Will she break the final glass ceiling? Vice President Kamala Harris, who received the support of Joe Biden after announcing Sunday that she was withdrawing from the race for the White House, could write a new page in American history.
She has already done so by becoming in January 2021 the first woman, the first African-American and the first person of Asian origin to accede to the vice presidency.
“She has shattered one glass ceiling after another,” Joe Biden noted in March 2023.
The vice president, now 59, often talks about demonstrating for civil rights as a child, alongside her Jamaican father, an economics professor, and her Indian mother, a breast cancer researcher.
It was also from her childhood that she drew the memory that revealed her during a Democratic primary debate in 2019.
The “little girl” on the bus
The Oakland, California, native had harshly attacked a certain Joe Biden over his past opposition to a racial desegregation policy that consisted of busing some children to distant schools, from which she had benefited.
“The little girl (on the bus) was me,” she said.
This notable outing did not save a failed campaign, interrupted even before the first primary vote.
Joe Biden then invited her onto his ticket, exposing her to attacks from his Republican opponent Donald Trump.
In 2020, the former president called the Democrat a “monster” and an “angry woman,” terms that reference racist stereotypes of black women.
After a disastrous debate between Joe Biden and Donald Trump on June 27, 2024, the 78-year-old billionaire, anticipating a withdrawal of the American president, relaunched his attacks.
Always looking for mocking nicknames for his opponents, he began calling her “Kamala the hilarious” (“Laffin’Kamala”), in reference to her thunderous laugh, while his campaign team began to describe her as an inveterate leftist.
A graduate of Howard University, founded in Washington to welcome African-American students in the midst of segregation, Kamala Harris is proud of her career, which is emblematic of the American dream.
“How dare they?”
After two terms as prosecutor in San Francisco (2004-2011), she was elected twice as attorney general of California (2011-2017), becoming the first woman and the first black person to lead the judicial services of the most populous state in the country.
She has been criticised for her harsh crackdown on petty crime, which her opponents say has particularly affected minorities.
In January 2017, she was sworn into the Senate in Washington, where she became the first South Asian woman and only the second black senator in history.
Elected vice president, she dedicated her victory speech to the “little girls” of America.
In 2022, Kamala Harris fervently defended the right to abortion, which was challenged by the Supreme Court.
“Some Republican leaders are trying to use the law against women. How dare they? How dare they tell a woman what she can and cannot do with her own body?” she protested in March 2003.
This strong statement, and the energetic campaign led by Kamala Harris for a year across the country, have relaunched it.
Occupying an inherently thankless position, Kamala Harris also made missteps early in her term on sensitive issues of diplomacy and immigration.
“Second Gentleman”
The American press has sometimes judged her to lack stature – something her supporters also explain by sexist bias.
Vogue magazine had to defend itself for having chosen, shortly after the election, a photo of the vice president in sneakers for its cover, rather than a more formal portrait, which would have placed more emphasis on her role.
The main person concerned, however, takes care to cultivate a relaxed image, helped in this by her partner Doug Emhoff, for whom America has had to get used to the title of “Second Gentleman”.
This friendly-looking lawyer is also the first Jew in this role. He has been one of the White House’s major relays in the fight against anti-Semitism.
On social media, the couple pretends to argue about basketball, for example: he is a fan of the Los Angeles Lakers, she of the San Francisco Warriors.
Kamala Harris, nicknamed “Momala” in her blended family, is also a cooking enthusiast. During an official trip to Paris, she quickly escaped to buy copper pans.
