The daughter of an Indian mother, who was a fervent civil rights activist, and a Jamaican father, Kamala Harris embodies a contemporary vision of the American dream. Born in California in 1964, at a time when racial segregation had just been outlawed once and for all, she very quickly took up the cause of the African-American community to which she felt she belonged. On the benches of Howard University, ‘the black Harvard’, the young woman developed a passion for public speaking, before going on to study law. As a member of the Californian Bar, she ran for the position of District Attorney of San Francisco, which she won after a hard-fought campaign. In this position, she asserted her strong convictions: against the death penalty and gun violence, in favour of education for African-Americans and the right to a second chance for young offenders. This was followed by a stunning entry into politics: elected in 2017 to the US Senate - the second black woman in history to hold this post - in the Democratic colours, she got chosen as running mate by candidate Joe Biden,

As the first Vice-President of the United States, in the shadow of the man whose more conservative positions she is required to represent, Kamala Harris is now well placed to rise to the supreme office.