By Vishnu Makhijani
Just how did the daughter of two immigrants in segregated California become one of this country’s most effective power players? Through the human touch, by turning defeat into victory and most of all, by doing things her way, a timely biography of Kamala Harris, the US Vice President says.
“Harris entered the (Democratic) presidential (nomination) race fully intending to win. To do that, she had to defeat the front runner. That she fell short can be attributed to missteps by her and by factors beyond her control. But though her campaign sputtered and halted before the first votes were cast. Harris left a big impression. Something about her always cuts through. That is Kamala Harris’s way,” long-time Los Angeles Times reporter Dan Morain writes in “Kamala’s Way – An American Life” (Simon & Schuster).
It was that “something” that made President Joe Biden pick Harris as his running mate in the November 3, 2020 US Presidential election and together they carved out an impressive victory against incumbent Donald Trump – which didn’t come without its major hiccups.
Relying on his four decades of chronicling California’s policy, politics and justice-related issues, Morain takes readers through Harris’s career from its beginnings handling child molestation cases and homicides for the Alameda County District Attorney’s office; her years in the San Francisco District Attorney’s Office; her relationship as a 29-year-old with the most powerful man in the state: married Assembly Speaker Willie Brown, a relationship that would prove life-changing; her audacious embrace of the little-known Barack Obama, and the sharp elbows she deployed to make it to the US Senate.
In 34 chapters, Morain analyses her failure as a presidential candidate and the behind-the-scenes campaign she waged to land the Vice President spot. And along the way, Morain paints a vivid picture of her family, values and priorities, as well as the missteps, risks and bold moves she’s made on her way to the top.
To explain just how difficult the path was, Morain guides the reader through the minefield of California politics.
“It is impossible to understand Harris without understanding the unique contradictions of California’s politics. There are many California’s. Some parts of the state are as conservative as the reddest parts of the nation. Others are among the nation’s most liberal. To leave a mark on its history, as Harris has, a politician must know how to navigate among all of these. Her ascent…is largely due to her talent at doing just that.
“But most of all, you have to understand California’s particularly contradictory record on race – a record that Harris would come to know intimately from the day she was born,” Morain writes.
Thus, what is altogether remarkable is the humility that Harris retained in charting her way.
This is a truly must-read biography of the first Black woman to be elected Vice President of the US.
