The four-day long United States Presidential Election has finally produced a result and Democratic Candidate Joe Biden has been elected President of the United States alongside Vice President Kamala Harris. Kamala was recently inducted into the internet Hall of Fame for calling out Vice President Mike Pence for interrupting her during the Vice Presidential Debate by simply saying “I’m speaking.” America listened that day and the proof is in the polls. Before she is officially sworn in on January 20 2021, here are 19 facts you need to know about the Vice President-elect.
1. Born to a Jamaican father and Indian mother, Kamala is not only the first woman elected as Vice President, but also the first African American and Asian American Vice President in United States history.
2. Kamala’s name means “lotus” and is another name for Hindu goddess Lakshmi.
3. Her career has been defined by firsts: She was the first woman and the first person of colour to be appointed San Francisco’s district attorney and California attorney general. She was the first person of South Asian descent to be elected to Senate and only the second Black woman ever. Speaking to The New Yorker about her career so far, she shared how “Every office I’ve run for I was the first to win. First person of colour. First woman. First woman of colour. Every time.”
4. Her glass-ceiling shattering achievements were driven by her mother’s wisdom, according to Kamala’s speech at Spelman College in Georgia, USA. “My mother would look at me and she’d say, ‘Kamala, you may be the first to do many things, but make sure you are not the last.’ And that’s part of why breaking those barriers is worth it. As much as anything else, it is also to create that path for those who will come after us.”
5. Change is in her blood; her grandfather was a government official in India who fought for Indian independence and her grandmother was a women’s rights activist who educated low-income families on family planning.
6. Donald Trump donated $6,000 [Dhs22,000] to Kamala’s Attorney General re-election campaign in 2014.
7. She was considered for the Supreme Court and for Barack Obama’s Attorney General position and was the first California officeholder to endorse Obama in his 2008 presidential race.
8. She ran for president in January 2019 but withdrew after financial troubles.
9. Kamala’s sister, Maya, ran her presidential campaign.
10. She failed the bar exam the first time she took it.
11. Her fans are called the “KHive” after Beyonce’s “Beyhive.”
12. She works out every morning – SoulCycle is her favourite because it’s “like a nightclub.”
13. She starts and ends her day with a cup of tea – tea with honey and lemon in the morning and camomile in the evening.
14. Kamala collects Converse sneakers and never travels without them.
15. She also collects cookbooks and reads them to unwind at the end of the day.
16. She describes herself as a foodie because she loves to cook, and her family has a home-cooked dinner every Sunday evening.
17. Her two step-children, Cole and Ella, call her Momala.
18. She has written three books: a memoir, a non-fiction book about her career as a prosecutor and a children’s book called Superheroes Are Everywhere.
19. Some of her favourite books are The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini, The Joy Luck Club by Amy Tan and The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe by C.S Lewis.
Photos: Instagram and Twitter
