– A fearless champion – VG

OAKLAND (VG) Donald Trump has called Kamala Harris a communist and a monster. Friends tell of a “fearless champion” who will not be defined by others.

If the Democrats win the election, she will be America’s first colored, female vice president. But in the beginning she did not have great political ambitions, her friends tell VG.

It is over 25 years ago now, but Libby Schaaf still has the incident clearly in mind. She had just started working on a volunteer program for public schools in Oakland, a town just east of San Franscico, when she was contacted by a young female lawyer.

The woman’s name was Kamala Harris, and she had set out to build a mentoring program for children in vulnerable parts of the city.

– She came to me to hear if I could help her with her vision, and to be honest …, Schaaf says to VG, before she bursts out laughing.

– She was so organized, so I do not think I was of any particular help at all.

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Kamala Harris succeeded in establishing the mentoring program, at a secondary school in a criminally charged area. And she, who was the principal of the school at the time, stood in one of the first rows when Harris launched her presidential campaign many years later.

– This story is such a good example of who she is and who she has always been, long before she was in the public spotlight. She was a fearless champion of our most vulnerable, says Schaaf.

Influenced by parents

The story was also the beginning of a long friendship between the two. Libby Schaaf is now mayor of Oakland, where Kamala Harris was born. Harris himself often talks about his roots in the city, which is one of the most multicultural in the United States.

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Her parents met nearby, as students at the University of Berkeley. The father Donald Harris came from Jamaica, the mother Shyamala Gopalan was the daughter of an Indian diplomat who had fought for India’s independence.

They divorced shortly after Harris started school.

In her first speech after she was elected vice presidential candidate, Harris talked about how her mother raised her and her sister Maya to become politically engaged.

– She said to us: «Do not just sit and complain. Do something! ”She said.

His mother died of cancer in 2009, the year before Harris was appointed attorney general of California.

– I was with her that night and remember how sad it was that her mother could not be present to watch that moment, says Libby Schaaf.

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Debbie Mesloh, another friend of the vice presidential candidate, who has also been her adviser, says that her mother has had a great influence on Harris.

– One of the things I have learned from Kamala is not to let others define you. Her mother talked about it all the time, says Mesloh.

Harris herself has repeatedly told how she was affected by her parents’ past as a civil rights activist.

“We joke that we grew up surrounded by a bunch of adults who marched and shouted about something they called justice,” she told the Washington Post last summer.

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– Will make a difference

But the ambitions to become a top politician were not there from the start, according to the two friends VG has spoken to.

– She wants to make the world a better place. I think it is natural that her talent and values ​​led her into politics, but I have never had the impression that this is where it started, says Libby Schaaf.

– I think she has always wanted to make a difference. Her ambitions developed as she went from one office to another, says Debbie Mesloh.

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She started as a prosecutor, before becoming a state’s attorney in San Francisco and then a state’s attorney in California. In 2016, she was elected to the Senate.

This background is not uncontroversial. Descriptions as a “tough police chief” have followed her since she ran for president last year, and when VG met voters in Oakland earlier this autumn, several thought it was difficult to trust her.

One of the reasons for the skepticism is that she criminalized the parents of children who had too much unjustified absenteeism, according to the Washington Post.

On the contrary, Libby Schaaf believes that this policy illustrates the analytical abilities of the Vice Presidential candidate.

– She went straight to the heart of the problem to prevent crime, instead of punishing criminals after the injury had already occurred, she says.

– And it is this analytical way of thinking that she wants to take with her to solve the biggest problems in the country.

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Hip and fun

Privately, Kamala Harris is described as warm and caring. She likes to cook, and then preferably a combination of dishes from India and Jamaica. At the same time, she is nimble, with a wonderful sense of humor, according to friends.

– She is also very hip, says Debbie Mesloh and laughs.

– I think everyone has now seen her in Converse and Timberlands.

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The contrasts to how she is described by some of her political opponents are great. Republicans portray her as a radical communist, and in an interview with the television channel Fox, Donald Trump called Harris “a monster.”

Debbie Meslow is not surprised by the characteristics. She believes it shows what women have to endure at this level in politics.

– For me as a friend, it has been difficult to see all the nicknames and insults, but she will never let something like that get in her way, she says.

– She has a laser focus. When she is treated like that, she works twice as hard to show what is possible. And she has always done that.

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