As the election campaign and debates intensify, let’s learn about the top contenders in the race: Kamala Harris from the Democratic Party and Donald Trump from the Republican Party.
Kamala Harris
Indian origin Kamala Devi Harris’ nomination was an interesting one. She announced her candidacy after the current US President Joe Biden opted to end his campaign following controversy in a debate performance. Biden withdrew his candidature a few weeks after the campaign began and Kamala Harris was nominated on July 21. Here are a few interesting things to note:
- Harris is the first Black woman and first Asian American woman to contest in the US President race from a major political party.
- Though Harris grew up in Oakland and spent her career in California, her ancestry can be traced back to India’s Tamil Nadu. She is the daughter of Shyamala Gopalan, a biologist and Donald J Harris, a Jamaican native. She has a sister Maya Lakshmi Harris.
- She was the Attorney General of California from 2011 to 2017 and was the first African American, and the first South Asian American to hold the office.
- She was the US Senator from 2017 to 2021 where she was hailed for her prosecutorial questioning style during hearings.
- Harris is married to Doug Emhoff, and his step mom to Cole and Ella.
Donald Trump
78 year old Donald Trump was the 45th US President and held the office from 2017 to 2021. An economics graduate from the University of Pennsylvania, Trump was into real estates, and was a reality television star before his political career began. Here are a few interesting things to note:
- Trump does not believe in exercising and considers it as a waste of time and energy. He believes the human body is a battery with only a finite amount of energy and exercise depletes it faster.
- Trump’s favorite movie is Citizen Kane. “I think you learn in Citizen Kane that maybe wealth isn’t everything. Because he had the wealth, but he didn’t have the happiness,” he said in a 2002 video interview.
- He was the third president in US history to be impeached by the U.S. House of Representatives and the only president to be impeached twice-once in 2019 and once in 2021.
- In 2020, he was defeated by Joe Biden by 306 votes.
- On July 13, during a campaign rally in Butler Township, Pennsylvania Trump had a narrow escape from an assassination attempt where a bullet grazed his ear.
Other candidates outside of the major parties who are contesting for the President post are Cornel West, Jill Stein and Chase Oliver. Tim Walz and JD Vance are running for Vice President position.
