Harris has offered her first response on her selection as a vice-presidential candidate, saying Biden can unify the country and she's honoured to join him.

Anthony Zurcher
BBC North America reporter

Sometimes the obvious pick is obvious for a reason. Kamala Harris was the frontrunner to be Joe Biden’s running mate pretty much since the moment the presumptive Democratic nominee announced in March that he would pick a woman to be on his ticket. She’s young and telegenic, and as the daughter of Jamaican and Indian immigrants, reflects the growing diversity of the Democratic Party.

What’s more, she’s been in the spotlight of the national media, having campaign for president in 2019 and, for a while last summer, risen to near the top of some polls. Many of her rivals for the number-two spot had never faced such scrutiny, so there was no proof that they could hold up under fire.

Another underrated advantage for Harris was her friendship with Biden’s late son, Beau, formed when they were both attorneys general. Biden places a high value on family - and that connection may have made choosing her easier.

Now Harris will have a chance to hit the campaign trail again and prove that she deserves this historic pick. If she succeeds, she’ll be in prime position to seek the presidency again, perhaps as early as 2024. Today has made her a force in the Democratic Party for years to come.

Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer - who set off a flurry of speculation after flying to Delaware to meet Biden at his home last week - has sent her congratulations to Harris and Biden.

Whitmer had always been an unlikely contender for Biden's running mate, but rose to his short-list in recent days. The governor of the midwest battleground state - seen as crucial to winning a presidential election - had grown in national prominence in 2020 due to her controversial actions to curb the state's coronavirus outbreak.

The Trump campaign were clearly prepared in case Biden picked the Californian, and have already put out an advert to denounce the senator as a leftist.

"Kamala Harris ran for president by rushing to the radical left," begins the attack ad tweeted by President Trump minutes after the Biden-Harris ticket was announced.

"Voters rejected Harris. They smartly spotted a phony," it continues.

The advert goes on to call Biden "not that smart", concluding: "Slow Joe and Phony Kamala - perfect together, wrong for America."

Barbara Plett Usher
BBC News, Washington

Early on, Joe Biden promised to name a female running mate. And as the country convulsed with racial justice protests in recent months, pressure grew for him to name a black woman.

Senator Kamala Harris was always near the top of the list – she is one of the most well known black women in American politics, has experience in governing, and is a former prosecutor who could pack a punch on a campaign trail.

Mr Biden was also looking for a partner he knew and trusted, like the relationship he had as vice president to Barack Obama, and there were other candidates who fit that role better than Ms Harris.

But after much deliberation, he has decided she is best placed to help him win the election and govern the country.

Our reporter Hannah Long-Higgins interviewed then-presidential candidate Kamala Harris in Iowa last autumn, when the 2020 race was just kicking off.

She said America needed a leader who could unify the country.

"My perspective is grounded in having had so many experiences that tells me in my heart and in my soul that it is a fact that we have more in common than what separates us."

Check out the interview below.

"My name is pronounced "Comma-la", like the punctuation mark," Kamala Harris writes in her 2018 autobiography, The Truths We Hold.

"It means 'lotus flower', which is a symbol of significance in Indian culture. A lotus grows underwater, its flowers rising above the surface while the roots are planted firmly in the river bottom."

The California senator's father was Jamaican and her mother was Indian, but she was mostly raised by her Hindu mother after her parents' divorce.

In many ways, say people who know her, Harris straddles both communities effortlessly.

In her book, she writes about making Indian biryani - and spaghetti Bolognese - at home.

When Harris married Douglas Emhoff, a lawyer, in 2014, she put a flower garland around her new husband's neck and he stomped on a glass,"in keeping with [our] respective Indian and Jewish heritage".

In politics, Harris's public image has been more closely tied to her identity as an African-American politician, especially in the context of the current conversation about race and the Black Lives Matter movement in the US.

But Indian-Americans also view her as one of their own, her candidacy suggesting a potential wider recognition of the Indian and South Asian communities in the country.

Read more:

Why Kamala Harris embraces her biracial roots

Image source, EPA

Karen Bass, a five-term California congresswoman who was also atop Biden's vice-presidential contender list, says Harris is a "great choice".

Bass, who is also the head of the Congressional Black Caucus - an influential group of representatives in the US House - said on Twitter: "Her tenacious pursuit of justice and relentless advocacy for the people is what is needed right now.

"California is better because of her work as Attorney General and stronger because of her work as Senator. Now all Americans will benefit from her work as Vice President. I will do everything I can to help her and Joe Biden win in November."

The Trump campaign has weighed in on Biden's vice-presidential pick, calling Harris "phony".

Echoing the president's rhetoric about Democrats and recent protests, senior campaign adviser Katrina Pierson said Biden was "no moderate" and accused him of "surrendering control of our nation to the radical mob".

The Biden-Harris ticket will face off against President Donald Trump and Vice-President Mike Pence on 3 November.

Though the California senator was viewed as the top contender for the vice-presidential pick, a Biden-Harris ticket would not have likely been predicted a year ago.

One of the fiercest and most memorable political clashes of the Democratic primary debate season was Harris's attack on a comment Biden had made about having a "civil" relationship with senators who believed in racial segregation.

Earlier this month, Biden said he has gotten over that first debate, now 14 months ago.

"I've made it really clear that I don't hold grudges," he told reporters. "I think it was a debate, it was as simple as that."

Image source, Getty Images

The California Democrat was born in Oakland, California, to two immigrant parents: an Indian-born mother and Jamaican-born father.

After her parents' divorce, Harris was raised primarily by her Hindu single mother, a cancer researcher and civil rights activist. She grew up engaged with her Indian heritage, joining her mother on visits to India, but Harris has said that her mother also adopted Oakland's African-American culture, immersing her two daughters - Kamala and her younger sister Maya - within it.

She went on to attend Howard University, one of the nation's preeminent historically black colleges and universities. She has described it as among the most formative experiences of her life. She later earned a law degree from the University of California, Hastings College of Law.

Harris says she's always been comfortable with her identity and simply views herself as "an American".

She became the district attorney - the top government prosecutor - for San Francisco in 2003, before being elected the first woman and the first African American to serve as California's attorney general, the top lawyer and law enforcement official in America's most populous state.

In her nearly two terms in office as attorney general, Harris gained a reputation as one of the Democratic party's rising stars, using this momentum to propel her election as California's junior US senator in 2017.

Read the full story here.

Susan Rice, the Obama-era national security adviser who was also previously seen as a front-runner for the vice-presidential spot, has offered her congratulations to Senator Harris.

"Senator Harris is a tenacious and trailblazing leader who will make a great partner on the campaign trail," the diplomat wrote.

"I am confident that Biden-Harris will prove to be a winning ticket."

Read more about Rice here.

Biden says Kamala Harris had "worked closely" with his son, Beau, when she served as California Attorney's General. Beau was the attorney general of Delaware.

"I watched as they took on the big banks, lifted up working people, and protected women and kids from abuse. I was proud then, and I'm proud now to have her as my partner in this campaign."

Image source, ge

Joe Biden, the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee, has chosen California Senator Kamala Harris as his vice-presidential running mate.

She's the first black woman - with Indian and Jamaican heritage - to serve as the running mate for a major US political party.

She was one of Biden's rivals in the 2020 Democratic primary race, but has since been considered the front-runner for the running mate role given her background and political experience.