President Barack Obama has recently endorsed California attorney general Kamala Harris in the California senate race. Why should we be interested in that you might ask? Well, Kamala Harris is the first female attorney general of California. Further more, she is also the first Indian-American, and first African-American woman to hold that post. While endorsing her Obama mentioned that Harris is a “lifelong courtroom prosecutor with only one client i.e. people of California."
“Kamala's experience has taught her that if you're going to give everybody a fair shot, you've got to take on the special interests that too often stand in the way of progress," said Obama about Harris.
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Obama is second after Vice President Joe Biden to endorse Harris. She has full support from the White House in a state with a strong democratic hold.
Here are a few things that you must know about this Indian origin prosecutor:
- Apart from Obama and Biden, Harris has earlier been endorsed by Gov. Jerry Brown and Massachusetts Senator Elizabeth Warren, a star of the party's liberal wing, which makes her a front-runner for the November election. This gives her a clear edge over Loretta Sanchez, the other candidate in the running.
- Obama had to once apologise to Harris for calling her the best-looking attorney general in America in 2013. Since then they have been close friends and allies.
- Even in the primary elections, Kamala was voted with 40% votes while Loretta came second with less than half percentage with 16% votes while the other candidates comprising mostly republicans did not stand a chance to go for November elections.
- The story behind her being half Indian is that she was born in Oakland, California to an Indian origin lady Dr. Shyamala Gopalan Harris who is a breast cancer specialist. Her father is a Jamaican American, Donald Harris who is a professor at the Stanford University. She also has a younger sister named Maya.
- 51-year-old Harris has been the Attorney General of California since 2011. She is the first female African American and Indian American attorney general of California.
- There are a few issues that Harris is very vocal about like gun control and death penalty. She has said that she will treat each case individually wherein a death penalty seems to be the only punishment.
Feature Image Credit: NBC News