50 Fun Facts About Kamala Harris

Kamala Harris served as vice president under which president?

She was the 49th vice president, serving from 2021 to 2025.

Harris was born in 1964 in which California city?

She launched her 2019 presidential campaign there in front of a crowd police estimated at more than 20,000.

Harris's mother Shyamala Gopalan came to the U.S. from India in 1958 to study which subject at Berkeley?

Her 40-year research career on the progesterone receptor gene advanced breast cancer research.

Donald Harris, Kamala Harris's father, was the first Black scholar tenured in which university's economics department?

Kamala and her sister Maya spent weekends at his Palo Alto house after their parents divorced.

As a child Harris often visited her maternal grandfather in which Indian city?

She learned to wear traditional Indian dress and picked up a few phrases of Tamil.

Harris graduated from high school in 1981 in which city?

Her mother had taken a research post at McGill's medical school in 1976; Harris attended Westmount High and then Vanier College.

Harris earned her undergraduate degree at which historically Black institution in Washington, D.C.?

She majored in political science and economics and joined a Divine Nine sorority.

Harris joined which "Divine Nine" sorority as an undergraduate?

It is the oldest of the historically Black Greek-letter sororities.

Harris earned her law degree in 1989 from which San Francisco school?

She was president of its Black Law Students Association chapter.

Harris began her legal career in 1990 as a deputy district attorney in which California county?

She was described as "an able prosecutor on the way up."

Which California Assembly Speaker, whom Harris dated in the 1990s, appointed her to two state boards?

He later became mayor of San Francisco.

Which incumbent, her former boss, did Harris beat to become San Francisco DA in 2003?

She won 56 percent of the vote and became the first person of colour elected to the job.

As DA, Harris kept a campaign pledge never to seek what, even after a police officer was killed in 2004?

The Isaac Espinoza case drew heavy criticism from police and Senator Feinstein.

In 2008 Harris's office became the first in San Francisco to prosecute parents over what?

She cited six parents whose children had missed at least 50 days of school; none was jailed.

Harris was elected attorney general of California in which year?

She narrowly beat Republican Steve Cooley and was the first woman and first African American in the job.

Which future opponent donated $6,000 to Harris's 2014 re-election campaign for attorney general?

She gave the money to a nonprofit for Central American civil rights in 2015.

As attorney general, Harris created which set of protections against aggressive foreclosure practices?

It came with multiple nine-figure settlements against mortgage servicers.

Harris won her 2016 U.S. Senate race against which fellow Democrat?

California's top-two primary produced an all-Democratic final; she took over 60 percent and carried all but four counties.

Whose retirement opened the California Senate seat Harris won in 2016?

Boxer announced in early 2015 she would not run again; Harris declared the next week.

Harris was the first senator of what heritage in U.S. history?

She was also only the second Black woman ever elected to the Senate.

Harris gained national attention in 2018 by questioning which Supreme Court nominee about the Mueller investigation?

She had earlier grilled Jeff Sessions and Rod Rosenstein in Senate hearings.

On what date in 2019 did Harris announce her first presidential campaign?

She matched Bernie Sanders's record for first-day donations after an announcement.

In the June 2019 debate Harris confronted Biden over his remarks about senators who opposed what?

Her poll numbers jumped six to nine points; two months later Tulsi Gabbard's attacks on her record sent them back down.

Harris withdrew from the 2020 presidential race in December 2019 citing what?

She endorsed Biden in March 2020, and he picked her as running mate five months later.

Harris was the third woman on a major-party ticket, after Sarah Palin and whom?

Ferraro was Walter Mondale's running mate in 1984.

How many tie-breaking Senate votes did Harris cast as vice president, a record?

She passed a record set before the Civil War in December 2023; her first year alone produced 13.

Whose record for most tie-breaking votes by a vice president did Harris break in December 2023?

Calhoun cast 31 in nearly eight years; Adams held the single-year record of 12 until she cast 13 in 2021.

For 85 minutes on November 19, 2021, Harris was acting president while Biden underwent what?

It made her the first woman to hold presidential power, from 10:10 to 11:35 a.m.

Biden assigned Harris in March 2021 to address the root causes of migration from Mexico and which region?

El Salvador and two neighbours; critics dubbed her "border czar," a title she never held.

Harris's first foreign trip as vice president, in June 2021, took her to Mexico and which other country?

The visit was part of the Root Causes Strategy on migration.

Whom did Harris pick as her running mate in August 2024?

The Minnesota governor was announced the day after she secured the nomination by virtual roll call.

Which pop star endorsed Harris immediately after the September 2024 debate?

Analysts called it the best debate performance of Harris's career.

Harris lost the 2024 Electoral College by what margin?

She lost the popular vote 48.3 to 49.8 percent, the first Democrat to do so since John Kerry in 2004.

How soon after the November 5, 2024, election did Harris concede?

She spoke at her alma mater, which had hosted her election-night party the evening before.

Harris's 2025 memoir about her presidential campaign is titled what?

The Truths We Hold was her 2019 memoir; 107 Days was the length of her 2024 run.

Harris's 2019 children's book was titled what?

It came out the same day as her adult memoir The Truths We Hold.

Harris met her husband Doug Emhoff how?

They married in Santa Barbara on August 22, 2014; he was an entertainment lawyer.

Harris is stepmother to Emhoff's two children, named what?

They are from his previous marriage to film producer Kerstin Emhoff.

Harris is a member of which church denomination?

She belongs to the Third Baptist Church of San Francisco.

Which fruit-related Harris quote from 2023 became a viral meme in 2024?

The full line went on: "You exist in the context of all in which you live and what came before you."

Harris says she inherited which much-discussed personal trait from her mother?

Her boisterous laughter has been called one of her most defining and most dissected traits.

Who succeeded Harris as vice president in 2025?

She and Emhoff moved to Los Angeles, where they helped distribute food to Palisades Fire victims.

The online fan network that formed to defend Harris from attacks was nicknamed what?

Joy Reid coined the term in an August 2017 tweet.

How many tie-breaking votes did Harris cast in her first six months, breaking Pence's first-year record?

She finished 2021 with 13, beating John Adams's single-year record from 1790.

Where did Harris study in Montreal in 1981-82 before going to Howard University?

She had graduated from high school in Montreal that year, where her mother worked at the Jewish General Hospital and McGill.

Which Supreme Court justice swore Harris in as vice president on January 20, 2021?

The ceremony took place at 11:40 a.m.; her first act was to swear in three new senators.

Which Republican did Harris narrowly beat in the 2010 California attorney general election?

She had won the Democratic primary with endorsements from Feinstein, Boxer and Pelosi.

Who replaced Harris in the U.S. Senate when she became vice president?

As California's secretary of state he was appointed to the seat, and Harris swore him in on her first day.

After Proposition 8 fell in 2013, Harris officiated the wedding of which plaintiff couple?

The San Francisco City Hall ceremony followed her order to the Los Angeles County Clerk to 'start the marriages immediately'.

In which Midwestern college town was Harris's sister Maya born in 1966?

The family moved through Urbana, Evanston and Madison for the parents' academic posts before returning to Berkeley.