UNITED STATES—Presidential candidate Joe Biden selected former campaign contender Kamala Harris as his vice presidential nominee on Tuesday, August 11.
Biden made the announcement via Twitter at 4:17 p.m. stating:
“I have the great honor to announce that I’ve picked @KamalaHarris—a fearless fighter for the little guy, and one of the country’s finest public servants—as my running mate.”
The 55-year-old first-term senator, became one of the Democratic party’s prominent figures during her White House campaign.
Following Biden’s announcement, at 4:56 p.m., Harris tweeted, “@JoeBiden can unify then American people because he’s spent his life fighting for us. And as President, he’ll build an American that lives up to our ideals. I’m honored to join him as our party’s nominee for Vice President, and do what it takes to make him our Commander-in-Chief.”
Harris and Biden have planned to deliver remarks on Wednesday, August 12, in Wilmington, North Carolina.
Harris won her first state election in 2003 when she became San Francisco District Attorney. In 2010, she was elected to serve as California’s attorney general. She held the position at the same time Biden’s late son Beau served as the attorney general in Delaware.
As California’s attorney general, Harris centered her work around issues such as the foreclosure crisis. She is also known for not supporting the state’s Proposition 9, banning same-sex marriage, which was overturned by the Supreme Court.
In 2016, she was elected to the U.S. Senate, and, in early 2019, she launched her presidential campaign.
During a debate on June 27, 2019, Harris claimed Biden made “very hurtful” comments about his work with segregationist senators, and she mentioned his opposition to the integration of schools through busing in the 1970s.
“There was a little girl in California who was a part of the second class to integrate her public schools, and she was bused to school every day, and that little girl was me,” said Harris.
Biden claimed her comments were “a mischaracterization of [his] position.”
Harris withdrew from the race two months before the first primary in December 2019. She noted at an event for Biden earlier this summer that “Joe has empathy, he has a proven track record of leadership and more than ever before we need a president of the United States who understands who the people are, sees them where they are, and has a genuine desire to help and knows how to fight to get us where we need to be.”
In March, Biden announced his pledge to select a woman as his running mate. His shortlist of candidates included Massachusetts Senator Elizabeth Warren, Florida Representative Val Demmings, California Representative Karen Bass, American Diplomat Susan Rice, and Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms.
