The Truths We Hold

Most mornings, my husband, Doug, wakes up before me and reads the news in bed. If I hear him making noises a sigh, a groan, a gasp I know what kind of day it s going to be.

November 8, 2016, had started well the last day of my campaign for the U.S. Senate. I spent the day meeting as many more voters as I could, and of course cast a vote myself at a neighborhood school up the street from our house. We were feeling pretty good. We had rented a huge place for my Election Night party, with a balloon drop waiting to go. But first I was going out for dinner with family and close friends a tradition dating back to my first campaign. People had flown in from all across the country, even overseas, to be with us my aunts and cousins, my in-laws, my sister s in-laws, and more, all gathered for what we hoped would be a very special night.
 
I was staring out the car window, reflecting on how far we d come, when I heard one of Doug s signature groans.

You gotta look at this, he said, handing me his phone. Early results for the presidential election were coming in. Something was happening something bad. By the time we arrived at the restaurant, the gap between the two candidates had shrunk considerably, and I was inwardly groaning as well. The New York Times probability meter was suggesting it was going to be a long, dark night.

We settled in for a meal in a small room off the main restaurant. Emotions and adrenaline were running high, but not for the reasons we had anticipated. On the one hand, while polls hadn t yet closed in California, we were optimistic that I was going to win. Yet even as we prepared for that hard-earned celebration, all eyes were on our screens as state after state came back with numbers that told a trou- bling story.

At a certain point, my nine-year-old godson, Alexander, came up to me with big tears welling in his eyes. I assumed one of the other kids in our group had been teasing him about something.

Come here, little man.

Kamala D. Harris is the Vice President-elect of the United States of America. She began her career in the Alameda County District Attorney's Office, then was elected district attorney of San Francisco. As California's attorney general, Harris prosecuted transnational gangs, big banks, Big Oil, and for-profit colleges, and fought against attacks on the Affordable Care Act. She also fought to reduce elementary school truancy, pioneered the nation's first open data initiative to expose racial disparities in the criminal justice system, and implemented implicit bias training for police officers. The second Black woman ever elected to the U.S. Senate and the first female, first Black, and first Indian-American Vice President-elect, Harris has worked to reform our criminal justice system, raise the minimum wage, make higher education tuition-free for the majority of Americans, and protect the legal rights of refugees and immigrants.

Its most memorable moments are those personal touches: Harris s recollections of family, friendships and, above all, of her late mother, an Indian immigrant and cancer researcher who raised Harris and her younger sister . . . instructive for anyone trying to imagine a Vice President Harris.
Carlos Lozada, The Washington Post

"A life story that genuinely entrances." Los Angeles Times 

An engaging read that provides insights into the influences of Harris s life. San Francisco Chronicle

In an era when many of our current political memoirs are either looking back at the Obama years or are attempting to grapple with our current state of government unrest, it is exciting to see a highly respected and powerful woman of color and daughter of immigrants tell her own story and offer some hope for the future of our country.   Bustle