Joe Biden names Kamala Harris as his Vice-Presidential running mate

Biden and Harris will take on Donald Trump and Mike Pence in this year's Presidential election.

Sulaiman Daud | August 12, 2020, 08:43 AM

Joe Biden, the presumptive Democrat candidate for this year's U.S. presidential election, announced that Kamala Harris is his pick for the candidacy of Vice-President of the United States.

Harris is currently a U.S. Senator representing the state of California. Earlier, she ran her own campaign for the presidency, but dropped out of the race on Dec. 3, 2019.

The daughter of immigrants from India and Jamaica, Harris previously served as California's Attorney General, its top law-enforcement official.

She ran for Senate and won her race in 2016, the same year Donald Trump won his presidential election.

Biden's choice sees Harris as only the third woman as a running mate on a main US party presidential ticket, after Democrat Geraldine Ferraro (with Walter Mondale) in 1984, and Republican Sarah Palin (with John McCain) in 2008.

This also marks the first time an African-American woman is on a major US party's presidential ticket.

In a Tweet at about 4:00am (Singapore time), Biden tweeted:

He added that Harris worked closely with his late son Beau Biden when she was Attorney General, and was "proud" of her work in taking on the big banks, lifting up working people, and protecting women and children from abuse.

In a tweet, Harris said that Biden can "unify" the American people, and said she was honoured to join him as the party's nominee for Vice-President.

Biden and Harris are expected to appear in-person together at a campaign event in Wilmington, Delaware, later today.

Top image from Joe Biden's Twitter page.