Guyanese United, a US-based organization with supporters around the world, publicly supports Vice President Kamala Harris for President of the United States. This announcement came shortly after President Joe Biden decided to drop out of the presidential race against former President Donald Trump, following weeks of calls from many senior members of the Democratic Party.
Guyanese United is dedicated to preserving Guyanese heritage and culture, promoting and inspiring a positive image and legacy of Guyanese, and strengthening and empowering ties between their adoptive countries and Guyana. The organization’s support for Vice President Harris aligns with their mission and values.
President Biden has since thrown his support behind Vice President Harris, who was his running mate leading up to the 2020 elections. Vice President Harris was born in Oakland, California. As the daughter of immigrants, she grew up surrounded by a diverse community and a loving extended family. She and her sister, Maya, were inspired by their mother, Shyamala Gopalan, a breast cancer scientist and pioneer who came to the United States from India at the age of 19 and received her doctorate the same year Kamala was born.
Both of Vice President Harris’s parents were active in the civil rights movement and instilled in her a commitment to build strong coalitions that fight for the rights and freedoms of all people. They brought her to civil rights marches in a stroller and taught her about heroes like Supreme Court Justice Thurgood Marshall and civil rights leader Constance Baker Motley.
Vice President Harris graduated from Howard University and the University of California Hastings College of Law. She began her law career in the office of the district attorney (DA) of Alameda County before being recruited to the San Francisco DA’s Office and later the city attorney of San Francisco’s office. In 2003, she was elected DA of San Francisco. She was elected attorney general of California in 2010 and re-elected in 2014. Harris served as the junior U.S. senator from California from 2017 to 2021, defeating Loretta Sanchez in the 2016 Senate election to become the second African-American woman and the first South Asian American to serve in the U.S. Senate.
As a senator, Harris advocated for gun control laws, the DREAM Act, federal legalization of cannabis, as well as healthcare and taxation reform. She gained a national profile for her pointed questioning of Trump administration officials during Senate hearings, including Trump’s second Supreme Court nominee, Brett Kavanaugh.
Harris sought the 2020 Democratic presidential nomination but withdrew from the race prior to the primaries. Biden selected her to be his running mate, and their ticket went on to defeat the then-incumbent president and vice president, Donald Trump and Mike Pence, in the 2020 election. Harris and Biden were inaugurated on January 20, 2021. After Biden’s withdrawal from the 2024 presidential election, Harris launched her own presidential campaign with Biden’s endorsement.
Vice President Harris is married to lawyer Douglas Emhoff, and they raise two children together.
