Al-Jazeera Net - Washington
Americans in general, and Democrats in particular, are awaiting the announcement of their presidential candidate, Joe Biden, about the identity of the person who will accompany him in the race, as a vice presidential candidate.
Camilla Harris, the California Democrat, tops the list of vice-presidents, accompanied by Biden, to meet Republican duo Donald Trump and Vice President Mike Pence in November.
Biden is expected to announce the identity of his deputy before the Democratic National Conference of the Democratic Party from 17 to 20 of next month.
Most Democratic experts estimate that, with Biden sweeping through all polls at the national level, there is less need for him to choose a deputy to secure him victory in one of the swing states.
These experts believe that Biden focuses not only on assessing someone who helps him as Vice President, but rather selecting a qualified candidate to lead the helm in the United States and may later become the first woman to reach the Oval Office at the White House.
A different childhood
Harris was born on October 20, 1964 in the San Francisco area to a black father from Jamaica and an Indian mother. Her father, Donald, was an economist, was studying at the prestigious Stanford University, and her mother, Shyamala, worked as a cancer researcher and obtained a PhD from the famous Berkeley University.
During her childhood, Harris went to a church for African Americans with her father, and her mother accompanied her to Hindu temples.
Her seven-year-old parents separated, and moved with her mother and her only three-year-old sister to Montreal, Canada, where her new mother's workplace is at McGill University.
As a student, Harris went to school in most of her white students, with rates exceeding 95%, until she finished her secondary education.
University
Camilla Harris grew up in a mostly white world around her, then went to a university with a large number of African Americans.
Harris wanted to get closer to the lives of African Americans, and joined the jewel of the black crown of universities in Howard, where the university is a Harvard for African Americans.
And when anyone challenges her ethnic identity as a black lady, Harris refers to her four years at Howard University. Harris then studied law at Hastings College, University of California.
Career record
Harris fought the 2020 US presidential election, withdrew early, and later announced her support for Joe Biden.
She was elected as a Senator from California in 2016, and Harris is the third female Senator from California.
Harris is famous for adopting important legislation for healthcare programs, and has a good record of helping irregular migrants obtain legal residency.
Since 1990 she has worked in the California Attorney General's Office, and in the San Francisco Prosecutor's Office.
Between 2004 and 2011, Harris served as San Francisco attorney general, and between 2011 and 2017 she served as Attorney General (Secretary of Justice) for the state of California, the largest state in the United States.
Harris and Foreign Policy
Harris's strong opposition to Trump's decision to ban entry to Muslims from several countries in January 2017 was a model of her ability to cope with political struggles, due to her previous experience as a California state prosecutor.
Harris is a member of several important Senate committees, including the Judicial and Financial Committees, as well as the Internal Security and Intelligence Committees.
Harris is known for her strong opposition to Chinese policies toward human rights, particularly regarding Uighur Muslims in the west of the country, advocating for the rights of Hong Kong residents, and opposing China's unfair trade practices.
Harris has opposed the rapprochement between Washington and Pyongyang, seeing that Trump is not qualified to deal with a sophisticated dictator like North Korean President Kim Jong Un.
Harris opposes Trump's anti-Saddam stances with NATO, as well as Trump's unjustified rapprochement with Russia and his good relations with its president, Vladimir Putin.
The relationship with Israel
Regarding peace in the Middle East, Harris is a staunch supporter of Israel and believes in a two-state solution as an equation to end the conflict.
She spoke in 2017 and 2018 at the AIPAC conference, the largest Israeli lobby in the United States. She expressed her opposition to the continued construction of Israeli settlements in the West Bank.
Harris demands that Israel's full support not be a partisan issue, and calls for full American support for Israel.
Iran
Harris endorsed the nuclear agreement signed by the administration of former President Barack Obama with Iran, and objected to the Trump administration's withdrawal from it later, and considers the need to coordinate with European allies to ensure that Iran fulfills its obligations.
Concerning Saudi Arabia, Harris adopted strict positions on the kingdom, especially after the murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi.
Harris strongly opposes the Saudi-Emirati alliance war in Yemen, and supported decisions to ban arms exports to Saudi Arabia due to the Yemen war and its human rights violations.
During that period, Harris adopted a lot of legislation to affirm the rights of children and the rights of homosexuals, criminal reform programs and demands to halt the death penalty, protect consumers and maintain privacy.
A progressive candidate?
Harris described herself as progressive during her time as a California prosecutor. While she was pushed to the left on issues such as same-sex marriage and the death penalty, she was angering liberals at times by refusing to go any further.
During her presidential campaign, Senator Harris considers herself to be able to solve problems in a practical way, and in many ways, it represents how the Democratic Party has moved to the left on a large scale, even if it remains more moderate than the party's progressive mainstream.
Harris is a close voice of America's demographic profile in which the ratio of the non-white population to the total population is rapidly increasing.
Because of her legal background, some see her as the natural opposite of President Trump, as she is someone who believes in the rule of law, and is not afraid to confront bullies, nor is she afraid to speak objectively of what it should be.
Chance to choose
Camilla Harris believes that she can attract the traditional Democratic moderates, as well as attract the supporters of the increasingly progressive stream within the party.
Some might accuse Harris of vacillating between opposing political attitudes toward the issue itself, however, her intense debating skills and strong character made her a competitor and stubborn opponent during her short period in the Senate.
Shane McCauley, a Democrat pollster, notes that Biden will choose a political figure and not choose a candidate according to her skin color or ethnic background.
It remains for Harris to convince Democratic nominee Joe Biden and his top aides that she can attract black voters, youth, and women to vote for Democrats in much greater proportions than she did during her presidential campaign.
Many experts liken Biden to choosing Harris with the cases of former President Ronald Reagan choosing his biggest opponent in the primaries, George HW Bush, as his deputy in the 1988 election race, or Bill Clinton's rival Al Gore as his deputy in the 1992 election race.
When Harris was asked about her intense attack during the first presidential debates against her opponent, Joe Biden, she responded with a single word indicating that it was a "debate"!