NEW YORK (AP) – Alleged Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden announced Tuesday that Kamala Harris will be his vice presidential candidate, marking the first time a black woman is on the price ticket for a primary American political party.
Biden called Harris, the daughter of an immigrant Indian mother and a Jamaican father, a “fearless fighter for the little one” and “one of the country’s officials” in a tweet on Tuesday.
“When Kamala was attorney general, I worked a lot with Beau. I saw the big banks attack, get staff and women and youth out of abuse,” Biden wrote in his tweet, referring to his deceased son, who was Delaware attorney general during the same position in California.
“I’m proud at the time, and now I’m proud to have you as a spouse in this campaign,” Biden said. By opting for Harris, Barack Obama’s former vice president kept his promise to elect a woman as a vice-presidential candidate.
Harris, 55, a California senator whose first call means “lotus” in Sanskrit, had in the past written down her presidential candidacy for her willingness to take over from President Donald Trump. Harris, a former fierce rival of Biden in the party primaries, has become a staunch supporter of Biden after finishing his own presidential candidacy.
“America desperately wants a strong, competent and just leader to seize the moment, take on duty and do everything imaginable for crises in our country,” Harris wrote in a tweet on Monday. “That’s why we have to choose Joe Biden on November 3.”
Harris is a newcomer to national politics. He won a seat in the United States Senate in California in 2016 after serving as the state’s attorney general for six years. His resolve to run for president in January created a wave of enthusiasm among Asian-born Americans and other minority teams in the country.
Harris, born in Oakland, California, has been praised by activists for her stance on immigration, Nikkei reported. Last year, it sent a letter to the U.S. Department of Homeland Security urging them not to revoke the employment authorization for spouses of H1-B visa holders after the Trump administration announced that it would cancel the program installed through former President Barack Obama. H1-B visas are granted to highly professional foreign workers, most of whom are from South Asia. She is also a great advocate for so-called “Dreamers”, immigrants who were brought illegally to the United States as children.
Biden and Harris are scheduled to face the public Wednesday in Delaware, the state of Biden’s home. The duo will officially settle for their nominations next week at the Democratic National Convention.
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