying: “This election is about so much more than Joe Biden or me”.
“It’s about the soul of America and our willingness to fight for it. We have a lot of work ahead of us. Let’s get started.”
She has updated her Twitter profile to read: “Vice President-Elect of the United States. Senator, Wife, Momala, Auntie. Fighting for the people. She/her.”
The victory comes after days of counting votes in key states, as well as the most divisive race in US history.
Trump has not conceded defeat, but that’s not necessary for Biden and Harris to take office.
Harris left the race for the Democratic nomination in December 2019.
She was elected to the California Senate in 2016 and has spent 26 years in the criminal justice system as a prosecutor, including as district attorney in San Francisco. She has broken numerous first in both her legal and political career.
Both her parents were immigrants, arriving in the US to better their professional career. Her mother, Shyamala Gopalan, was a a breast-cancer scientist who had emigrated from India to focus on nutrition and endocrinology at UC Berkeley.
In her 2018 autobiography, The Truths We Hold, Harris said her mother, “understood very well she was raising two black daughters.”
.@JoeBiden and I are ready to get to work on behalf of the American people. pic.twitter.com/dMVaWbcxHV
— Kamala Harris (@KamalaHarris) November 7, 2020
During Harris’ speech at the Democratic National Convention back in August, she said: “That I am here tonight is a testament to the dedication of generations before me.”
“Women and men who believed so fiercely in the promise of equality, liberty and justice for all.”
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