Skip to content
Read • Question • ConnectAnthony’s notes & researchReturn with a new question
Anthony’s NotesA personal field guide
From the notebook

Kamala Harris

Biography

Timeline

Early Life and Education

  • 1964: Kamala Devi Harris is born on October 20 in Oakland, California.
  • 1982-1986: Attends Howard University, earning a B.A. in Political Science and Economics.
  • 1986-1989: Attends University of California, Hastings College of the Law, earning a J.D.
  • 1990: Admitted to the California Bar and begins working as a deputy district attorney in Alameda County, California.
  • 1998: Recruited by San Francisco District Attorney Terence Hallinan as an assistant district attorney, later becoming chief of the Career Criminal Division.
  • 2000: Appointed chief of the Community and Neighborhood Division in the San Francisco City Attorney’s Office.

Political Career

  • 2003: Elected District Attorney of San Francisco, becoming the first person of color to hold the position.
  • 2007: Re-elected as District Attorney of San Francisco.
  • 2010: Elected Attorney General of California, the first woman, first African American, and first South Asian to hold the position.
  • 2014: Re-elected as Attorney General of California.

U.S. Senate

  • 2016: Elected U.S. Senator from California, becoming the second African American woman and the first South Asian American to serve in the Senate.
  • 2017-2021: Serves as a U.S. Senator, advocating for gun control, healthcare reform, and immigration reform.

Vice Presidency

  • 2019: Announces candidacy for the 2020 U.S. presidential election but withdraws in December.
  • 2020: Selected as Joe Biden’s running mate for the 2020 presidential election.
  • 2021: Sworn in as the 49th Vice President of the United States on January 20, becoming the first female, first African American, and first Asian American Vice President.

2024 Presidential Campaign

  • 2024: Launches her campaign for the U.S. presidency following President Joe Biden’s decision not to seek re-election[1][2][3][4][5][6][7][8].

This timeline highlights Kamala Harris’s significant achievements and milestones, showcasing her trailblazing career in public service.

Time as a DA

2020 Election

  • Inability to keep momentum
  • No command of details or evidence
  • Unlikable
  • Uncontrollable laughter
  • Weird moments, cringe
  • Staff turnover
  • “She has proved to be an uneven campaigner who changes her message and tactics to little effect and has a staff torn into factions.” NYTimes

Political Positions

Abortion

Climate Change

Constitution

Economy

Energy

Foreign Policy

  • Won’t watch Netanyahu speech in Congress
  • she vowed the U.S. would support Ukraine’s fight for “as long as it takes.” link
  • Russia-Ukraine War
  • Iran Nuclear Deal
    • Harris has also lamented the U.S. withdrawal from the 2013 Iran deal, offering a glimpse of potential cooperation with Russia, one of the key supporters of the agreement. “We were in the Iran nuclear deal with friends and allies around the world,” she stated in the CFR interview, “and because of Donald Trump’s unilateral approach to foreign policy, coupled with his isolationism, he pulled us out and has made America less safe.” Russia’s ambassador to the UN, Vassily Nebenzia, concurred, calling Trump’s view of the Iran deal “absurd.” Viewed from this vantage point, it is logical to assume that Harris will take a much more strategic stance on the international security architecture compared to the Trump administration’s disruptive, revisionist policies. link
  • Israel
    • A look at Kamala Harris’ work on foreign policy as vice president - CBS News
      • In a briefing in December 2023, Harris said that “as Israel pursues its military objectives in Gaza, we believe Israel must do more to protect innocent civilians.”
      • She said that she and the president remained committed to the goal of a two-state solution.
      • “When this conflict ends, Hamas cannot control Gaza, and Israel must be secure. Palestinians need a hopeful political horizon, economic opportunity and freedom. And the region, more broadly, must be integrated and prosperous. And we must — we must work toward that vision,” Harris said.
      • Josh Paul, a former director at the U.S. State Department’s Bureau of Political Military Affairs, told CBS News on Monday that Harris could look to distinguish herself at least slightly from Mr. Biden’s policy toward Israel. Paul resigned in October over the Biden administration’s decision to continue providing Israel with weapons as it launched military operations in Gaza.
      • He said Harris had been “the first and often the loudest voice within the Biden administration talking about the need for a cease-fire, talking about Palestinian humanitarian issues and, frankly, humanizing the Palestinians,” adding that he believed there was “room for some degree of optimism that as president, she will take a different path.”
      • “I certainly wouldn’t expect a Harris administration to walk away, in any way, from the U.S.’, you know, ironclad support for Israel,” he said.
      • Young Americans protesting Israel’s war against the Hamas terror group in Gaza are “showing exactly what the human emotion should be,” Harris said in an interview with the left-wing magazine The Nation, an excerpt of which was published on Monday. link
    • Vice President Harris’ stepdaughter urged her social media followers to donate to U.N. agency accused of aiding Hamas – The Forward
    • Harris claimed Rev. Al Sharpton, who has a history of inciting race riots and anti-Jewish pogroms, has “spent his life fighting for what’s right and working to improve our nation.” She also spoke at a summit with ties to the former Women’s March Chair Tamika Mallory, who stepped down after praising Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan.

Gun Control

Health Care

Immigration

  • Free Health Care for Illegal Immigrants link
    • single-payer federal health-care plan and did not equivocate when asked whether illegal immigrants would be covered: “Let me just be very clear about this. I am opposed to any policy that would deny in our country any human being from access to public safety, public education or public health, period.”
  • Decriminalization of Border Crossings link
    • “Let me just be very clear: we have to have a secure border. But I am in favor of saying that we’re not going to treat people who are undocumented [and] cross the borders as criminals, that is correct.” She added: “What we cannot do is have any more policy like we have under this current president that is about inhumane conduct, that is about putting babies in cages, that is about separating children from their parents and we have got to have policy that is about passing comprehensive immigration reform with a pathway toward citizenship.”
  • compared Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers to the Ku Klux Klan link
  • Harris defends not going to border: ‘And I haven’t been to Europe’
  • “I think there’s no question that we’ve got to critically re-examine ICE and its role and the way that it is being administered and the work it is doing,” she told MSNBC. “And we need to probably think about starting from scratch.” link
  • took her months to visit ground zero of the record-breaking invasion her administration incentivized.
  • The Border Patrol chiefs responsible for securing the border also confirmed that Harris never spoke with them.
  • Harris traveled thousands of miles away from the U.S. border invasion she was tasked with handling to deliver “peace and security” to the borders of Ukraine, which “is a country.”
  • 7 Hoaxes Pushed by ‘The Truths We Hold’ Author Kamala Harris
    • Harris claimed she saw “horrible” footage of Border Patrol agents whipping illegal border crossers, but a U.S. Customs and Border Protection investigation found no evidence that the horseback unit used their reins to strike migrants.
    • “Forced sterilizations”

Law Enforcement

Social Issues

Tax

  • “We’ve got to increase the corporate tax rate.” link
    • Harris’ plan for a 35% corporate rate is in line with her repeated threats to fully repeal the 2017 Trump tax cuts.

Supreme Court

In 2019, Harris said that if she was elected president, she would be open to increasing the number of justices on the U.S. Supreme Court.

“We are on the verge of a crisis of confidence in the Supreme Court,” Harris said at the time. “We have to take this challenge head on, and everything is on the table to do that.”

On Monday, Biden released details of his proposal for changes to the Supreme Court, which called for Congress to establish term limits and an ethics code for the court’s nine justices. Harris endorsed the proposal, which didn’t recommend adding justices to the high court.

As VP

  • Harris’ Unpopularity Creates a Succession Problem for Democrats
  • Why Biden Picked her:
    • Harry Reid, the former Senate majority leader, said race had been essential to Mr. Biden’s decision. “I think he came to the conclusion that he should pick a Black woman,” Mr. Reid said. “They are our most loyal voters and I think that the Black women of America deserved a Black vice-presidential candidate.” link
    • Calls due to George Floyd
    • Obama supported
  • In charge of controlling the border
    • Biden says he is asking Harris “to lead our efforts with Mexico and the Northern Triangle, the countries that need help in stemming a movement of so many folks, of stemming the migration to our southern border.” link

Negative Talking Points

References

Scamala: Kamala Harris Unmasked | Official Trailer