Appearing with Joe Biden, the presumptive Democratic nominee for president, for the fist time after he named her his running mate, Senator Kamala Harris on Wednesday credited her Indian-born mother for inspiring her into a life in public service that led her to this historic moment.
“Don’t just sit around and complain about things,” Harris said her mother, Shyamala Gopalan, would tell her and younger sister Maya Harris, growing up. “Do something.”
Gopalan, who came to the United States from Chennai and because a breast cancer researcher, passed away in 2009. But she has remained the most enduring influence in Harris’s life in her telling, in public remarks and an autobiography she wrote ahead of her failed White House bid in 2019.
Harris made history Tuesday as the first Indian American and and Black woman to run for vice-president.
“Kamala is smart. She’s tough. She’s experienced. She’s a proven fighter for the backbone of this country, the middle class and those struggling to get into the middle class,” Biden said in his first public explanation for why he picked Harris, over the 11 other women candidates he considered for the job.
And, after listing out her accomplishments and experiences as a public prosecutor, district attorney and attorney general in California, the former vice-president said, “As the child of immigrants, she knows personally how immigrant families enrich our country, as well as the challenges of what it means to grow up Black and Indian American in the United States.”
He added: “Her story is an American story – different from mine in many particulars, but also, not so different in essentials. “
The former vice-president then went on to frame his pick in a larger context of a changing America he had previewed earlier, but now in his typically folksy manner: “And this morning, all across this nation little girls woke up – especially little Black and Brown girls who so often may feel overlooked and undervalued in our society — but today, maybe they’re seeing themselves for the first time in a new way. As the stuff of Presidents and Vice Presidents.”
Biden and Harris used their first public appearance to launch a blistering attack on President Donald Trump’s term in office. “As someone who has presented my fair share of arguments in court, the case against Donald Trump and Mike Pence is open and shut,” said Harris.
Their first appearance together after a historic announcement on Tuesday — making Harris the first Black woman and Indian American on a presidential ticket — was a quiet affair, held at school gymnasium in Wilmington, Delaware, which is Biden’s home-state. There were no on-stage hand-shakes or hugs, and stayed socially distanced for the photo-op with spouses. And they put on their masks as they left the stage.
