Biden steps aside: Kamala Harris to lead democrats in 2024

Joe Biden has decided not to run in the upcoming US presidential elections. The current president indicated that he will support Kamala Harris's candidacy. Who is the first woman to hold the position of Vice President of the US?

Joe Biden announced on Sunday on platform X that he is withdrawing from the race for President of the US. He gave an address to the nation in which he justified his decision and declared that he would fulfil his duties until the end of his term.

"On behalf of the American people, I thank Joe Biden for his extraordinary leadership as President of the United States and for his decades of service to our country. I am honoured to have the President's endorsement, and my intention is to earn and win this nomination," Kamala Harris wrote.

Kamala Harris was born on October 20, 1964, in Oakland. Her parents were immigrants from Jamaica and India. Her father was an economist, and her mother was a doctor. They met at the University of California, Berkeley.

The couple divorced when Kamala was 7 years old. From that time, her mother raised her and her sister alone. When Harris was a teenager, she moved with her mother to Montreal.

She graduated with degrees in political science and economics from Harvard University, and also studied law at the University of California. In 1990, after passing the bar exam, she became an assistant district attorney in Oakland, where she dealt with sexual crimes. From 1990 to 1998, she was a deputy district attorney for Alameda County. From 2004 to 2011, she served as the district attorney in San Francisco. Kamala Harris was the first woman to hold this office. However, that was not the only time she achieved such a milestone.

In 2011, she repeated her success. She became the first woman, the first black person, and the first person of Asian descent to hold the office of Attorney General of California.

Harris's political career began after the resignation of US Senator from California Barbara Boxer, who had held the office for over 20 years. In January 2015, Boxer announced that she would not seek re-election in 2016. A week later, Harris announced her candidacy. In the race, she was supported by then-President Barack Obama and Vice President Joe Biden. When she won, she pledged to protect immigrants from the policies of then-President-elect Donald Trump.

In 2019, Kamala Harris officially announced her candidacy in the 2020 presidential elections. Her high support quickly began to wane, and by the end of 2019, she withdrew, citing a lack of funds. She then endorsed Joe Biden's candidacy, and he offered her the position of Vice President.

Subsequently, Kamala Harris became the first woman, African American, and first person of Asian descent to be Vice President. For a moment, she was also the first female President of the United States. On 19 November 2021, Harris served as Acting President from 15:10 to 16:35 GMT while President Biden was under anaesthesia during a procedure.