Making history: Harris is the first Black woman and the first person of Indian descent to be nominated for national office by a major party, and only the fourth woman in history to be chosen for one of their presidential tickets.
Education: Graduated from Howard University and the University of California's Hastings College of the Law.
Family: Harris is married to lawyer Douglas Emhoff and is stepmother to his two children from a previous marriage. Her parents immigrated to the United States from India and Jamaica to work at universities in the San Francisco Bay Area.
Age: Harris is 55, more than two decades younger than Biden, who at 77 would be the oldest president elected if he wins.
Career through the years
2003: Elected as the San Francisco district attorney, becoming the first Black district attorney in California.
2010: Elected as California's attorney general, the first woman and Black person to hold the job.
2016: Elected to U.S. Senate. Harris was the first Black woman in the chamber in more than a decade. During her relatively brief time as California's junior senator, she has become known for her intensive interrogations of Trump administration officials and nominees, including Brett Kavanaugh during his Supreme Court confirmation hearing and during a Senate Intelligence Committee hearing with Attorney General Jeff Sessions.
2019: Harris announced her bid for the presidency on Martin Luther King Day. She pitched herself as a history-making candidate, paying homage to Shirley Chisholm, the New York congresswoman who became the first woman to seek the Democratic Party's nomination for president. Harris dropped out of the presidential race late last year after running low on money.
