Kamala Harris | |
|---|---|
 Official portrait, 2017 | |
| President of the United States Senate | |
| In office January 20, 2021 – January 20, 2025 | |
| Preceded by | Mike Pence |
| Succeeded by | JD Vance |
| United States Senator from California | |
| In office January 3, 2017 – January 18, 2021 Serving alongside Dianne Feinstein | |
| Preceded by | Barbara Boxer |
| Succeeded by | Alex Padilla |
The US Senate Career of Kamala Harris began on January 3, 2017 and ended with her resigning on January 18, 2021, to become Vice President of the United States under President Joe Biden. A member of the Democratic Party, Harris defeated another Democrat in the 2016 election to serve as the junior U.S. senator representing California, alongsisde Dianne Feinstein.
Harris was the first South Asian American U.S. senator and the second Black woman after Carol Moseley Braun. She was first the Black and South Asian American to represent California in the Senate, the second Asian American after S. I. Hayakawa, and the third woman after Feinstein and Barbara Boxer, Harris' predecessor. As a senator, Harris advocated for stricter gun control laws, the DREAM Act, federal legalization of cannabis, Medicare for All, and reforms to taxation. She gained a national profile while asking pointed questions of officials in the first administration of Republican president Donald Trump during Senate hearings, including Trump's second U.S. Supreme Court nominee, Brett Kavanaugh. In 2019, GovTrack designated Harris as the "leftmost Democratic senator".
Harris sought the 2020 Democratic presidential nomination in 2019, but withdrew from the race before the primaries. Biden selected her as his running mate; their ticket defeated the incumbent president and vice president, Trump and Mike Pence, in the 2020 presidential election. During Harris' vice presidency, she cast more tie-breaking votes than any other vice president under the office's role as President of the United States Senate. Her votes passed the American Rescue Plan Act of 2021 and Inflation Reduction Act of 2022.