After a long selection process and months of vetting, Joe Biden announced on Tuesday afternoon that California Senator Kamala Harris would be his running mate for the Democratic ticket in the 2020 presidential election.

Senator Harris, who was briefly an opponent of Biden during the primaries, was among a few finalists. 

Harris is making history, as the first Black woman and first South Asian American woman to be on a major party’s presidential ticket. She is also only the third female vice presidential candidate of a major party, after Geraldine Ferraro in 1984, and Sarah Palin in 2008.

But just who is Kamala Harris?

Kamala Harris is currently the junior United States senator of California, and has been since 2017. Before that, she served as Attorney General for California, and before that, she was a district attorney for San Francisco. 

Senator Harris is biracial, having an immigrant mother from India, and a Jamaican immigrant father. 

Harris, despite only being in her senate office for under 4 years, has garnered national attention for her tough questioning of several key Trump administration officials. These included then-Attorney General Jeff Sessions, current Attorney General William Barr, and Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh. 

Harris ran against Biden in the primary, but dropped out in December 2019, citing a lack of “financial resources” to continue her campaign, but promised that “I am still very much in this fight.” And indeed she is, as she is now making history, and will be a large part of what some have called “the most important election in our lifetime”

This November, the Biden-Harris Democratic presidential ticket will be up against incumbent Republican President Donald Trump, and his vice president, Mike Pence.

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