Kamala Harris by the Numbers
4 Years as a District Attorney
18 Years as an attorney
44 Her age
56 Percentage of votes she gained in 2003, beating the incumbent
67 San Francisco’s conviction rate in 2006 when she was in charge
98 Percentage of votes she gained as the sole candidate in 2007
216 Violent gang members she put behind bars during her first term
HARRIS QUOTES
"The bottom line is I really love my job, and I think there is very little that can be more noble and important work than being a prosecutor." (San Francisco Chronicle)
"At every stage of your career, you have to prove yourself. You cannot ever be resentful of that. It's the very nature of growth and success." (More magazine)
“My mother is South Asian and she instilled in us a strong sense of our Indian culture. I also grew up in the African American community. Those two backgrounds helped me understand that we have more commonalities with each other than differences.” (East West magazine)
HARRIS FACTS
Kamala Devi Harris is the eldest daughter of Indian-American mother, Dr. Shyamala Gopalan, a breast cancer specialist, who came to America in 1960, and Stanford University economics professor Donald Harris, a Jamaican-American. Her parents divorced when she was 7.
She attended Howard University in Washington, D.C. and received a J.D. from University of California, Hastings College of the Law in 1990. She began her law enforcement career in 1990 as a Deputy District Attorney in Alameda County, serving eight years in that position and handling hundreds of serious and violent felony cases, including homicide and rape.
She was elected District Attorney of San Francisco in 2003 and ran unopposed for re-election in 2007. She is the first female District Attorney to be elected in San Francisco and is also considered the first African-American elected as a DA in California, as well as the first Indian- American elected to the position in the United States.
Her sister, Maya Lakshmi Harris, also studied law and is the Executive Director of the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) of Northern California.
HARRIS ON THE WEB
www.kamalaharris.org
Her official website
www.youtube.com/watch?v=8oxlorMz7mI
Harris endorses Barack Obama
www.youtube.com/watch?v=a-G1VGJBWcU
Harris discusses gun control in San Francisco
HARRIS TRIVIA
She was born during Dussehra and was given one of the names of Goddess Lakshmi.
Her grandfather was a joint secretary in the Indian government.
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