After Joe Biden's withdrawal, the 59-year-old Vice President Kamala Harris is now one of the favorites to become the Democratic presidential candidate.
At the same time, she has long struggled with shaky opinion polls.
On Sunday, the news came that US President Joe Biden will not run for re-election in the presidential election this fall. The time to select a new candidate is now short – and a decision must be made at the Democratic Convention at the end of August.
The perhaps biggest favorite for the task is currently Vice President Kamala Harris. As the first female Vice President in US history, Harris has already broken several glass ceilings, and is seen in many parts of the party as the obvious successor to Biden.
At the same time, Harris is not entirely uncontroversial, and has, among other things, received criticism for being relatively anonymous in American politics. That she will ultimately be chosen as the party's presidential candidate is not entirely certain.
According to a survey conducted by the news agency AP, six out of ten Democrats believe that Harris would do a good job as president, and among Americans in general, four out of ten have a positive view of her. According to a compilation made by Forbes, it is currently more or less a dead heat between her and the Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump.
In connection with Joe Biden's announcement that he will not run for re-election, he announced that he supports Harris as the party's presidential candidate. The Trump campaign has since increased its criticism of Harris, as she has emerged as a possible opponent in the fall.
The 59-year-old Kamala Harris became only the second black woman in the US Senate when she was elected to represent California in 2016.
Harris' father is from Jamaica and her mother is from India, but she herself grew up in Oakland, northern California. After living in Canada for a time and studying at Howard University in Washington DC, she returned to her home state to work as a prosecutor.
In 2011, she was appointed Attorney General of California, a post she held until she became a senator in 2016.
Harris attacked Biden during the Democratic Party's first primary debate, but her own campaign was short-lived. After withdrawing her candidacy in December 2019, she officially backed Biden in March 2020.
Harris was a close friend of Joe Biden's late son – Beau Biden, former Attorney General of Delaware – who died of cancer in 2015.
Sources: AFP, Reuters
