Biden picks Kamala Harris as his running mate, the first Asian American on a presidential ticket.

OPINION:

It is hard not to feel a bit of excitement at Joe Biden's choice for his running mate, California's Sen. Kamala Harris, the first Asian American and first African American to run as Vice President in a major political party.

That excitement seems to be running throughout the Asian American and Black communities after Biden made his announcement today (Aug. 11).

“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,” Biden tweeted.

It is a historic pick by former Vice President Biden, the presumptive Democratic nominee to challenge incumbent Donald Trump.

Harris stayed out of the media's eye Tuesday, but in the age of social media, she tweeted: "@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. 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 scheduled to meet the media together Wednesday in Delaware, Biden's home state.

If the Biden-Harris ticket wins in November, Harris would be the first Asian American, the first woman of any race or ethnicity and the second Black person in U.S. history to be vice president or president.

While most of mainstream media touted Harris' Black heritage during her unsuccessful attempt to win the Democratic nomination for President, AAPI communities noted that her mother is an immigrant from India.

"To those who might puzzle over seeing Harris as an Asian American candidate ... Harris has spoken powerfully about her Indian heritage and how it has connected up with the Black civil rights movement through the example and work of her mother," tweeted Karthick Ramakrishnan of AAPI Data.

Biden’s search was expansive, including Illinois Sen. Tammy Duckworth, a Thai American veteran whose moderate position largely mirrored Biden's, Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren, a leading progressive; Florida Rep. Val Demings, whose impeachment prosecution of Trump won plaudits; California Rep. Karen Bass, who leads the Congressional Black Caucus; former Obama national security adviser Susan Rice and Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms, whose passionate response to unrest in her city garnered national attention.

As a prosecutor, former state attorney general, and now senator with national recognition, Harris has the ability, stature, and experience essential for vice president. While there is consternation among progressives about her tough on crime record, this could benefit Biden and allow him to attract centrists and even moderate Republicans, many of whom realize Trump's unpredictable behavior doesn't reflect their own positions but are worried by the left's demands to reappropriate funds destined for the police.

Harris was born in Oakland to a Jamaican father and Indian mother, ‎Shyamala Gopalan‎, who realized that her daughters would always be recognized for their Blackness and deliberately raised them in the Oakland-Berkeley Black community, attending a Black Baptist church on Sundays. Harris' mother balanced that out with summer trips to India to strengthen that link to their Asian heritage.

After earning an undergraduate degree from Howard University and a law degree from the University of California, Hastings, she began her career in the Alameda County District Attorney's Office.

Harris won her first election in 2003 when she became San Francisco’s district attorney.

She was elected California’s attorney general in 2010, the first woman and Black person to hold the job, and focused on issues including the foreclosure crisis. She declined to defend the state’s Proposition 8, which banned same-sex marriage and was later overturned by the U.S. Supreme Court.

In 2017, she was sworn in to represent the state in the US Senate.

Additionally, as a black woman who was a major contender for the Democratic nomination and who is left of center on most issues (but not the extreme left), Harris is uniquely positioned to generate the high level of excitement and enthusiasm within the party's diverse interest groups that Biden needs.

As Biden delayed his announcement by a week, various interest groups began lobbying for a particular candidate to be Biden's choice and for fair treatment for the woman Biden would eventually pick.

Ahead of Harris' selection, an influential group called We Have Her Back — which includes former Obama senior adviser Valerie Jarrett and Tina Tchen of TimesUp, it also came from leaders from Planned Parenthood and Emily's List — sent a letter to media outlets urging fair coverage of the vice presidential candidate.

"Women have been subject to stereotypes and tropes about qualifications, leadership, looks, relationships and experience. Those stereotypes are often amplified and weaponized for Black and Brown women. Attempts at legitimate investigations of a candidate have repeatedly turned into misguided stories that perpetuate impressions of women as inadequate leaders, and Black and Brown women as worse. 

The letter continued, urging the media to resist popular coverage tropes such as "likeability" and "electability" for candidates who happen to be women — analysis they point out is hardly ever applied to male candidates.

Harris had one thing the other vice president contenders did not. She had a close friendship with Biden's late son, Beau Biden, who was the Attorney General for Delaware when Harris, as California's Attorney General, was battling the big banks over the mortgage crisis. 

Harris’s friendship with Beau Biden, who died in 2015 at the age of 46 from brain cancer, was something that Biden said he “thought a lot about” as he pondered his vice president pick. “There is no one’s opinion I valued more than Beau’s and I’m proud to have Kamala standing with me on this campaign,” Biden wrote in a campaign email.

In a statement, Obama offered his congratulations to Harris, who chaired his Presidential campaign in California.

"She is more than prepared for the job," Obama said of Harris. "She's spent her career defending our Constitution and fighting for folks who need a fair shake. Her own life story is one that I and so many others can see ourselves in: a story that says that no matter where you come from, what you look like, how you worship, or who you love, there's a place for you here. It's a fundamentally American perspective, one that's led us out of the hardest times before. And it's a perspective we can all rally behind right now."

Sen. Tammy Duckworth, Illinois, who was also among the finalists on Biden's list of potential running mates, congratulated the Biden-Harris ticket on Twitter.

The Indian American media and community has been keeping a close eye on Biden's campaign anticipating and advocating for Harris.

For a lot of people, the Kamala Harris pick struck a very personal chord. "Not gonna lie...tears...," tweeted Vanita Gupta, president and CEO of the Leadership Council of Civil and Human Rights.

“The fact that Democrats picked the daughter of Indian and Jamaican immigrants for VP tells you what we stand for," tweeted Rep. Ro Khanna, D-Silicon Valley. 

"(Harris) represents a multi-racial, multi-cultural future for America.” said the Indian American lawmaker.

"This will be an important educational moment for America, as we learn to fully include South Asians, including multi-racial South Asians like Harris, in the Asian American story," says Ramakrishnan.