7 Personal Facts You Didn’t Know About Kamala Harris

With President Biden’s recent endorsement of Kamala Harris as the 2024 Democratic nominee and his decision to drop out of the race, Harris’s presidential campaign is in full swing. Here are some lesser-known personal facts about her to get to know her better:

1. She is 59 years old

Kamala Harris was born on October 20, 1964, in Oakland, California. This makes her 59 years old. Serving as the Vice President of the United States since 2021, Harris has already made history as the first female, African-American, and Asian-American to hold the office. 

2. She met her husband on a blind date

Harris and her husband, Doug Emhoff, were exceptionally efficient in their romance. They were set up on a blind date by a mutual friend in 2013. The morning after their first date, Emhoff emailed her his availability for the next several months. They agreed to commit to each other for six months after their third date and evaluate their relationship. This practical approach worked well, and they got married in 2014. Harris has embraced her role as a stepmother to Emhoff’s two children from his previous marriage, Cole and Ella, who she likes to call her non-biological children.

3. Her parents are immigrants from India and Jamaica

Harris’s background is rich with cultural heritage. Her father, Donald Harris, immigrated from Jamaica to study economics, eventually becoming a professor at Stanford University. Her mother, Shyamala Gopalan, immigrated from southern India, earning a doctorate in nutrition and endocrinology at UC Berkeley, and became a renowned breast cancer researcher. Harris credits her mother for instilling pride in both their Indian and Black heritage and shaping her into the woman she is today. She often speaks about her parents’ involvement in the civil rights movement and how their activism influenced her. In her memoir, “The Truths We Hold,” she writes, “My mother understood very well that she was raising two Black daughters. She knew that her adopted homeland would see Maya and me as Black girls, and she was determined to make sure we would grow into confident, proud Black women.”

4. She dated Willie Brown in the 1990s

In the 1990s, Harris dated Willie Brown, the Speaker of the California Assembly. Their relationship was public and acknowledged by Brown, who admitted to helping advance her career. In a letter to the San Francisco Chronicle, Brown wrote, “Yes, we dated. It was more than 20 years ago.”When they met, Kamala was 29 and Wille was 60 and married, though he was “estranged from his wife,” according to People Magazine. She also had a brief relationship with talk show host Montel Williams in 2001, who recently supported her endorsement as Presidential candidate.

5. Called a ‘Brat’ by pop star Charli XCX

Recently, pop star Charli XCX referred to Harris as a “brat” on social media platform X (formerly Twitter). Charli XCX explained, “Kamala IS brat,” referring to the wave of hedonism and messiness that her new album, “Brat,” celebrates. Harris’s team even changed their social media feed color to the neon green of the album cover in a playful nod. 

The Biden campaign’s official account, Biden-Harris HQ, has officially rebranded to Kamala HQ with a ‘brat’ theme. pic.twitter.com/xy4FhdE5h7

— Pop Base (@PopBase) July 22, 2024

6. She loves Doritos on stressful nights

On the night of the 2016 election, Harris had a large family dinner and watched the results with a mix of dread and celebration. As the results came in, she found solace in a family-sized bag of Doritos, which she consumed entirely by herself. During an appearance on “Late Night with Seth Meyers,” she recalled, “It was extremely bittersweet, and I tore up all the notes I had prepared to read and I just took the stage and said, ‘We will fight, we will fight’.” “And then I went home and I sat on the couch with a family-sized bag of Doritos and I did not share one chip with anybody,” she laughed. “I just watched the TV with utter shock and dismay.”

via GIPHY

7. Her favorite shoes are converse

When it comes to her fashion sense, her style has become synonymous with her love of a classic American shoe: Converse’s lace-up Chuck Taylor sneaker. In an interview as part of Complex’s Sneaker Shopping series, Harris opened up about her passion for the black Converse: “I love my Chucks. You know, I think it’s maybe people don’t expect it, but also it’s a statement about who we really are. Everybody has their inner kind of Chuck look. I also think it has to do with the fact we all wanna go back to some basic stuff about who we are as a country. Chucks—whatever your background is, whatever language your grandmother spoke—you know, we all at some point or another had our Chucks.”