How Kamala Harris acquired the title of 'female Barack Obama'

Kamala Harris announcing her candidature for president has evoked considerable excitement. The Indian-American community has reasons to rejoice with Harris' announcement. But, Harris often identifies herself as black owing to her Jamaican roots. The daughter of an Indian mother and a Jamaican father, Harris, has steadily moved up in ranks since her time at the San Francisco District Attorney's office in the 1990s. She became San Francisco's District Attorney in 2004. Then She was elected as California Attorney General in 2010 and was re-elected to the post in 2014.

Harris, has supported the cause of Dreamers and been for gun control. “My entire career has been focused on keeping people safe,” Harris said. She has also been pro legalizing recreational marijuana and for single-payer health care, which will be funded by taxes and employer premiums. In November 2016, Harris, a Democrat, ran for the Senate and beat Loretta Sanchez to become the third female from California and the first of either Indian or Jamaican descent to become a Senator. For her similarities in approaching issues and being a law graduate, Harris has been dubbed as a female Obama. Late journalist Gwen Ifill called Harris “the female Barack Obama” on the Late Show With David Letterman. Tony Pinto, a small businessman from Willoughby, referred to Harris as “a young, female version of the president (Obama).”

Harris graduated from Howard College and studied law from Hastings Law College, University of California. She has a sister, Maya Harris who has worked as a lead policy advisor for Hillary Clinton's campaign. Maya will now be part of her sister's campaign trail. Harris was born to Tamil Indian mother Shyamala Gopalan, a breast cancer scientist and Donald Harris, an economics professor at Stanford University. Her parents divorced when she was seven, post which her mother with her sister and Kamala moved to Montreal, Québec, Canada. Kamala was close to her maternal grandfather who lived in Chennai and would visit him and their extended family on holidays.

When Harris took over as District Attorney of San Francisco, the overall rate of conviction for felony rose from 52 per cent in 2003 to 67 per cent in 2006. Harris has always been against hate crimes, especially to those against the LGBTQ community. Harris and her mother have maintained a conscious distance from the Indian-American community. It is only in recent months that she has been attending events by the community.