Explainer | Kamala Harris: biography, net worth, husband Douglas Emhoff and path to vice-presidency
- Kamala Harris has broken barriers as America’s first female vice-president
- Senator from California has a track record of shattering glass ceilings
Kamala Harris made history with her election as Joe Biden’s vice-president, becoming the first woman, first black American and first Asian-American to win the second highest US office. Here’s what we know about her.
Biography
Kamala Harris, 56, was born on October 20, 1964 in Oakland, California to immigrants to the United States. Her father Donald Harris came from Jamaica and her mother Shyamala Gopalan came from India.
Her parents met as doctoral students at the University of California, Berkeley at the dawn of the 1960s.
They were two freethinking young people drawn to activism. Later, even with young children, the duo continued their advocacy. As a little girl, Harris says she remembers an energetic sea of moving legs and the cacophony of chants as her parents made their way to marches.
But the marriage did not last, meaning that Kamala and her younger sister, Maya, grew up largely with their mother and absorbed her Indian culture.
Though a decade has passed since Harris’s mother died, she remained a force in her daughter’s life and her White House bid. Harris has often spoken of the deep bond she shared with her mother, whom she has called her single biggest influence.
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She said her mother gave her an early grounding in the civil rights movement and injected in her a duty not to complain but rather to act.
Harris has been widely described as a church-goer and a person of Christian faith, and was raised in a household that was tolerant of both Hindu and Christian religious practices.
Her given name “Kamala Devi” means “the goddess Kamala” – one of the many names of the Hindu goddess of wealth, Lakshmi. And “Kamala” itself means “she of the lotus” in Sanskrit.
Harris has herself recounted how, when running for election as California’s attorney general she asked her aunt in India to break 108 coconuts – an auspicious Hindu ritual – at a local temple.
Husband
Harris and Emhoff married in 2014 (her first and his second), a year after meeting on a blind date.
Emhoff is still good friends with film producer ex Kerstin Emhoff, who is close friends with Harris, who, in turn, is adored by her 20-something stepchildren, Cole and Ella Emhoff, who call her “Momala”.
Emhoff is a partner at DLA Piper law firm, where he “represents large domestic and international corporations and some of today’s highest profile individuals and influencers in complex business, real estate and intellectual property litigation disputes”.
Emhoff took a leave from DLA Piper to campaign full time, and, according to a Biden-Harris spokesperson, “is not resuming his private law practice at the firm”.
Emhoff was credited as a “secret weapon” on the campaign trail for his wife – even earning his own following on social media.
The contours of Emhoff’s new role as the nation’s second gentleman have yet to be determined; he has been vague about his plans so far.
Traditionally, the spouses of presidents and vice-presidents have been expected to forge a careful balance of supportiveness and independence. Many pick a charitable cause to promote.
The 56-year-old has talked about building a second gentleman platform helping people access legal services, or focusing on pro bono work.
Emhoff, incidentally, shares one thing with Donald Trump: both are avid golfers.
Wealth
Before joining Biden on his 2020 ticket, Harris spent 16 years working in politics – serving first district attorney of San Francisco and then attorney general of California before entering the US Senate.
And along the way Harris and her husband amassed a collection of homes – with The Wall Street Journal estimating the couple’s combined property portfolio worth some US$8 million. Fortune estimated the couple’s net worth at US$6.3 million, based on Harris’ 2020 Senate disclosure form.
They have lived in Brentwood, Los Angeles, in a house that Emhoff bought in 2012 and that has since been transferred to a trust, according to the Journal.
According to online US real estate database Zillow, the property has four bedrooms and four-and-a-half bathrooms. The off-market listing says the home sits on 3,500 sq ft and estimates its value to be around US$5.4 million.
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Additionally, Harris and Emhoff own a condo in the West End neighbourhood of Washington. Harris bought the two-bedroom property for US$1.7 million in 2017, the same year she joined the Senate.
In 2019, Harris and her husband reported a total income of about US$2 million in their 2018 federal tax return, according to a large release of filings.
They listed an adjusted gross income of US$1.89 million, including Harris’ Senate salary and US$320,000 she made from writing a book, The Truths We Hold. In 2018, they paid US$563,426 in federal taxes and donated US$27,000 to charity.
If Mike Pence’s salary is any indication, Harris will be paid at least US$230,000 a year as vice-president.
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Politics
On January 20, 2021 Harris becomes the first woman and the first person of colour to be a heartbeat away from the US presidency – and will fill the role in some untraditional ways
Harris will immediately become the unofficial front-runner to succeed Biden, who will be 78 when he’s sworn into office. That means she’ll also be a president-in-training.
Harris was San Francisco’s top prosecutor for six years, and California attorney general for six years.
Her stint as attorney general also helped her forge a connection with Biden’s son Beau, who held the same position in the state of Delaware, and died of cancer at the age of 46 in 2015.
Harris, a senator since 2017, gained national attention for embracing the new, more aggressive style when she sharply questioned Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh in 2018.
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Experts said she understands the often hard-to-follow ways of the US Senate, and since she’ll be Senate president, with an office and a 51st vote if needed, she’ll be an important force.
Befitting her background as a prosecutor, she was a deft cross-examiner of US Supreme Court Justice Amy Coney Barrett at Barrett’s Senate confirmation hearing in October, weaving Biden’s campaign message on health care and climate change into her line of questioning.
Prior to her selection, several Biden aides say that Harris was able to put to rest concerns among some in the former vice-president’s camp that she would be too personally ambitious to make a trustworthy partner. Biden has pledged that Harris would be the last person in the room on key matters.
Harris is widely seen as an obvious candidate for the Democratic Party nomination in 2024 should Biden decide not to seek a second term. She hasn’t weighed in publicly on such speculation.
Reuters, Agence France-Presse, Tribune News Service, Business Insider, Politico
