'We did it Joe!': Moment Kamala Harris takes a call from President-elect Biden as she becomes first black woman to be elected VP and her proud husband hugs her in congratulations
Kamala Harris has made history as the first black woman elected as vice president of the United States, celebrating the monumental milestone with a hug from her husband and a phone call from President-elect Joe Biden.
The 56-year-old California senator, also the first person of South Asian descent elected to the vice presidency, posted video of her celebratory phone call with Biden on Twitter Saturday.
'We did it, Joe. You're going to be the next president of the United States,' Harris is heard telling her running mate in the brief clip.
Harris' husband Doug Emhoff, an attorney who will also make history as the nation's first Second Gentleman, posted a photo of the couple hugging, tweeting: 'So proud of you.'
We did it! The moment Kamala Harris congratulated Joe Biden on becoming President-elect
Harris' husband Doug Emhoff, an attorney who will also make history as the nation's first Second Gentleman, posted a photo of the couple hugging, tweeting: 'So proud of you'
Harris and Emhoff were married in 2014, and have raised two children from his previous marriage.
Emhoff took a leave of absence from DLA Piper, where he is a partner, following the announcement that Harris would join Biden on the Democratic presidential ticket.
As the highest-ranking woman ever elected in American government, Harris' victory gives hope to women who were devastated by Hillary Clinton's defeat four years ago.
Harris has been a rising star in Democratic politics for much of the last two decades, serving as San Francisco's district attorney and California's attorney general before becoming a U.S. senator.
After Harris ended her own 2020 Democratic presidential campaign, Joe Biden tapped her as his running mate. They will be sworn in as president and vice president on January 20.
During the campaign, President Donald Trump and his campaign attempted to portray Harris as a far-left influence who would bring a radical agenda to the Biden administration.
Trump's campaign called her Biden's 'liberal handler' and Trump accused Democrats of plotting to remove Biden and install Harris in the presidency if he won.
Biden and Harris are seen together after accepting the Democratic nomination in August
Trump accused Democrats of plotting to install Harris in the presidency if Biden won
As the election was called for Biden on Saturday, Harris tweeted: 'This election is about so much more than Joe Biden or me. It’s about the soul of America and our willingness to fight for it.
'We have a lot of work ahead of us. Let’s get started.'
Biden's running mate selection carried added significance because he will be the oldest president ever inaugurated, at 78, and hasn't committed to seeking a second term in 2024.
Harris was born in 1964 to two parents active in the civil rights movement. Shyamala Gopalan, from India, and Donald Harris, from Jamaica, met at the University of California, Berkeley, then a hotbed of 1960s activism.
They divorced when Harris and her sister were girls, and Harris was raised by her late mother, whom she considers the most important influence in her life.
Kamala is Sanskrit for 'lotus flower,' and Harris gave nods to her Indian heritage throughout the campaign, including with a callout to her 'chitthis,' a Tamil word for a maternal aunt, in her first speech as Biden's running mate.
When Georgia Sen. David Perdue mocked her name in an October rally, the hashtag #MyNameIs took off on Twitter, with South Asians sharing the meanings behind their names.
Harris' mother raised her daughters with the understanding the world would see them as black women, Harris has said, and that is how she describes herself today.
She attended Howard University, one of the nation's historically black colleges and universities, and pledged Alpha Kappa Alpha, the nation´s first sorority created by and for black women.
She campaigned regularly at HBCUs and tried to address the concerns of young black men and women eager for strong efforts to dismantle systemic racism.
Harris is married to a Jewish man, Doug Emhoff, whose children from a previous marriage call her 'Momala.'
Harris often framed her candidacy as part of the legacy - often undervalued - of pioneering black women who came before her, including educator Mary McLeod Bethune, civil rights activist Fannie Lou Hamer and Rep. Shirley Chisholm, the first black candidate to seek a major party's presidential nomination, in 1972.
'We´re not often taught their stories,' Harris said in August as she accepted her party's vice presidential nomination. 'But as Americans, we all stand on their shoulders.'
That history was on Sara Twyman's mind recently as she watched Harris campaign in Las Vegas and wore a sweatshirt featuring the senator's name alongside Chisholm.
'It's high time that a woman gets to the highest levels of our government,' said Twyman, who is 35 and black.
Vice President-elect Kamala Harris and her husband Doug Emhoff are seen earlier this month
Despite the excitement surrounding Harris, she and Biden face steep challenges, including deepening racial tensions in the U.S. in the wake of a pandemic and protests over racial injustice.
Harris' past work as a prosecutor has prompted skepticism among progressives and young voters who are looking to her to back sweeping institutional change over incremental reforms in policing, drug policy and more.
Jessica Byrd, who leads the Movement for Black Lives´ Electoral Justice Project and The Frontline, a multiracial coalition effort to galvanize voters, said she plans to engage in the rigorous organizing work needed to push Harris and Biden toward more progressive policies.
'I deeply believe in the power of black women´s leadership, even when all of our politics don´t align,' Byrd said. 'I want us to be committed to the idea that representation is exciting and it´s worthy of celebration and also that we have millions of black women who deserve a fair shot.'
Harris is the second black woman elected to the Senate. Her colleague, Senator Cory Booker, who is also black, said her very presence makes the institution 'more accessible to more people' and suggested she would accomplish the same with the vice presidency.
Congresswoman Pramila Jayapal of Washington said Harris' power comes not just from her life experience but also from the people she already represents.
California is the nation´s most populous and one of its most diverse states; nearly 40% of people are Latino and 15% are Asian.
Harris stands with her husband Douglas Emhoff during the vice presidential debate
Harris garnered fans at the vice presidential debate with her catchphrase 'I'm speaking'
In Congress, Harris and Jayapal have teamed up on bills to ensure legal representation for Muslims targeted by Trump´s 2017 travel ban and to extend rights to domestic workers.
'That's the kind of policy that also happens when you have voices like ours at the table,' said Jayapal, who in 2016 was the first South Asian woman elected to the U.S. House. Harris won election to the Senate that same year.
Her ascension to vice president could usher more black women and people of color into politics.
San Francisco Mayor London Breed, who considers Harris a mentor, views Harris' success through the lens of her own identity as the granddaughter of a sharecropper.
'African Americans are not far removed from slavery and the horrors of racism in this country, and we´re still feeling the impacts of that with how we´re treated and what's happening around this racial uprising,' she said. Harris' candidacy 'instills a lot of pride and a lot of hope and a lot of excitement in what is possible.'
The excitement about her candidacy extends to women across races.
Friends Sarah Lane and Kelli Hodge, each with three daughters, brought all six girls to a Harris rally in Phoenix in the race's closing days. 'This car is full of little girls who dream big. Go Kamala!' read a sign taped on the car´s trunk.
Lane, a 41-year-old attorney who is of Hispanic and Asian heritage, volunteered for Biden and Harris, her first time ever working for a political campaign. Asked why she brought her daughters, ages 6, 9 and 11, to see Harris, she answered, 'I want my girls to see what women can do.'
