Kamala Harris's Father, Donald J. Harris Is an Award-Winning Stanford Professor (2024)

With the news that President Joe Biden is dropping out of the 2024 election and endorsing his vice president, Kamala Harris, to replace him on the ticket, Harris's life and career is firmly back in the spotlight.

In January 2021, when Harris was sworn in as the Vice President of the United States, she made American history as the first Black, first woman, and first Indian American to hold this office. Harris isn’t unfamiliar with being a “first” in her field, however: In 2011, Harris also made history when she was elected as the first Black and Indian American woman to serve as California’s attorney general.

As a lawyer and U.S. Senator, Harris’s identity in both her personal life and politics has been largely shaped by her background: her late mother, Shyamala Gopalan, who died in 2009, was an Indian immigrant, and her father, Donald J. Harris, is a Jamaican immigrant.

During the Democratic National Convention in August of 2020, Harris reflected on her upbringing, making brief mention of her father. “At the University of California Berkeley [my mother] met my father, Donald Harris, who came from Jamaica to study economics. They fell in love in that most American way, while marching together for justice during the Civil Rights movement in the 1960s. In the streets of Oakland and Berkeley, I got a strollers-eye view of people getting into what the great John Lewis called ‘good trouble.’”

In a 2018 essay written by Donald entitled Reflections of a Jamaican Father, he noted that he's always pushed for Kamala and her sister, Maya, to uphold a connection to their Jamaican roots as well as their American ones. “To this day, I continue to retain the deep social awareness and strong sense of identity which that grassroots Jamaican philosophy fed in me,” he wrote. “As a father, I naturally sought to develop the same sensibility in my two daughters.”

While Harris is very vocal about her Indian and Jamaican roots, it’s not often that she speaks out about her father. Below, what we know about Donald J. Harris.

He came to the United States to study economics.

Donald J. Harris was born in Jamaica in 1938, and moved to the United States in the 1960s to get his Ph.D. at the University of California-Berkeley. He later became naturalized as a U.S. citizen. Harris taught at the University of Illinois and Northwestern University briefly, then became an associate professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison before moving to California and securing a job as a Professor of Economics at Stanford University. Now, after retiring in the late 1990s, he holds the title of emeritus professor.

He spent many years at Stanford University.

According to Harris’s Stanford bio, “His research and publications have centered on exploring the analytical conception of the process of capital accumulation and its implications for a theory of growth of the economy, with the aim of providing thereby an explanation of the intrinsic character of growth as a process of uneven development.”

Throughout his career, Harris traveled around the world to conduct research, give seminars, and consult with various governments—including his home country of Jamaica, where he served as an economic adviser—to work toward boosting their economies.

He and Kamala’s mother met at Berkeley during the Civil Rights movement.

Harris and Gopalan met at the University of California, Berkeley, where they were both studying for their doctorates. According to their daughter’s autobiography, The Truths We Hold, Donald and Shyamala “met and fell in love at Berkeley while participating in the civil rights movement.” Speaking about her parents, Kamala said in an Instagram post: “They laid the path for me, as only the second Black woman ever elected to the United States Senate.”

He and Kamala’s mother divorced when she was seven years old.

Kamala was just seven years old when her parents separated, and her mother was granted full custody of Kamala and her sister Maya. In the 2018 essay mentioned earlier, Donald went into some detail about their divorce, noting that it “came to an abrupt halt in 1972” after he lost a “hard-fought custody battle in the family court of Oakland, California.” Despite the terms of their divorce, Harris claims that his love for his family didn't end when his marriage did. “Nevertheless, I persisted, never giving up on my love for my children or reneging on my responsibilities as their father.”

He made sure his daughters celebrated their heritage.

In the essay mentioned above, Donald also recalls memories of taking his daughters to Jamaica to teach them about their heritage.

“One of the most vivid and fondest memories I have of that early period with my children is of the visit we made in 1970 to Orange Hill,” he writes. “We trudged through the cow dung and rusted iron gates, up-hill and down-hill, along narrow unkempt paths, to the very end of the family property, all in my eagerness to show to the girls the terrain over which I had wandered daily for hours as a boy (with Miss Chrishy hollering in the distance: “yu better cum home now, bwoy, or else!”).”

This likely had a lasting impact, as Kamala often reflects on her family’s heritage and her ancestors—factors that have shaped her worldview as a politician.

He famously criticized a joke Kamala made about her Jamaican roots.

During an appearance on the radio show “The Breakfast Club” in February 2019, Kamala Harris joked with host Charlamagne tha God about her views on marijuana use. When asked whether she supported or opposed the legalization of the drug, she replied saying, “Half my family is from Jamaica. Are you kidding me?”

Her father was far from amused. In a statement to Jamaica Global Online, Donald wrote that “My dear departed grandmothers (whose extraordinary legacy I described in a recent essay on this website), as well as my deceased parents, must be turning in their grave right now to see their family’s name, reputation and proud Jamaican identity being connected, in any way, jokingly or not with the fraudulent stereotype of a pot-smoking joy seeker and in the pursuit of identity politics.”

Kamala Harris's Father, Donald J. Harris Is an Award-Winning Stanford Professor (2)

Lucia Tonelli

Assistant Editor

Lucia Tonelli is an Assistant Editor at Town & Country, where she writes about the royal family, culture, real estate, design, and more.

Kamala Harris's Father, Donald J. Harris Is an Award-Winning Stanford Professor (2024)

FAQs

What is Kamala Harris most know for? ›

She is known for high-profile grillings early in the Trump administration. It was 2018. Harris was still a relative newcomer in the Senate. And yet, she made a splash when she grilled Brett Kavanaugh, Trump's then-nominee for the Supreme Court.

What did Kamala Harris get her degree in? ›

She also completed a summer internship at the Federal Trade Commission, worked as a tour guide at the Bureau of Engraving and Printing, and participated in anti-apartheid protests at the South African embassy and National Mall. Harris graduated in 1986 with a degree in political science and economics.

Who is Donald Harris retired economics professor? ›

Donald Jasper Harris, OM (born August 23, 1938) is a Jamaican-American economist and professor emeritus at Stanford University, known for applying post-Keynesian ideas to development economics. He is the father of Kamala Harris, vice president of the United States, and of Maya Harris, lawyer and political commentator.

How did Kamala Harris's career start? ›

Vice President Kamala Harris got her start in politics at age 29, when she was just out of law school, at the Alameda County District Attorney's Office, where she met a 60-year-old kingmaker: California Assembly Speaker Willie Brown — arguably then the state's most powerful politician.

Why is Kamala Harris so inspiring? ›

She is not afraid to demand justice and show women and girls how to own their power and stand up for themselves. Throughout her career, Kamala has used her power to change and shake up the patriarchy of the government. She is a woman whose mother's ideology shaped her life and inspired her to become a better person.

What are three Kamala Harris accomplishments? ›

She also defended the Affordable Care Act in court and enforced environmental laws. In 2004, Vice President Harris was elected District Attorney of San Francisco where she was a national leader in the movement for LGBTQ+ rights, officiating the first same-sex wedding after Proposition 8 was overturned.

What does Kamala Harris fight for? ›

“In just 24 hours, Kamala Harris put abortion rights front and center for voters, broke fundraising records, and spun Donald Trump out into a manic and public breakdown — because he knows she is best-equipped to prosecute the case against a convicted felon like himself,” he said.

Is Kamala Harris' sister a lawyer? ›

Maya Lakshmi Harris (born January 30, 1967) is an American lawyer, public policy advocate, and writer. Harris was one of three senior policy advisors for Hillary Clinton's 2016 presidential campaign's policy agenda and she also served as chair of the 2020 presidential campaign of her sister, Kamala Harris.

How old do you have to be to be VP? ›

Thus, to serve as vice president, an individual must: be a natural-born U.S. citizen; be at least 35 years old; be a resident in the U.S. for at least 14 years.

Is Kamala Harris' husband the second husband? ›

Douglas Craig Emhoff (born October 13, 1964) is an American lawyer who is the second gentleman of the United States. He is married to the 49th vice president of the United States, Kamala Harris. As the first husband of a vice president, Emhoff is the first second gentleman in American federal history.

Was Kamala Harris ever married before? ›

What did Kamala Harris' mother tell her? ›

Who is Kamala Harris' ex-boyfriend? ›

Meet Kamala Harris's famous ex-boyfriend, Montel Williams: the former host of TV talk show The Montel Williams Show seemingly endorsed the vice-president on X, and is married to a flight attendant.

What did Kamala do in San Francisco? ›

She first worked at the Alameda County District Attorney's office, prosecuting child sexual assault cases and later moved to the San Francisco City Attorney's Office, which provides legal services to the city and represents it in civil claims; she served as head of the office's division on children and families.

What business supports Kamala Harris? ›

Netflix's cofounder Reed Hastings is supporting Harris' presidential bid with a $7 million donation. He told The Information it was the largest donation he'd made to a single candidate.

What is Kamala Harris promoting? ›

Though Harris has put her own spin on it, much of what she's focused on in recent days – defending women's reproductive freedom; rejecting “trickle-down economic policies”; standing up for democratic norms and values – mirrors what President Joe Biden had campaigned on.

What is a vice president? ›

The vice president of India (IAST: Bhārat kē Uparāṣṭrapati) is the deputy to the head of state of the Republic of India, i.e. the president of India.

Who is the Vice President of the United States? ›

Kamala D.

Harris is the Vice President of the United States of America. She was elected Vice President after a lifetime of public service, having been elected District Attorney of San Francisco, California Attorney General, and United States Senator.

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