Despite Donald Trump’s win, there were still some moments of hope in what has been a long and exhausting election.
One of the main ones: the election of California’s Attorney General Kamala Harris to the U.S. Senate.
With her win, Harris becomes the first Black politician to represent the state of California in the Senate and only the second Black woman in the U.S. Senate. She will succeed Democrat Barbara Boxer, who is retiring after serving four terms in the U.S. Senate.
Here are five more things to know about her:
1. Harris is the oldest daughter of immigrants from India and Jamaica. Born in Oakland, she has one younger sister, Maya Harris, an attorney and senior policy adviser for Hillary Clinton’s campaign.
2. She was the first woman and first person of color ever elected as California attorney general in 2001.
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3. Harris attended Howard University as a political science and economics major. She thrived on the debate team and became a member of Alpha Kappa Alpha. It was also there that she had her first taste of politics. Harris earned her law degree at the University of California, Hastings College of the Law.
4. She has always been passionate about children’s causes, specializing in child abuse in her early career as an assistant district attorney.
5. She counts President Obama as a close friend and adviser for over a decade. Each has helped raise money or endorse the other as they rose through the political ranks. In 2013, the president landed in hot water when he called Harris the “best-looking attorney general” in the country during a Democratic fundraiser in the Bay Area. He later apologized.