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VP Kamala Harris still searching for her role
President Joe Biden, by teaming up with the 57-year-old former California senator, sent a clear message to an electoral base eager for more diverse representation in power.
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US Vice President Kamala Harris delivers a speech at Gardens by the Bay in Singapore before departing for Vietnam on the second leg of her Asia trip, August, 24, 2021. (AFP/Evelyn Hockstein)
T
he first woman and first person of color to become US vice president, Kamala Harris made history on November 3, 2020. But a year later, she is still trying to figure out what part to play in a role that is by definition thankless.
President Joe Biden, by teaming up with the 57-year-old former California senator, sent a clear message to an electoral base eager for more diverse representation in power.
But with his choice, the 78-year-old Biden -- who had served as second-in-command to Barack Obama during the first Black president's two terms -- has also turned the spotlight full-force onto Harris.
A serial trailblazer, she was the first woman and first Black person to become California's attorney general. She was also the first senator of South Asian descent.
But Harris, the daughter of Jamaican and Indian immigrants, has yet to break another mold -- one into which political customs and the US Constitution have locked her.
"There is no such thing as vice presidential success," said Elaine Kamarck, a senior research fellow at the Brookings Institution. "Vice presidents rise or fall on the record of the president that they serve."
Kamarck, who has written a book on the role of the vice president, pointed out, however, that the job has evolved from being merely ceremonial.
