5 Things to Know About Senator Kamala Harris

California's Attorney General Kamala Harris, made history yesterday as she was chosen to represent the state as the new US Senator. Kamala is a first black politician to represent California in the Senate and the second female Black Senator since Carol Moseley Braun of Illinois who served the term from 1993 to 1999. Her win indeed is momentous considering these statistics.

Here is your guide to Kamala Harris' background:

- Kamala was born to an Indian mother and Jamaican father in Oakland. This makes her the first African-American and Asian-American to serve in the US Senate. Her sister Maya Harris is an advocate and senior policy advisor to Hillary Clinton's campaign.

- Kamala earned her political science/economics major from Howard University, Washington DC. She was on the debate team and also a member of the Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority. She also ran for being the class representative of liberal arts student council and won votes of strangers. She later earned her law degree from the University of California's Hastings College of Law in San Francisco.

- She worked in the Alameda County District Attorney’s office for eight years after she acquired her law degree and specialised in prosecuting child sexual assault cases.

-  In 2003, she was elected to be District Attorney of San Francisco where she served two terms. Following that, in 2011, she became the first woman and person of colour to be sworn in as Attorney General.

- Kamala Harris has worked on issues like criminal justice, immigration reform, equal pay policies. She has also been vocal about enacting family leaves, college affordability, climate change and also creating more good-paying jobs.

In the 2008-2012 Obama Campaign, Harris spoke at the Democratic National Convention and there were speculations about her replacing Eric Holder as the US Attorney General. Obama even proclaimed her to be "the best-looking attorney general" in the nation, for which he had to apologise later, as many saw this to be a sexist comment.

Feature Image Courtesy: Los Angeles Times