Catch Up with Kamala Harris

Find out about her credentials, her key positions, her social media memes, and why she’ll be a terrific president

Kamala Harris’ run for the presidency is inspiring, and we have momentum. To keep the momentum going, we need to inform every voter about her excellent qualifications, her confidence, her competence, and her powerful message.

Many voters still need to be introduced to Harris. They haven’t formed an opinion about her or her running mate. You can help by talking with everyone you know or meet, raising awareness about why it’s crucial for each of us to vote for Harris/Walz. (And you can share this page, which is accessible to everyone.)

Kamala Harris has impressive experience, having served as vice-president, U.S. senator, California attorney general, San Francisco district attorney, and prosecutor.

Her Message: We’re Not Going Back

“In this moment, I believe we face a choice between two different visions for our nation: one focused on the future, the other focused on the past. And with your support, I am fighting for our nation’s future.”

— Kamala Harris

Here’s how the Harris administration will move us forward.

She’ll protect our freedoms

  • Guarantee reproductive freedom (including abortion, contraception, IVF)

  • Preserve the freedom to marry whoever you love

  • Ensure free, fair elections

  • Protect the freedom to learn our nation’s history in schools

She’ll protect our health

  • Cap out-of-pocket costs for prescription drugs at $2000 a year for everyone

  • Lower the cost of health care and health insurance

  • Expand coverage by the Affordable Care Act

  • Strengthen Medicare and Social Security

She’ll increase our safety

  • Convict fraudsters and criminal gangs

  • Support an assault weapons ban

She’ll support families

  • Give a $6000 tax credit to new parents

  • Provide up to $25,000 down payment support for first-time home buyers

  • Ban price gouging on groceries

  • Continue student loan debt relief

  • Expand relief for medical debt

  • Increase the child tax credit and reduce child care costs

  • Give tax credits to those whose rent is more than 30% of their income

  • Fund public education, increase teacher pay, and provide universal pre-K

She’ll strengthen international relations

  • Stand up to dictators abroad and would-be dictators at home

  • Support NATO and our allies

  • Support Ukraine against Russian aggression

  • Crack down on asylum claims at the border (while treating asylum seekers humanely)

She’ll protect the environment

  • Acknowledge climate change and reduce carbon emissions

  • Set climate policy without interference from Big Oil execs

  • Encourage electric vehicle production

She’ll promote an economy that works for everyone

  • Continue to expand U.S. manufacturing jobs

  • Roll back Trump’s tax breaks for corporations and billionaires

  • Provide incentives to build more affordable housing

She’ll bring people together

  • Share her love of our country

  • Set a positive, upbeat tone of trust and optimism

  • Combat racism and hate

Learn more about Harris’ positions on her campaign website

Other sources for Harris’ key issues: CNN, NBC News, Politico, Washington Post, and Wikipedia

Harris’ Accomplishments

“Years from now, this moment will have passed. And our children and our grandchildren will look in our eyes and ask us: Where were you when the stakes were so high? And we will tell them. We will tell them, not just how we felt. We will tell them what we did.”

— Kamala Harris

Click on her past roles to sample Harris’ major achievements.

  • 2021 - 2024

    • Collaborated with President Biden on job creation, lower health care costs, crime reduction, and more (see our complete list)

    • Met with more than 150 world leaders, including meetings in Poland and Germany about responding to Russia’s Ukraine invasion

    • Worked with leaders in Mexico and Guatemala to address the root causes of immigration (contrary to Republican misinformation, she was not assigned to border security, or to be the "border czar")

    • Strengthened relations with France and South Korea

    • Supported women's rights by visiting an abortion clinic, a first for a sitting vice-president

    • Highest-ranking female elected official in U.S. history, and first African-American and Asian-American vice-president

    • In the VP's capacity as president of the Senate, cast 33 tie-breaking votes, including passage of the American Rescue Plan Act of 2021 (providing Covid relief) and passage of the Inflation Reduction Act in 2022

  • 2017 - 2021

    • Took a lead role with legislation on rent relief, health care, child care, small business support, infrastructure, and climate change

    • Challenged the policies of Trump appointees at Senate hearings, including Attorney Generals Jeff Sessions and William Barr

    • Voted against the confirmation of Supreme Court Justices Brett Kavanaugh and Neil Gorsuch

    • Strongly opposed Trump’s Muslim ban

    • Led initiatives to support green energy and combat climate change

    • Voted to convict Trump for abuse of power in his first impeachment

    • Worked with Republicans on bipartisan bills about bail reform, election security, and workplace harassment

    • Served on the Budget, Homeland Security, Intelligence, and Judiciary committees

  • 2011 - 2017

    • Refused to enforce California’s Proposition 8, which banned same-sex marriage, setting a precedent for marriage equality.

    • Oversaw improvements in police accountability, including required body cams and training

    • Played a key role in defending the Affordable Care Act in court

    • Won a $1.2 billion settlement against for-profit Corinthian College for false advertising and deceptive marketing

    • Introduced Homeowner Bill of Rights, which protected against unfair foreclosure tactics and won judgments of hundreds of millions from lenders

    • Prioritized environmental protection, getting multi-million-dollar settlements from Big Oil companies for oil spills and other hazards

    • Obtained agreement with Apple, Amazon, Google, Microsoft and others to inform users of what personal information the companies were sharing

    • Worked with the Attorney General of Mexico to crack down on transnational gangs involved in human trafficking

  • 2003 - 2010

    • Achieved an 87% conviction rate for homicides and a 90% conviction rate for all felony gun violations

    • Launched the Back on Track Program, giving job training and educational opportunities to first-time drug offenders

    • Created an environmental justice unit to address environmental crimes

    • Created a hate crimes unit, and advocated for a justice for victims act that Gov. Schwarzenegger signed into law

    • Wrote “Smart on Crime: A Career Prosecutor’s Plan to Make Us Safer (2006) -- available on Kindle

  • 1990 - 2002

    • Prosecuted homicide, burglary, robbery, sexual assault, and child abuse

For more about Biden-Harris wins, check out our full list.

Harris In Action: Hear her own words

Watch these short videos for a sample of what she stands for

Harris’ Pick for Vice President: Tim Walz

Kamala Harris’ pick for vice president has spent his life supporting his community. After growing up in rural Nebraska, Walz moved to Minnesota where he was elected twice as governor and six times as a representative in Congress. Before that, he served 24 years in the Army National Reserve and taught high school social studies for two decades.

One Walz specialty: finding common ground. In Congress, he took the lead with bipartisan legislation to support veterans and working families. As a teacher, he supported his all his students, by coaching the championship football team and serving as faculty advisor to the school’s first Gay-Straight Alliance chapter. Check out Walz’ accomplishments as Governor. You’ll see he’s a leader who bridges differences and gets things done.

Walz’ Achievements As Minnesota Governor (2018 - 2024): Here’s what he accomplished…

  • Cut taxes for working families

  • Provided paid family leave

  • Approved free meals for low-income schoolchildren

  • Protected a woman’s right to choose

  • Increased the number of police, and invested in body cameras

  • Prioritized renewable energy over fossil fuels

  • Prohibited voter suppression

  • Required universal background checks on gun purchases (he’s also a gun owner and hunter)

  • Provided $2.6 billion for improving roads, bridges, public transportation, and other infrastructure projects

More: New York Times, Politico, KamalaHarris.com,

Hear Walz share his vision and his good cheer at a Philadelphia rally

Harris’ Campaign Videos: Get revved up

If you missed them on TV, catch up here.

How Harris stands for freedom (with an appropriate soundtrack from Beyonce)

How fearlessness has powered Harris' policies, accomplishments, and future plans

How Harris' record on the border is stronger than her opponent's

All In For Harris: What the world is saying…

"She'll make a fantastic president of the United States."

—- Barack Obama

"I’ve known Kamala Harris for nearly two decades – we’ve both been prosecutors, we’ve both stood up for the rule of law, we’ve both fought for the people and delivered results. Kamala Harris is a patriot worthy of our support and she will continue the work of generations of Americans who came before us to perfect our union, protect our democracy, and advance real freedom.

—- Josh Shapiro, Pennsylvania Governor

"In Vice President Harris, Michigan voters have a presidential candidate we can count on to lower our costs, protect our freedoms, and build an economy that works for working people,”

-— Gretchen Whitmer, Michigan Governor

“As a proud conservative, I never thought I’d be endorsing a Democrat for President. But, I know Vice President Harris will defend our democracy and ensure Donald Trump never returns to the White House.

-— Adam Kinzinger, Former Republican Illinois Congressman

"As a lifelong conservative Republican, it was not an easy decision for me to endorse Vice President Harris, but I know that she fights for all Americans, right, left, or center, and will stand up for the Constitution.”

-— Geoff Duncan, former Georgia Lt. Governor

“She is a competent and experienced politician who knows exactly what she is doing and has a very clear idea of her country’s role, of developments in the world, and of the challenges we face."

--- Olaf Scholz, Chancellor of Germany

"Harris's background and leadership growing the economy, fighting for bodily autonomy, and protecting our democracy uniquely position her to push back against Trump's extremism."

--- Reid Hoffman, co-founder and executive chairman, LinkedIn

"She is an accomplished leader, a fierce advocate of abortion rights, and the strongest candidate to lead our country forward."

--- Sheryl Sandberg, former Meta COO

Kamala Memes: What They Mean

The energy and joy of the Harris campaign has caught on with her fans — known as the K-Hive. On social media, they’ve created countless videos and images based on a few themes.

  • Coconuts: In 2023, Harris shared this quote from her mother — who wanted her children to acknowledge what they’ve inherited from previous generations: “My mother… would say to us, ‘I don’t know what’s wrong with you young people. You think you just fell out of a coconut tree?’” Out of context, it’s kind of a kooky quote. Which seems to be why fans love it and repeat it all over social media.

  • Brat: Harris has been dubbed “brat,” which might not sound like an honor — but, especially to younger voters, it is. “Brat” is a top 10 album by Charli XCX, who flipped that previously negative term to mean a woman who is “earnest and unapologetically herself.” She also declared that Harris is “brat.” Fans have picked up on the term and touted it as a badge of honor, and Harris’ team is using Charli XCX’s trademark lime background for their own promotion images.

  • Venn Diagrams: Harris once announced — in a bit of an odd confession — that she loved the diagrams that illustrate a statistic by depicting circles and where they overlap. So now fans love them too.

  • Cat Ladies: In a 2021 interview with Tucker Carlson on Fox News, JD Vance referred to Harris as one of the “childless cat ladies” who “want to make the rest of the country miserable too.” Ooooh, the cat lovers of the world did not respond well to that. But Harris fans flipped it into a badge of honor — with cats standing up for their political rights.

For more about this mostly Gen-Z phenomenon, see CNN and NPR.

Hear the coconut tree comment in context at the induction ceremony for a presidential advisory commission.

One of the latest entries in the coconut meme, the Coconut Tree dance music theme.

Watch this medley of Harris memes from the women of Network NOVA, and you'll be up to date.