Kamala Harris made history when she became the first female, first Black, and first South Asian-American to become vice president of the United States. This isn’t the first time she’s broken barriers and shattered the glass ceiling, though. The part-Jamaican and part-Indian attorney has been doing so her entire life.

Let’s take a closer look at all the groundbreaking things she’s done, from her days as a child of immigrants growing up in Berkeley, California, to her meteoric climb up to the second-highest post in the nation. Here’s everything you didn’t know but should know about the 49th vice president of the US!

She First Aimed For Presidency

Before becoming President Joe Biden’s running mate, Harris went up against him to become the Democratic Party’s bet for the 2020 presidential race. She announced her candidacy on Martin Luther King Day in 2019 to a crowd of 20,000 in Oakland, California.

While she began as a leading contender, she soon lagged behind. Despite her take on race gathering her double-digits in the polls, Harris couldn’t secure a position alongside the top candidates like Bernie Sanders and Biden. She ended her run due to the lack of money to further fund her campaign.

Not A Multi-Millionaire

Although she’s a prominent political figure, Harris doesn’t have millions just lying around to splurge. According to Yahoo! Finance, her net worth stood at $1.7 million, as shown in her Senate financial disclosure. In 2019, she earned $277,763 solely from the publishing advances she received.

However, her personal fortune becomes bigger when you take her husband Doug Emhoff’s share. Together, the couple is reportedly worth around $6.3 million. In comparison, Biden alone has a fortune of $9 million and once considered himself to be among the poorest men in Congress.

She’s A Three-Time Author

Speaking of publishing advances, Harris is an author with three books under her belt. Her first one, published in 2009, is Smart on Crime, which talked about her vision for the American criminal justice system. She followed it up with the children’s picture book, Superheroes Are Everywhere, a decade later.

Finally, there’s her memoir, The Truths We Hold, released in 2019. It’s reported that she earned $320,125 from writing the New York Times bestseller. That said, it isn’t out of the cards for her to get more book deals after she leaves office, seeing her past successes.

The Perfect VP On Paper

After Harris dropped out of the presidential race, Biden emerged as the Democratic bet for the 2020 elections. And even before he formally announced the then-Senator as his VP, pundits already had hunches about the decision. After all, Harris seemed the perfect woman for the job based on her credentials.

She’s been vetted on the national stage thanks to her presidential bid. There’s also her impressive track record working for the government as a prosecutor and as a lawmaker. Her being mixed-race and a woman would also be historic, being the first to appear on a major party’s national ticket.

The Real Reason Joe Picked Kamala

However, Biden’s decision to pick Kamala was also influenced by her connection to his family. You see, she and the late Beau Biden were friends as they both held attorney general positions around the same time. Harris served in California while Beau did so in Delaware.

Biden knew how much his eldest child respected her. The newly inaugurated president valued his son’s opinion the most, which affected his choice to run alongside Harris for his third presidential campaign. Unfortunately, Beau died in 2015 and wasn’t able to see his father’s dreams come true.

She’s The Daughter Of Academic Immigrants

Now that we’re on the topic of Harris’ past, we think it’s the perfect time to delve deeper into her background. She was born in Oakland, California, on October 20, 1964, to immigrants Shyamala Gopalan, a medical researcher from India, and Donald Harris, an economics professor from Jamaica.

The couple, who were active in the civil rights movement, met in the early ‘60s while working on their doctorate at the University of California, Berkeley. Knowing her mother and father’s profession, it seems like Harris was always meant to achieve great things in her life. However, her path wasn’t in academia like theirs were.

The Meaning Behind Her Name

Her name, Kamala Devi, is an homage to Gopalan’s Hindu roots. Her first name is a Sanskrit word that means lotus. Harris herself described the plant as something that grows underwater only to break the surface for its blossoms to bloom while still keeping its roots planted beneath.

Meanwhile, her middle name Devi means goddess in Sanskrit. Despite years of being in the public eye, some people still mispronounce her name. One way to properly pronounce her first name is to say the word “comma” followed by the “la” sound.

She Has A Sister

Harris has one sibling, a sister named Maya Lakshmi Harris. She was born three years after the former Senator, and they have a close relationship as siblings. In fact, Maya, who followed her sister’s footsteps to have a career in law, ran Harris’ presidential campaign.

Active in the world of politics, Maya even served as an advisor to Hillary Clinton during her own bid for the presidency. She became a mother to her only daughter during her teenage years when she was only 17 years old and still in school.

Kamala Helped Raise Her Niece

Harris’ niece Meena Harris is now in her 30s and is also a lawyer by profession. On top of that, she’s the CEO of a lifestyle brand called Phenomenal. Now a mom herself, Meena has two daughters, Leela and Amara Ajagu.

The 36-year-old Harvard Law School graduate was raised by her mother, aunt, and grandmother while working to save the world and helping each other succeed in life. Meena shared with NBC’s Know Your Value that she’s incredibly thankful to her aunt for showing her that she could be whatever she wanted to be.

Her Parents Parted Ways When She Was A Kid

Harris and her sister grew up in a single-parent household since her mother and father’s marriage ended in divorce when she was just seven years old. Gopalan raised the two of them in a yellow duplex in Bancroft Way, West Berkeley, a neighborhood with a significant Black population.

Talking about her childhood, Harris recalled how her mom juggled taking good care of them while also working round the clock. She made everything work, though, even finding the time to take them to choir practice and make them lunch for school.

Kamala’s Mother Was An Accomplished Woman...

Harris’ mother certainly led a remarkable life. She was only 19 when she left India and came to the US alone to pursue her studies. After getting her doctorate, she became a leading breast cancer researcher and helped discover how progesterone played a role in the illness.

Unfortunately, she wasn’t around to see her eldest daughter make history. Gopalan passed away in 2009 at the age of 70. Harris remembers her, fondly saying that she’s the reason she grew up to be a compassionate person who’s conscious of other people’s struggles.

And Her Father Is Just As Successful

On the other hand, Donald went on to become an economics professor at Stanford University but retired from his teaching post in 1998. He also returned to his home country and served as an economic consultant for the Jamaican government.

While Harris talks about her mother a lot, she hasn’t shared much about her father. According to the National Post, Donald was also noticeably absent from his daughter’s inauguration on January 21, 2021. It is unclear whether or not the Capital Accumulation and Income Distribution author is currently estranged from his children.

A Rather Public Reprimand

Harris was once publicly addressed by her father in the past, though. Donald reprimanded her publicly for pointing towards her Jamaican heritage when the topic of smoking marijuana came up during a radio interview. The joke didn’t go over well with her father, who sent a statement to Global Online about the incident.

In it, he said that his parents and ancestors are turning in their graves hearing their family name and Jamaican identity associated with the stereotype of a typical Jamaican being a “pot-smoking joy seeker.” He then said that he’d like to dissociate himself and his immediate family from what he described as a “travesty.”

Growing Up With Multiple Faiths

Kamala and her sister did spend time with their father as children. They went over to Palo Alto and sometimes to Jamaica to be with him in the summers. However, Meena says that the sisters’ experience with their Blackness was influenced not by their Caribbean roots but by growing up in Oakland and Berkeley.

Their mother also made them wear their Sunday’s best dress to attend a Black Baptist church. She and Maya even sang at the 23rd Avenue Church of God’s choir as children. At the same time, they also attended a Hindu temple, according to USA Today.

An Early Start At Activism

Another thing that Harris got from her parents is their passion for activism. She’s shared a story of how her first protest happened when they took her to a march for civil rights while she was still in a stroller.

Thus, it’s no surprise that a 13-year-old Harris, along with Maya, led a demonstration in front of their apartment building while they were living in Canada. The sisters wanted to get a policy banning children from playing on the lawn repealed, and they got the rule successfully reversed by the building owners.

She Went To A Historically Black School...

After finishing her secondary schooling in Canada, Harris returned to America to attend Howard University in the early ‘80s. Dubbed as the Black Harvard, the Washington D.C. institution is one of the Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCU) and was actually considered the most prestigious one back then.

There, she studied political science and economics. Despite her academic workload, she found time to join protests, taking part in demonstrations against apartheid in South Africa. These days she’s bringing her alma mater pride as the first HBCU graduate to have been tapped for a presidential ticket.

And Even Joined An All-Black Sorority

Another thing Harris did while at the university was join the Alpha Kappa Alpha (AKA) sorority. The group is the oldest all-Black sorority in the US. And now that one of their members has ascended to the vice presidency, AKA joins the ranks of mostly white clubs, from which Black Greek letter organizations were once separate.

Decades after pledging, Harris remains thankful for her AKA sisters. She’s even described the group as her “center” and says she feels home when she sees her fellow members. Founded in 1908, the sorority now boasts having 300,000 members across 50 states.

Pursuing Law Back Home

After spending years away from her birthplace, Harris returned to California to study law. She went to the UC Hastings College of the Law in San Francisco and lived with her sister and niece there. The law student even helped Maya potty train her Meena while balancing the “brutal stuff” she dealt with in school.

Luckily, all her hard work paid off. She eventually passed the bar and began her career in 1990 with a job at the Alameda County prosecutor’s office. At the time, she worked as a deputy district attorney and focused on crimes related to indecent assault.

She Dated A Powerful Politician

During the mid-’90s, Harris became romantically involved with Willie Brown, who would later become San Francisco’s first African-American mayor. When they were dating, he was a member of the California State Assembly, and she was a prosecutor.

Brown was 60 years old, while Harris was 29 years old when they started dating. He appointed her to two state commissions, which reportedly paid her an added $80,000 apart from her salary as a prosecutor. This past relationship was used against her during her vice-presidential campaign after Facebook posts spread misleading information about the former couple.

Their Relationship Was The Subject Of Controversy

According to Reuters, the posts claimed that she had an affair with a married man. While technically accurate, the statement is misleading. At the time of his relationship with Harris, Brown was already separated from his wife for over a decade.

What’s more, the two didn’t hide the fact that they were dating and even made public appearances together. Harris and Brown broke up in 1995. Brown said that she initiated it, saying that there was no permanency in their relationship. He agreed and shared the story in a 2003 interview.

Dating A Celebrity

Since we’re on the topic of Harris’ dating history, let’s talk about the time she dated a celebrity. For a brief time in the early 2000s, she went out with Montel Williams. Yes, that Montel Williams who once hosted his own successful eponymous talk show.

Their past relationship made the rounds on the Internet first in 2019. Then in 2020, a photo of Williams and Harris in a low-cut dress went viral on Twitter. He addressed the topic and said that he has great respect for Harris but wondered whether her love life would have been a topic of interest had she been a man.

Achieving A First In California

Harris isn’t one to let romantic relationships distract her from pursuing her ambitions, though. Going against her former boss, she decided to run to become the San Francisco district attorney in 2003. Her campaign emphasized her ability to be competent in a way that her opponent was not.

Although she was the underdog, Harris ended up winning the election, which is the first of many she’ll win later in her political career. This achievement made her the first Black woman to be voted for the post in the state of California.

Police Unions Once Shunned Her

However, her stint as DA wasn’t free from pressing challenges. Fresh off her win, she made one of her most controversial decisions in 2004. She decided not to pursue the death penalty against a man who killed a San Francisco police officer. Senator Dianne Feinstein criticized the decision.

It also led to Harris being shunned by police unions for the decade that followed. She was later accused of political opportunism when she refused to support initiatives that would’ve led to banning the death penalty as California’s top lawyer and law enforcement official.

Coming Under Scrutiny

Another incident that marred her tenure as San Francisco DA was when a technician stole cocaine from a crime lab. Harris reportedly tried to keep the mishandling of evidence under wraps and failed to inform legal counsels. This error led to a thousand cases being thrown out.

Towards the end of her time as DA, she was also criticized for supporting a rather punitive law in 2010. It made truancy a misdemeanor and sought to punish parents for failing to send their kids to school. The truancy rate dropped due to the measure.

Winning A Tight Race

In 2010, Harris embarked on another campaign. This time, she was eyeing the position of California’s attorney general. Similar to her first race to be DA, she was an underdog. Running against her was popular Republican Steve Cooley, who was Los Angeles’ DA.

Despite the race being tight, Cooley was declared as winner by the San Francisco Chronicle and even gave his victory speech on election night. In the end, though, Harris emerged as the real victor, winning by a slim margin of .8% points about three weeks later. She would hold the position until 2017.

A Long List Of Accomplishments

Her time as California’s 32nd AG is decorated by several accomplishments. One of them is the creation of the online platform Open Justice, which seeks to make criminal justice data accessible to the public. The platform is credited for helping keep the police accountable as it collected information on injuries and deaths that happen in custody.

She also helped California secure $20 billion during a national mortgage settlement concerning the foreclosure crisis. Kamala was accused of grandstanding for refusing the deal for $4 billion but ended up getting one that’s five times more for homeowners.

She Was Once Rumored To Be A Bet For The Supreme Court

With plenty of achievements under her belt, it’s no surprise that Harris was rumored to be a potential nominee for the Supreme Court during former President Barack Obama’s administration. She was reportedly not interested in the position.

This came three years after Obama commented on her looks in 2013. He referred to Harris as the best-looking AG in the US. The remark was criticized by many due to its deemed inappropriate nature. He called and apologized to her just hours after saying the statement during a fundraiser in San Francisco.

She Doesn’t Want To Be Known As The “Female Obama”

Harris likely accepted his apology due to their long-standing friendship. They’ve been cordial with each other dating back to 2004 when Obama ran for Senate. It’s also worth noting that she was the first California officeholder to endorse him in 2008 when he ran for president.

However, Harris maintains that she isn’t a fan of being dubbed as the “female Obama” due to their similarities. She said that she wants to leave her own mark when asked about carrying on what Obama started during his time in the White House.

Securing A Seat At The Senate

While serving as California’s AG, she was tapped to run for a Senate seat held by Barbara Boxer. The latter reportedly had retirement on her cards when Harris announced her candidacy in 2015. Her win was described as an easy one.

Beginning her tenure in 2017, she became the second Black woman and the first Indian American to hold a seat in the Senate. As a lawmaker, Kamala served in both the Judiciary Committee and the Select Committee on Intelligence. Her time there also allowed her to use her background in prosecution as her public profile rose.

Doing What She Does Best

Doing what she does best, she brought what she learned in the Californian court when questioning witnesses during hearings. One notable instance is her interrogation of then-AG Jeff Sessions in relation to the Russia investigation in 2017. Her style led her to go viral and catch the ire of Republican senators.

After over three minutes of grilling, Sessions admitted that being rushed made him nervous. Harris used the same technique when she questioned Brett Kavanaugh about whether he had talked about the Mueller investigation with others. Building this kind of no-nonsense reputation, she gained her own following.

Kamala’s Fans Are Called The “KHive”

Harris has an online following who call themselves the KHive. This is in reference to Beyoncé’s own group of fans who are known as the Beyhive. These stans hype her up and defend her from critics on Twitter.

And speaking of the 24-time Grammy award winner, she endorsed the Biden-Harris ticket during the 2020 presidential race. The Love On Top singer wore a face mask bearing the Democratic Party candidates’ names on the eve of the November elections. She then encouraged her fellow Texans to come through and vote in an Instagram boomerang post.

Finding The Time For Love

While she was making her way to the top, Kamala found the time to look for love. This led her to go on a blind date in 2013 with her now-husband Douglas Emhoff, an entertainment lawyer. Her best friend, Chrisette Hudlin, was the one who set them up.

In a 2020 birthday message, Emhoff summarized their story writing, “Blind date, love at first sight, marriage, family, and an incredible life together.” But what he didn’t know was that the date wasn’t so blind after all, as Kamala revealed during a CBS interview.

She Googled Her Husband Before Meeting Him

While speaking with Sunday Morning Jane Pauley in January 2020, Harris admitted that she caved in and looked up Emhoff before meeting him. The information was news even to her husband. Without a dating app profile to get to know him from in advance, she turned to Google despite her best friend telling her not to.

Luckily, she seemed to like what she read, and they hit it off. It was Emhoff, though, who called back first after the date. He recalled leaving a “ridiculous” voicemail for her that she now plays back to him each year on their anniversary.

They Didn’t Waste Time

The couple didn’t waste time after that. Recalling the beginning of their relationship, Harris said that Emhoff sent her a list of available dates the morning after their first date. He said that he really liked her and wanted to make things work as he was too old to play games.

Before their first anniversary even rolled around, the couple were already celebrating their engagement. Emhoff popped the question in a rather unromantic way while she was in the middle of picking what to eat. She said yes and was married just five months later.

She Was Already Almost 50 When She Married

At the time of her wedding to Emhoff on August 22, 2014, Harris was just months shy away from her 50th birthday. It was her first time tying the knot while it was the second time around for her husband. Her sister Maya facilitated the intimate ceremony held in Santa Barbara.

The celebrations involved breaking a glass, done by Harris, as a nod to Emhoff’s Jewish upbringing. Meanwhile, he donned a garland to honor her heritage. They danced as husband and wife to the song Like A Star by Corinne Bailey Rae.

A Happily Blended Family

Through her marriage, Harris became the stepmother of Emhoff’s two children from his first wife. He has a son Cole, who is now in his mid-20s, and Ella, 21. The blended family gets along nicely, with the kids preferring to call Harris “Momala” as they didn’t like the word stepmom.

It’s also worth noting that Harris is on excellent terms with Emhoff’s ex Kerstin and considers her a dear friend. In fact, the two of them have even bonded over being cheering sideline parents at Ella’s swim meets and other events.

Her Stepdaughter Is Already A Style Star

With all eyes on America’s new set of first and second families, Ella has already caught the public’s attention. Today already describes the fashion student as a breakout-style star as she turned heads with her bedazzled inauguration outfit from Miu Miu.

A student at Parsons School of Design, she’s busy creating her own pieces. Her Instagram page is filled with photos of the knitwear she makes herself, from bikini tops to rainbow pants. Safe to say, Ella is someone that the media would be looking out for at public events from now on.

The Second Family’s New Home

Now that Harris has been sworn into office, she and her husband are reportedly preparing to settle in at the house found at Number One Observatory Circle. The 9,150-square-foot home is located on the US Naval Observatory grounds and has been the official residence of vice presidents since the ‘70s.

Designed in the Queen Anne style, the property boasts of having 33 rooms, wraparound verandas, and plenty of space to entertain dignitaries. The three-story hilltop mansion comes with furnishing that its previous residents outfitted it with during their time there.

She’s Free To Re-Decorate It As She Pleases

Of course, Harris would also be free to re-decorate the place when she moves in. This follows the lead previous vice presidents set when they took up residence in the house. For example, Dan Quayle added both a pool and an exercise room.

With Harris being an enthusiastic cook, she might focus her attention on creating a kitchen that can help her whip out the recipes she has bookmarked from the New York Times cooking section. She could also enjoy the amenities her predecessor's left behind as Biden did when he lived there.

A Step Up From Her LA Home

While not as large or as grand as the White House, Harris’ new home is a step up from the one that she shared with Emhoff in Los Angeles when it comes to size. Her husband bought the 3,500-square-foot house in 2012 before they met and transferred the property to a joint trust when they married.

The residence is located in the posh Brentwood neighborhood where celebrities like LeBron James and Gwyneth Paltrow own homes. Harris and Emhoff’s house has a pool and four bedrooms. Zillow lists its value to be around $5 million.

An Apartment In Washington

Harris also owns an apartment in Washington D.C. that she bought in 2017 for $1.775 million the same year she was elected senator. The residence measures a modest 1,700 square feet and has two bedrooms. What’s more, it’s located in a prime area in the capital’s West End neighborhood.

Her building is just one mile away from the White House and is nearby Georgetown and Dupont Circle. It also offers a long list of amenities for its residents to enjoy, from a gym to a 24-hour concierge and a rooftop pool.

She’s Serious About Keeping Fit

Knowing how disciplined Harris is about keeping fit, she likely put those facilities to good use. She has shared that she makes sure to work out every day, no matter how much sleep she got the night before.

Before the pandemic, she typically spends half an hour on the elliptical, attends a SoulCycle session, or swims at the pool to stay active. Fortunately, she won’t have to leave her new home to do most of these and keep up with her regimen while she’s busy fulfilling her duties as America’s vice president.

She Collects Chuck Taylors

On the topic of her busy schedule, it seems like her wardrobe is already prepared to keep her comfortable while on her hectic job. Harris is known for her love of Converse footwear and has even built a Chuck Taylors collection over the years.

Although she does wear heels, Chucks are still her go-to. So, far she has a white pair, a black pair in leather, ones that go with the cold and warm seasons, and platforms to match with pantsuits. She even wore the classic sneakers on her cover photo for Vogue.

A Love For Renting Luxury Vehicles

But while she’s developed a love for affordable footwear, Harris seems to have a taste for luxury, too. Her spending actually became a topic of criticism during her senatorial campaign. She splurged almost $20,000 on luxury car services alone in 2015.

This includes $3,900 spent on a Martha’s Vineyard private transport service that promises to help clients avoid the headache that comes with using taxis and costly rentals. Her campaign also reportedly paid near $9,000 to a similar service that operates in the Washington area. Fortunately, her new job as vice president eliminates these expenses.

Free Air Travel From Now On

Like the president, the vice president benefits from having their travel expenses shouldered by the state as long as their purpose counts as official White House business. This means that the government would sponsor Harris’ food, lodging, and rentals at no cost to her.

She’ll also get to ditch flying with American Airlines as she’s entitled to use a Boeing 757 for her travels. The aircraft is called Air Force Two when in use by the vice president. It’s also available to be used by the first lady and the secretary of state.

She’ll Earn Over $230,000 As VP

Of course, Harris will also earn a set salary for her new job. The vice president is currently being paid about $235,100 annually. Meanwhile, the president’s pay is capped at $400,000. Another perk is that Harris can write off up to $100,000 of expenses related to her duties.

While the pay is not as large as some might have expected, her current income increased from her previous one. As a senator, she received $174,000 annually. The amount has been fixed to this number since the last pay raise in 2009.

Her Husband Is The First Ever Second Gentleman

It isn’t only Harris who made history when she was elected, though. For the first time ever, the US now has a second gentleman. What’s more, Emhoff is the first Jewish spouse of an American vice president. And he seems well-prepared to take on his new role.

After quitting his law firm job upon his wife’s win, he is looking forward to sharing his law expertise at Georgetown University, where he will be teaching. Emhoff is also planning to advocate for legal justice reform and helping everyone gain fair access to the justice system.

What Does A VP Do?

Although an important government position, previous vice presidents mostly waited to take on a job they hope they’d never have to do. Ascending to the president’s post usually means something disastrous happened, judging from the eight presidential deaths in US history.

Biden being the oldest person to hold the nation’s highest post at 78 years old would likely add stress to Harris, who is next in line. Adding to that is her duty to preside over the Senate. Fortunately, Biden’s physician has attested that he is in good shape and healthy enough to fulfill his obligations.

Kamala’s First Day At Work

That doesn’t mean that Harris is taking things easy, though, as she begins her term. On her first day at work, she headed to the Senate to swear in three new Democratic senators. She even read out her own resignation as she left her post to become vice president.

She also reportedly had significant input on the 15 executive orders Biden signed. Among these are a proclamation ending the travel ban on majority-Muslim countries, an order promoting racial equity, and another requiring people to wear a mask while at all federal properties.

A Lot Resting On Her Shoulders

As a vice-presidential “first” three times over, a lot is riding on Harris’ success. Hopefully, her law degree and extensive legal experience would help her fulfill her advocacies and aid the new administration in its promise to address the widespread misconduct in American police forces.

Fortunately, a lot of people are also rooting for her. Both Black women and Americans of South Asian descent celebrated her historic victory, seeing it as a win for representation. Harris has four years to make them proud and make changes that would ensure that she wouldn’t be the last woman to hold the position.