Kamala Harris’s elevation as first female Vice President breaks gender, race Barriers
The daughter of Indian and Jamaican immigrants will serve as a counsellor to President Biden and as tie-breaker in an evenly divided Senate.
Kamala Harris made history as the first woman to be sworn in as vice president, alongside her husband, Doug Emhoff, who will become the first second gentleman.
Ms Harris, the daughter of Indian and Jamaican immigrants, will also be the first black vice president and first of Indian descent. In her role, she will serve as a counsellor to President Joe Biden and as the tie-breaker in an evenly divided Senate.
Ms Harris, 56 years old, was sworn in on two Bibles: one that belonged to Regina Shelton, whom Ms. Harris considers a second mother, and one that belonged to Justice Thurgood Marshall, the first Black Supreme Court justice, who inspired Ms. Harris to pursue law. Ms Harris also used Ms Shelton’s Bible when she was sworn in as California’s attorney general and US senator. Ms Shelton helped take care of Ms Harris and her sister while their mother worked when they were growing up.
Justice Sonia Sotomayor, the first Hispanic Supreme Court Justice, was selected by Ms Harris to officiate her swearing-in ceremony. She was escorted inside the Capitol by U.S. Capitol Police Officer Eugene Goodman, a Black officer who redirected a mostly white mob away from politicians as they were being evacuated during the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol.
For some in attendance, watching Ms Harris’s historic achievement was personal. “It’s a momentous day that we have a vice president who is South Asian and Black,” said Neera Tanden, Mr. Biden’s nominee to lead the Office of Management and Budget. “I never thought I would see the day that the daughter of an Indian immigrant could become vice president and will allow daughters like mine to expand the horizons of what they think is possible.” Ms Tanden was nominated to serve in Mr. Biden’s cabinet in December. If confirmed, she would be the first woman of colour and first South Asian American to lead the OMB.
Women from Ms Harris’s sorority, Alpha Kappa Alpha, cheered her on from their homes.
In Nashville, Tennesee, Glenda Glover, president of the sorority, turned on the television at 4:30am. Wednesday so she wouldn’t miss a moment of the inauguration. She wore the organisation’s signature “pink and pearls” and asked the group’s 300,000 members to do the same in a proclamation naming Wednesday as Kamala Harris Day.
“It was a proud moment,” she said. “It’s just knowing that our ancestors are smiling in heaven because they dreamed of this day when they would see a Black woman in the second seat of power in this country.” On her first day as vice president, Ms Harris accompanied Mr. Biden, first lady Jill Biden and three former presidents to Arlington National Cemetery to lay a wreath at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier.
Ms Harris walked into the Eisenhower Executive Office Building in the White House complex, where her office is located, Wednesday afternoon. She later returned to the Capitol to a big round of applause from her former colleagues to swear in three Democratic senators: Alex Padilla, the former California secretary of state who will take Ms Harris’s seat, and documentary filmmaker Jon Ossoff and the Rev. Raphael Warnock, who recently won run-off races in Georgia.
Ms Harris laughed as she read her own name ahead of Mr Padilla’s swearing in as the reason for his appointment. “That was very weird,” she said.
Mr Warnock, the pastor of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.’s former church in Atlanta, also made history Wednesday as the first black senator from Georgia. Mr Padilla will be the first Hispanic senator from California.
With the additions to the Senate and Ms Harris sworn in as vice president, Democrats now have the majority in the chamber. Presiding over the Senate, Ms Harris referred to now-former Democratic leader Senator Chuck Schumer of New York by his new title: majority leader.
Ms Harris is to deliver brief remarks at the Lincoln Memorial in the evening and watch a fireworks show with family and friends.
The California Democrat, who officially resigned from her Senate seat Monday, is expected to model her vice presidency after Mr Biden’s during President Barack Obama’s administration, according to her aides. Ms Harris will have a broad but undefined portfolio of responsibilities, they said. Both Mr Biden and Ms Harris have said she would be a full partner to the president.
An evenly split Senate, which has only happened three other times in U.S. history, will add to Ms Harris’s historic role as she will cast any tiebreaking votes. Ms Harris’s aides have said the vice president doesn’t want to have to break ties and that the new administration will look for bipartisan support for its legislative agenda to avoid such votes.
Ms Harris grew up in Berkeley, California, and was raised by a single mother who had immigrated from India at the age of 19. Before their divorce, Ms Harris’s parents were active in the civil-rights movement and participated in marches and sit-ins. In speeches, she has spoken of the influence her “family of fighters” had on her career.
She became the first woman to serve as California’s attorney general and was elected in 2016 to the Senate, where she became known for her tough questioning of Trump administration nominees who came before the Judiciary Committee.
Ms Harris was one of a record number of women who ran for the Democratic nomination for president last year. But she struggled to gain traction with voters and dropped out before the primaries started. In August, Mr Biden announced her as his running mate.
Residents of Ms Harris’s hometown applauded the new administration on Wednesday.
“This is a good day for this country,” said Nate Smith, walking his dog around Lake Merritt in Oakland, California.
“That’s just like a dream come true,” Mr Smith continued. “The trailblazers, the Shirley Chisholms, the Rosa Parks, the Coretta Scott Kings back to Harriet Tubman … if they could see this moment, I’m sure if they are up in heaven they are smiling down on us, and they are saying: ‘Go, girl, go.’ ”
Dow Jones Newswires
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