However, the past twelve months have revealed a transformed Harris (File)
Washington:
For years, Kamala Harris faced criticism that she was not up to the task of being within a stone’s throw of the presidency. Now she is being hailed by Democrats as their best hope to stop Donald Trump’s comeback.
Despite blazing a trail as the first female, Black and South Asian vice president in U.S. history, the 59-year-old Democrat long struggled with approval ratings as bad or worse than President Joe Biden’s.
However, the past twelve months have revealed a transformed Harris.
And now that Biden endorsed Harris after stunning the world by dropping his own re-election bid on Sunday, she suddenly finds herself on the cusp of history.
Harris will hope she has done the hard work to earn her party’s full support in the midst of the crisis.
As the aging Biden faded over the past year, his “veep” emerged as a force on the campaign trail, pushing for abortion rights and reaching core voters including suburban women and black men.
With a penchant for the F-bomb and her family nickname ‘Momala’ going viral, she has also finally started to cut through the noise for voters who previously paid scant attention.
She has also won plaudits in party circles for remaining loyal to the 81-year-old president in recent weeks, even as political vultures circled over his candidacy.
She will now likely face Trump — a brutal battle against a candidate who defeated Hillary Clinton in her bid to become the first female commander in chief in 2016.
The fact that Harris has attributed much of Republicans’ criticism of her to racism and sexism would likely make a victory for her even more fair.
Trump and other Republicans have stepped up their attacks on her in particular as Biden’s position weakened and polls showed Harris would fare better against him than Biden.
‘Ready to serve’
The child of immigrant parents—her father was from Jamaica and her mother from India—Harris grew up in Oakland, California, in an activist household where she attended her first meetings in a stroller.
Her focus on rights and justice helped her build an impressive resume, becoming California’s first Black attorney general and the first woman of South Asian descent elected to the U.S. Senate.
Harris then took on Biden in the 2020 primaries. In a stinging attack, she criticized him for opposing the transportation of students to segregated schools.
“There was a little girl in California who was part of the second class to integrate her public schools, and she was bussed to school every day. And that little girl was me,” she said in a barbed attack on her future boss.
But as his running mate, she consolidated the coalition that helped defeat incumbent Trump in 2020.
However, her transition to the White House proved difficult.
Critics said she was disappointing and prone to blunders in a job known to confuse many officeholders.
Struggling for a role, she was tasked by Biden to get to the roots of the illegal migration problem, but during a visit to the Mexican border she fumbled and became defensive when asked a question.
The unusually high turnover of staff fueled rumors of dissatisfaction in the vice presidential office.
And Republicans ruthlessly dismissed her as unfit to take power should the worst happen to America’s oldest-ever president, often resorting to stereotypes that labeled her supporters sexist and racist.
Harris told the Wall Street Journal in February: “I’m ready to serve. There’s no doubt about that.”
‘Momala’
Things started to change when the 2024 race got underway.
The Biden campaign repeatedly sent her to battleground states to amplify the party’s message on abortion rights, with Harris becoming the first vice president to visit an abortion clinic.
Gradually she began to attract warm and excited audiences.
Some of the outreach, however, was cringe-worthy. Earlier this year, she was mocked after telling host Drew Barrymore that her family sometimes called her “Momala,” and Barrymore responded, “We need you to be the country’s Momala.”
But voters seemed to be switching.
An excerpt in which she quotes her mother who often says, “Do you think you just fell out of a coconut tree?” became a meme, with a growing feeling among supporters that now could be her time.
If elected, Harris would shatter one of the highest glass ceilings for women in the United States: that of holding the country’s top position.
Her husband, Douglas Emhoff, would also break new ground, moving from the current Second Lord to the country’s first First Lord.
(This story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)