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:
I have the great honor to announce that I’ve picked @KamalaHarris — a fearless fighter for the little guy, and one of the country’s finest public servants — as my running mate.
— Joe Biden (@JoeBiden) August 11, 2020
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.
.@JoeBiden can unify the American people because he's spent his life fighting for us. And as president, he'll build an America that lives up to our ideals.
— Kamala Harris (@KamalaHarris) August 11, 2020
I'm honored to join him as our party's nominee for Vice President, and do what it takes to make him our Commander-in-Chief.
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.
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