Sen. Tim Kaine, who served as Hillary Clinton’s vice-presidential pick in 2016, celebrated his Senate colleague’s selection as presumptive Democratic nominee Joe Biden’s running mate on Wednesday, saying Kamala Harris has made history.
Mr. Kaine praised the California Democrat as Mr. Biden’s vice-presidential choice because she is the first African American to appear on a presidential ticket.
“In the year 2020 when we are commemorating the 100th anniversary of the amendment that guaranteed women the right to vote, I can think of no greater way to celebrate a centennial than for one of our colleagues, who is a woman, to have a chance to break a glass ceiling that still has existed; whereby, no woman in this county has ever been a vice president or president,” the Virginia Democrat said on the chamber floor.
“This is a good day I believe for the country,” he added.
The senator praised Mr. Harris’s record as a prosecutor in California and then the elected prosecutor for San Francisco. She eventually became California’s Attorney General where Mr. Kaine said Ms. Harris expanded her portfolio to include environmental justice.
“What I find so compelling about Senator Harris, in addition to her track record of public service during a very long career, is her personal story raised as the child of two immigrants,” Mr. Kaine added.
Ms. Harris’s mother was a breast cancer scientist who immigrated from India, and her father was a Stanford University economics professor from Jamaica.
