Washington: More than a decade ago, a journalist called Kamala Harris the 'female Obama'. However, Kamala Harris, the daughter of an Indian and Jamaican immigrant couple, failed to match the achievements of the first African-American president, Barack Obama. Harris failed to reach the top position in American politics and lost the presidential race to her Republican rival Donald Trump.

The Democratic leader's defeat to Trump in a closely fought election also dashed her dream of becoming the first woman president of the US. However, her nomination has generated enthusiasm among women that the door to public life is not closed for them.

Harris also has many other 'first' achievements to her name. She has been the District Attorney of San Francisco. She was the first woman, the first African-American and the first person of Indian origin to be elected to this post.

The first woman to become the US Vice President

As vice president, she is the first woman to hold this position. Also, she is the first African-American or Indian-American person to reach this position. In an article published three days before the presidential election, Harris recalled her childhood visits to India and remembered her late mother Shyamala Gopalan, who was a cancer researcher and civil rights activist.

"Growing up, my mother taught me and my sister to respect our heritage. Almost every other year we would go to India for Diwali. We would spend time with our grandparents, uncles and our aunts," Harris said in an article for the online South Asian publication The Juggernaut.

Kamala Harris is compared to the country's first black president Barack Obama. She is considered close to Obama, who supported her in various elections. These include the US Senate in 2016, the Vice President in 2020 and the Presidential election in 2024.

Son of a black father and an Indian mother

Kamala Harris is the child of immigrant parents - a black father and an Indian mother. Her father Donald Harris is from Jamaica and her mother Shyamala Gopalan came to the US from Chennai in 1958. However, she defines herself as American. Harris was born in Oakland and grew up in Berkeley. She spent her high school years in French-speaking Canada while her mother taught at McGill University in Montreal.

Harris was raised primarily by her mother after her parents divorced. She says her mother embraced black culture and inculcated it in her two daughters—Kamala and her younger sister Maya. She attended college in the US and spent four years at Howard University, Washington.

Started my career in Attorney Office

She earned her law degree from the University of California, Hastings and began her career at the Alameda County District Attorney's Office. Harris has been married to attorney Douglas Emhoff for the past 10 years. She is stepmom to two children, Ella and Cole, who are her endless source of love and pure joy.