Joe Biden picks Kamala Harris as running mate in November elections

Kamala Harris becomes first African American women to run on a major party ticket 

Former Vice President Joe Biden, the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee, has picked Sen. Kamala Harris of California as his running mate. The selection will make Harris the third woman — and first African American candidate — to be nominated for vice president by a major political party.

"You make a lot of important decisions as president. But the first one is who you select to be your Vice President," Biden said in an email to supporters Tuesday afternoon. "I've decided that Kamala Harris is the best person to help me take this fight to Donald Trump and Mike Pence and then to lead this nation starting in January 2021."

'These aren't normal times," Biden added. "I need someone working alongside me who is smart, tough, and ready to lead. Kamala is that person."

The two are set to deliver remarks in Biden's hometown of Wilmington, Del., on Wednesday, and together hold a virtual fundraiser. The coronavirus pandemic prevents Biden and Harris from rolling out their new ticket in the usual format: a boisterous introductory rally in a key swing state.

The Harris pick creates a Democratic ticket that in many ways mirrors the one Biden ran on in 2008 with then-Sen. Barack Obama: An older white man and Washington lifer with deep foreign policy experience is paired with a younger, Black running mate with immigrant roots who has been in the Senate just four years yet still has managed to carve out a national profile. Only this time, Biden is occupying the top spot.

Biden's age, and the fact that the 77-year-old has repeatedly referred to himself as a "transitional" candidate, will almost certainly place increased focus on the 55-year-old Harris as the likely future leader of the Democratic Party.

Harris ultimately endorsed Biden and campaigned for him after suspending her presidential campaign in late 2019.

Women have been subject to stereotypes and tropes about qualifications, leadership, looks, relationships and experience. Those stereotypes are often amplified and weaponised for Black and Brown women. The media  needs to resist popular coverage tropes such as "likeability" and "electability" for candidates who happen to be women — analysis they said is hardly ever applied to male candidates.

Harris was born in Oakland, Calif., and grew up in Berkeley. She's the daughter of Jamaican and Indian immigrants, and attended Howard University in Washington, D.C., and the University of California Hastings College of the Law in San Francisco.

She was a prosecutor in the Alameda County and San Francisco district attorney's offices before running for San Francisco district attorney in 2003. She went on to win election as California attorney general in 2010.

In 2016, Harris became just the second Black woman in U.S. history to be elected to the U.S. Senate. She was assigned to the Intelligence Committee, which held several nationally televised hearings on Russia's efforts to interfere in the presidential election, and how President Trump's campaign and the Department of Justice responded to those efforts.

In January 2019, Harris launched a bid for the White House. She was initially seen as a serious contender for the Democratic nomination, drawing more than 20,000 people to her kickoff rally in Oakland. But Harris struggled to articulate a clear reason for her candidacy in a crowded field, and her campaign experienced bouts of infighting.

                                                   Rukhsana Manzoor Deputy Editor