She’d been waiting for the call for weeks and when it came Kamala Harris took a deep breath.
It was Joe Biden. And when she answered, he didn’t waste any time with small talk.
“You ready to go to work?” the Democratic Party’s presumptive presidential nominee asked her.
Harris let out a sigh of relief.
“Oh my God. I am so ready to go to work,” she replied. And in that moment history was made.
If Biden wins the presidential race in November, as many of the polls are predicting he will, Harris will be the first female vice president. She’ll also be the first black and first Asian-American to serve in America’s second-highest office.
Not since Barack Obama secured the Democratic Party nomination in 2008 has a candidate sparked so much excitement.
For many Americans, Biden (77) is sending a clear message by picking Harris (55), a Californian senator who’s the daughter of immigrants from Jamaica and India, as his running mate in the wake of the wave of anti-racism protests sparked by the police killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis in May.
“It shows he was listening to the people who are speaking up and asking for equity, justice and fairness,” says University of Washington student Debbie Harrington. “His pick says: ‘I hear you’.”
The former vice president also proved something else: that he doesn’t bear grudges.
Less than a year ago, Harris was running her own presidential campaign and at one point took Biden to task over his previous opposition to bussing black kids in from poorer neighbourhoods in an effort to racially integrate government schools.
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