Senator Kamala Harris, a former California attorney general and San Francisco district attorney who was elected to the Senate two years ago, officially launched her campaign for president today (Monday, January 21, 2019.
Harris, the first African-American to enter the 2020 presidential race and the first black senator from California, made the announcement on ABC’s “Good Morning America.” She simultaneously released a video teasing the formal start of her campaign at a rally on January 20 in Oakland, California, Harris’ birthplace and the city that cultivated her political rise.
It appears that Harris is following the route to the presidency as did then Senator Barak Obama, who was later elected president in 2008. The 100 Collegiate Women of America predicted this move back in 2016 upon her election to the Senate.
Harris is the second Black woman to make this move since Congresswoman Shirley Chisholm launched her run for the presidency following four after her election in 1968 as the first Black woman elected to the United States Congress. The question now is America ready for the first Black woman to become president? Can she amass the following and the money for such an ambitious run for office.
Born in Oakland, California, Harris graduated from Howard University and the University of California, Hastings College of the Law. She began her career in the Alameda County District Attorney's Office, before being recruited to the San Francisco District Attorney's Office and later the City Attorney of San Francisco's office. In 2003, she was elected district attorney of San Francisco. She was elected Attorney General of California in 2010 and re-elected in 2014. Harris has served as the junior United States senator from California since 2017.
Harris defeated Loretta Sanchez in the 2016 Senate election to become the second African American woman and the first South Asian American to serve in the United States Senate. As a senator, she has advocated for healthcare reform, federal descheduling of cannabis, a path to citizenship for undocumented immigrants, the DREAM Act, a ban on assault weapons, and progressive tax reform. She gained a national profile for her pointed questioning of Trump administration officials during Senate hearings, including Trump's second Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh, who was accused of sexual assault.