Vice President Kamala Harris was a shining star during the last election campaign in the USA, but her time in office has been tough.
Now the wind has turned again. The name Harris is the one that is buzzing the most in speculations about a potential successor to the president.
The pressure is great on Joe Biden. From several quarters, calls are being heard to step aside to increase the chances of the Democratic Party winning over Donald Trump in the election in November, even though the really heavy names continue to support the president.
According to Biden himself, it is only God who can convince him to leave the post, but speculations about who can take over the campaign – if he ultimately decides not to continue – are in full swing.
Vice President Kamala Harris would, according to several opinion polls, have a better chance of winning over Donald Trump than Joe Biden has. But the recent discussions about her potentially becoming a presidential candidate also involve pure practicalities. As Biden's running mate, she has the unique advantage of having access to most of the 240 million dollars that the re-election campaign has at its disposal. She has also, over the years, built a large network of contacts and become a well-known face in international contexts.
Loyal Chief
When Kamala Harris became Biden's vice presidential candidate ahead of the 2020 election, expectations of her were sky-high. Then support decreased, among other things, after conflicts and high staff turnover in the vice president's staff. Critics have described her as invisible. She has also had the unenviable task of handling migration at the border with Mexico.
It was the televised debate between Biden and the Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump at the end of June that became the starting point for the sharp criticism of Biden. Since then, Vice President Harris has consistently come to the president's defense, and her loyalty to her boss may be a reason why support for her has increased, even from people who were previously skeptical, according to sources for Bloomberg.
Abortion Rights and Gun Violence
Over the past year, Kamala Harris has managed to strengthen her position, among other things, through her stance on abortion rights and gun violence.
She has so far avoided answering questions about whether she is ready to take over the presidency by defending Biden in all contexts. To
, she said earlier this week that she is proud to be the president's running mate.Joe Biden is our candidate. We beat Trump once and we'll beat him again. Period.
Kamala Harris was born in 1964 in Oakland, California, where she also grew up.
After living in Canada for a while, Harris studied political science and economics at Howard University in Washington DC and then earned a law degree from the University of California in 1989. She worked as a prosecutor in her home state before being appointed as the state's top legal officer, equivalent to the Minister of Justice, a post she held until she became a senator for California in 2017.
Since January 20, 2021, she has been the Vice President of the United States.
Kamala Harris' father is from Jamaica and her mother is from India.
American media have described Harris as progressive. She performed the first same-sex wedding when such marriages became legal in 2013, and she has argued for "sensible" gun laws.
Married to lawyer Douglas Emhoff.
