The Impact of Vice President Kamala Harris

I first met Kamala Harris 11 years ago, on the 38th anniversary of Roe v. Wade, when she was the keynote speaker at a NARAL Pro-Choice luncheon in Washington, D.C. I was awestruck by her presence when she spoke emotionally about her strong connection to women’s and civil rights learned from her late mother, who moved from India to the U.S. for college, became involved in the civil rights movement, and later worked as a breast cancer researcher. I am even more in awe now, two years since her swearing in as vice president — the first woman, first Black person, and first South Asian in the position. Like Vice President Harris, I am both a Black woman and a former prosecutor, and when I reflect on that historic day, I still become emotional.

Vice President Harris’ performance of her duties has been critiqued to an extent never before seen by a vice president, a fact that may be depressing, but is not surprising. As a Black woman, I understand that any time a Black woman takes on a role that has been reserved historically for white men, eyeballs and heads will roll. They say that a woman has to work twice as hard to get half as far as a man. How hard does a Black woman have to work? One frequent accusation is that Harris was only picked because she was Black — in other words, a “diversity hire” who lacks qualifications for the position. Let’s set the record straight on those qualifications before discussing her many accomplishments as vice president.

Vice President Harris served as a member of the U.S. Senate representing California from 2017 to 2021. In the nation’s history, only one other Black woman has served as a U.S. senator. Before that, Harris served as California’s attorney general from 2011 to 2017, the first woman to hold the position. And from 2004 to 2011, Harris was the district attorney for San Francisco, and once again, was the first woman, first African American woman and South Asian woman to hold the office. Those are the credentials Kamala Harris held when she became vice president on January 20, 2021.

The specific responsibilities of the vice president vary by administration, but other than to succeed the president in death or resignation, the only power specified under the U.S. Constitution is presiding over the Senate to break a tie vote. In her first two years, Harris was called upon more than 25 times to break tie votes. She is on course to break the previous record of 31 tie-break votes set by Vice President John Calhoun, an advocate for slavery in the 18th century. Harris’ tie-breaking votes allowed for passage of several significant pieces of legislation, and she also made it possible for women to advance in key positions. Lisa DeNell Cook was confirmed as the first Black woman to be appointed as a member of the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System. Jennifer Sung was confirmed as the first Asian American woman to serve as a U.S. circuit judge on the Ninth Circuit. Mary T. Boyles was confirmed as commissioner of the Consumer Product Safety Commission. Rachael S. Rollins, a former prosecutor, became the first Black woman to serve as U.S. attorney for the District of Massachusetts. And Harris cast the pivotal procedural tie-breaking vote for the Biden administration’s $1.9 trillion stimulus bill to advance and become law — the American Rescue Plan. In her role as Senate president, Harris also presided over the Senate’s historic confirmation vote to confirm Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson to the Supreme Court.

Perhaps because the country was still struggling with a pandemic, Harris traveled infrequently during her first year as vice president. The media focused on her frequent changes in office staff in her first year, which created an impression of instability. But toward the end of that year, Harris began to make major foreign trips, meeting with presidents and heads of state, including in Mexico, Guatemala, Japan, Korea, Honduras, Poland, Thailand, Singapore, Vietnam, and the Philippines on issues of border control, root causes of border migration, strengthening economic and security ties to our allies, and continuing support for human rights and democratic values, after the turbulent Trump years that alienated so many allies. In February 2022, Harris spoke at the Munich Security Conference before world leaders to reaffirm our nation’s commitment to the NATO alliance. She met with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy on her Munich trip.

What was not covered nationally were her efforts to visit small, underserved, and overlooked communities to discuss the administration’s work to expand rural broadband, community lending programs for small businesses, and future expansion of electrical vehicle charging networks and stations to these areas. Harris’ decision to visit places such as Sunset, Louisiana, a small rural town with less than 3,000 people; Greenville, South Carolina, a town of 30,000 people; and Brandywine, Maryland, shows her concern for the inclusion of often forgotten locales.

Throughout her political career, Vice President Harris has been known for her passion for reproductive rights, and she went into high gear when Texas passed a six-week abortion ban in September 2021 — and her work continued through the Supreme Court’s decision that overturned Roe v. Wade in June 2022 and during the midterms to rally up support. Harris began a national tour after the overturning of Roe, to speak in support of reproductive rights and against the draconian Supreme Court decision. She traveled to over 15 states in support of women’s reproductive rights, speaking with national civil rights and reproductive rights groups, local elected officials, faith leaders, physicians, and legal scholars to mobilize the base. She met with abortion providers and patients at the White House and used her star power as vice president to host more than 35 official administration events to make sure that reproductive rights maintained visibility and remained a priority. On January 22, Harris is expected to speak in Florida to mark the 50th anniversary of Roe and to continue to fight back against restrictions on abortion rights and access.

Far from meriting criticism, these are accomplishments that ought to be celebrated in any vice president. However, Vice President Harris has made one additional accomplishment in her first two years that can’t be measured in tasks, trips, or tie-breaking votes. Her simple existence in her role as vice president will inspire many girls and women for years to come, as they work to break their own glass ceilings. What was once thought an impossible dream — the idea of a U.S. woman president — has been brought one more step closer by Vice President Kamala Harris.