Director of Kamala Harris’ short-lived campaign in 2019, Maya Harris, the Democratic candidate’s little sister, is a real shadow advisor. This 57-year-old lawyer has always followed in the footsteps of her elder.
The American press nicknamed her “the Bobby Kennedy of Kamala”. Since the start of her presidential campaign, Kamala Harris has been able to count on the unfailing support of her little sister, Maya Harris, whom the general public (re-)discovered during the Democratic National Convention on August 22. According to the American press, this brilliant 57-year-old lawyer has played the role of “shadow advisor” to the Democratic candidate for “more than 20 years”.
Maya and Kamala Harris were raised together first in California, then in Canada after the divorce of their parents, Shyamala Gopalan, an Indian biologist, and Donald J. Harris, a Jamaican economist. Very close friends during their childhood, the two sisters became even closer after Maya Harris’ pregnancy at just 17 years old, while she was still a student. A birth which did not prevent the young woman from successfully studying law at Stanford and becoming both a lawyer (like her big sister) and a law professor.
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Over the years, Maya Harris has established herself as a fierce advocate for social justice and a true activist for minority rights. She is best known in the United States for her role in the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), an association whose mission is to preserve individual freedoms. But also for having campaigned for Hillary Clinton in 2016.
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In the shadow of Kamala Harris since 2003
After several years as vice-president of the Ford Foundation, a philanthropic organization, Maya Harris was, in fact, appointed political advisor to Hillary Clinton during her presidential campaign. Kamala Harris’ little sister was then responsible for advising the Democratic candidate on various subjects including criminal justice, immigration and the opioid crisis.
A role that was already somewhat familiar to her since Maya Harris had already established herself as one of Kamala Harris’ most important supporters during her victorious campaign for the post of San Francisco prosecutor in 2003. And three years later he election of Donald Trump, Maya Harris agreed to become Kamala Harris’ campaign manager, before the latter stepped down to make way for Joe Biden.
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This year, the fifty-year-old did not receive an official title (unlike her husband, Tony West, director of Uber and named “close advisor” to Kamala Harris), but her role would be no less important. The attorney not only gave a speech at the Democratic Convention, but she was also on the ground knocking on doors and mobilizing voters. She is above all the main confidante of the Democratic candidate, a key role when seeking such a mandate.
In a rare interview with “People” magazine, Maya Harris said she was “really proud to be able to be on the ground, in these key states, to encourage people to knock on all doors, to call all voters, to texting their friends and family members between now and Election Day, to really have those personal conversations that help people understand who Kamala is, what she’s fighting for, why they believe in her. »
“I will call her Madam President”
In the same interview, Maya Harris assured that she would “always support” her big sister, emphasizing that “Kamala readily accepts advice, not just from [s]apart, but from every person she meets who has an experience and a point of view that she perhaps does not have. “It’s something that inspires me to see this and that I’m proud of as a young sister,” she said.
Convinced that the Democratic candidate can win against Donald Trump next Tuesday, Maya Harris continued: “Kamala is afraid of nothing, she is relentless, she is tough, she is courageous. She really has been like this since we were kids. She never backed down from a challenge. » But, she admits, her sister is “the outsider in this race”. This is why she promises to remain mobilized until the announcement of the results on November 5. And, she promises: “When she is elected president of the United States, I will call her Madam President… In the meantime, she remains big sister Kamala. »
In 2019, Kamala Harris said, in an interview with the “Washington Post” about her sister: “We have always supported each other. Our bond is unbreakable. In times of joy and in trials, we have always been together. » The Vice-President of the United States had notably entrusted a very symbolic role to her sister during her marriage to Doug Emhoff in 2014, that of officiant of the secular ceremony.
