Kamala Harris, born October 20, 1964, in Oakland, California, became the 49th vice president of the United States under President Joe Biden.
She is the first woman and first African American to hold this position. Harris served in the U.S. Senate (2017–21) and as California’s attorney general (2011–17).
Her Jamaican father taught at Stanford, while her mother, of Indian heritage, was a cancer researcher.
After studying at Howard University and Hastings College, Harris worked as a deputy district attorney in Oakland.
She became known for her tough stance on crime and later became California’s attorney general.
She gained national attention during the Democratic National Convention in 2012. Harris sought the Democratic presidential nomination in 2020 but dropped out.
After George Floyd’s death, she advocated for social-justice reform. In November 2020, she was elected vice president.
After challenges from Trump supporters, Harris and Biden’s victory was certified in January 2021. Harris was inaugurated as vice president later that month.
Here is a powerful collection of quotes from Kamala Harris.
Best Kamala Harris Quotes
I’m one of the luckiest people on earth. ~ Kamala Harris.
Let’s not throw up our hands when it’s time to roll up our sleeves. Not now. Not tomorrow. Not ever. ~ Kamala Harris.
I’m not good at talking about myself. ~ Kamala Harris.
We need to pass comprehensive immigration reform, period. ~ Kamala Harris.
Sexism is real in this country. ~ Kamala Harris.
Hate crime is not new in the United States. ~ Kamala Harris.
Instead of giving corporations a big tax cut, let’s give the middle class a real, permanent tax cut. ~ Kamala Harris.
The American dream belongs to all of us. ~ Kamala Harris.
We don’t have to let extremists define us. ~ Kamala Harris.
You have to see and smell and feel the circumstances of people to really understand them. ~ Kamala Harris.
I often advocate that we look at many sides of an issue, walk in someone else’s shoes, and identify and reject false choices. ~Kamala Harris.
My mother cooked like a scientist. She had a giant Chinese-style cleaver that she chopped with, and a cupboard full of spices. ~ Kamala Harris.
I’m prepared to say that law enforcement should be allowed to seize the guns of those who are suspected to be involved in domestic terrorism. ~ Kamala Harris.
To be smart on crime, we should not be in a position of constantly reacting to crime after it happens. We should be looking at preventing crime before it happens. ~ Kamala Harris.
Listen, I think that people want a president who is going to be interested in the things that keep them up at night, the things that are weighing on them, the things that are debilitating and can be addressed. ~ Kamala Harris.
And so I would not enforce a law that would reject people and turn them away without giving them a fair and due process to determine if we should give them asylum and refuge. ~ Kamala Harris.
Top Kamala Harris Quotes
I think Hillary Clinton could do whatever she puts her mind to. I really do. She’s incredibly dedicated to public service, she is smart as a whip, and she’s effective. ~ Kamala Harris.
The truth is that the vast majority of Americans are good, fair, and just, and they want their country to reflect those ideals. ~ Kamala Harris.
A family shares hardships and a connected history. ~ Kamala Harris.
California has a special relationship with the Internet. Many of the core technologies that power the Internet were invented here. Many of the most successful online entrepreneurs and content creators – in business, the arts, and countless other endeavors – got their start here. ~ Kamala Harris.
I’ve had the honor of speaking at many commencements. ~ Kamala Harris.
We’re talking about in the Proposition 8 case fundamental rights, civil rights. I offer no apology for the position I took in Prop. 8. ~ Kamala Harris.
I always start my campaigns early, and I run hard. Maybe it comes from the rough-and-tumble world of San Francisco politics, where it’s not even a contact sport – it’s a blood sport. This is how I am as a candidate. This is how I run campaigns. ~ Kamala Harris.
I disagree with any policy that would turn America’s back on people who are fleeing harm. I frankly believe that it is contrary to everything that we have symbolically and actually said we stand for. ~ Kamala Harris.
In the years to come, what matters most is that we see ourselves in one another’s struggles. ~ Kamala Harris.
A patriot is not someone who condones the conduct of our country whatever it does. It is someone who fights every day for the ideals of the country, whatever it takes. ~ Kamala Harris.
I want to use my position of leadership to help move along at a faster pace what I believe and know the Obama administration wants to do around the urgency of climate change. ~ Kamala Harris.
California is not just the Golden State. We are also the Internet State. ~ Kamala Harris.
As a member of the Senate Intelligence Committee, I know that the men and women of our intelligence community put their lives on the line every day, and they do very dangerous work to keep our country safe. ~ Kamala Harris.
It was an act of patriotism when we worked to pass a law allowing the prosecution of federal hate crimes in the name of Matthew Shepard and James Byrd. ~ Kamala Harris.
We need to incorporate that age-old concept of redemption into the work that we do in the criminal justice system in California. ~ Kamala Harris.
In this great country, we celebrate success. We don’t want to penalize those who have done well. ~ Kamala Harris.
I convened the first-ever national training conference for prosecutors on how to promote and deal with hate crime issues in terms of prosecutions and also protocol for defeating the gay panic defense. ~ Kamala Harris.
Thoughtful Kamala Harris Quotes
Let’s be clear about this, and let’s be clear: we should not be creating incentives to house people in prison. We should be creating incentives instead to shut the revolving door into prison. ~ Kamala Harris.
People who work for me know that family comes first. And I’m fortunate to have a family that is very supportive of the work I do, so I don’t have to live two separate lives. ~ Kamala Harris.
My mother had a saying: ‘Kamala, you may be the first to do many things, but make sure you’re not the last.’ ~ Kamala Harris.
Everybody will make mistakes, and for some that mistake will rise to the level of being a crime. ~ Kamala Harris.
I love being in a courtroom. ~ Kamala Harris.
I believe in that old adage that ‘as goes California, so goes the country.’ ~ Kamala Harris.
I was born realizing the flaws in the criminal justice system. ~ Kamala Harris.
Doing nothing while the middle class is hurting. That’s not leadership. Loose regulations and lax enforcement. That’s not leadership. That’s abandoning our middle class. ~ Kamala Harris.
Generally speaking, the public appetite for criminal justice policy is just tough talk. ~ Kamala Harris.
We have to act with fierce urgency. Justice demands it. ~ Kamala Harris.
We’ve got to keep our eye on what’s happening with Russia and North Korea. We cannot lose sight of domestic policy, either. Healthcare. Immigration. Climate change. ~ Kamala Harris.
I just think it’s so important not to take yourself too seriously. ~ Kamala Harris.
Lena Waithe won an Emmy for writing while starring on the Netflix show ‘Master of None,’ but it might be more accurate to call her a Master of Everything. ~ Kamala Harris.
So many people trip in front of them because they’re looking over there or up ahead. ~ Kamala Harris.
If you want to deal with an epidemic – crime or health – the smartest and most effective and cheapest way to deal with it is prevention first. ~ Kamala Harris.
Wise Kamala Harris Quotes
‘Getting smart on crime’ does not mean reducing sentences or punishments for crimes. ~ Kamala Harris.
As a young prosecutor right out of law school at the Alameda County DA’s office that Earl Warren once led, I started my work. ~ Kamala Harris.
We don’t want to promote any system that treats the fact that an individual is LGBT as a personality disorder. And anything that perpetuates that perception is harmful – not only to that member of the community but the entire community. ~ Kamala Harris.
I was raised to be an independent woman, not the victim of anything. ~ Kamala Harris.
I did not learn the flaws of the criminal-justice system in law school or college or by reading about it. I grew up knowing the flaws and how it was disproportionately impacting the black community. It’s not academic for me. ~ Kamala Harris.
I think I have every piece of music Bob Marley ever made. ~ Kamala Harris.
Homophobia is real in this country. ~ Kamala Harris.
I strongly believe that for serious and violent criminals, we must absolutely hold them accountable for their crimes and send them to prison. ~ Kamala Harris.
What we know is smartphones are everywhere and they are rich in data. What we know is that there are apps once downloaded by the consumer that will also in turn download the consumers’ contact book. Most consumers don’t want that to happen and don’t know it’s happening. ~ Kamala Harris.
Democracy just cannot flourish amid fear. Liberty cannot bloom amid hate. Justice cannot take root amid rage. America must get to work … We must dissent from the indifference. We must dissent from the apathy. We must dissent from the fear, the hatred, and the mistrust. ~ Kamala Harris.
Part of my focus on what we need to do around smart gun safety laws is recognize we have to have more enforcement around gun dealers. ~ Kamala Harris.
I believe that a child going without an education is a crime. ~ Kamala Harris.
What we all want is public safety. We don’t want rhetoric that’s framed through ideology. ~ Kamala Harris.
I do not believe that government should be in the business of telling women what they should do with their bodies. ~ Kamala Harris.
Famous Kamala Harris Quotes
My mother was and will always remain my greatest hero. ~ Kamala Harris.
I’ll be judged on the body of work and not the popularity of any one decision. ~ Kamala Harris.
To change criminal justice policy in any meaningful way means to propose changing a very longstanding system. It’s not realistic to think you can do it overnight. ~ Kamala Harris.
I have loved to cook since I was a child in my mother’s kitchen. If I don’t have time to cook, I’ll just read a cookbook. ~ Kamala Harris.
I have a difficult time sitting down for long periods. ~ Kamala Harris.
With the advent of DNA, we know that people have been convicted and sentenced to death who later proved not to be guilty of the crime. ~ Kamala Harris.
Over the course of my career in law enforcement, I have witnessed over and over again the selflessness and sacrifice of law enforcement who lay their lives on the line every day to protect people who they will never meet and people who will never know their names. ~ Kamala Harris.
History has proven that each generation of Howard graduates will forge the way forward for our country and our world. ~ Kamala Harris.
Who of us has not had that situation where you’ve got to wait for approval, and the doctor says, ‘Well, I don’t know if your insurance company is going to cover this?’ Let’s eliminate all of that. ~ Kamala Harris.
A family looks for ways to support and inspire one another. ~ Kamala Harris.
Here’s the thing: every office I’ve run for I was the first to win. First person of color. First woman. First woman of color. Every time. ~ Kamala Harris.
If we do not lift up women and families, everyone will fall short. ~ Kamala Harris.
Popular Kamala Harris Quotes
I grew up hearing stories about my grandmother – my mother’s mother – who used to go to villages in India in her little VW bug. My grandmother would take a bullhorn and make sure women in these villages knew how to access birth control. ~ Kamala Harris.
If segregationists had their way, I would not be a member of the United States Senate today, I would not be a top contender to be president of the United States. ~ Kamala Harris.
Mitt Romney subscribes to the cynical logic that says the American dream belongs to some of us but not all of us. ~ Kamala Harris.
I understood that with the swipe of my pen as a prosecutor, I would have the decision in my pen to make a decision about someone’s life. ~ Kamala Harris.
I support Medicare for all. It is my preferred policy. ~ Kamala Harris.
What’s important for my daughter to know is that… if you are fortunate to have opportunity, it is your duty to make sure other people have those opportunities as well. ~ Kamala Harris.
Every day there are homeowners in California who will either receive relief so they can stay in their home, or will be in the foreclosure process and potentially lose their home. And that always weighed heavily on my mind. ~ Kamala Harris.
My parents met when they were graduate students at UC Berkeley in the 1960s. They were both active in the civil-rights movement. ~ Kamala Harris.
The bells will ring and the marriages will begin. And it’s a great day in our state for equal protection under the law for all people. ~ Kamala Harris.
Unique Kamala Harris Quotes
Running for office is similar to being a trial lawyer in a very long trial. It requires adrenaline and stamina; it requires being in shape mentally and emotionally. It’s a marathon. ~ Kamala Harris.
In California, we have some of the strongest consumer protection laws in the country. While it is easy to conceive of innovation and regulation as mutually exclusive, California is proof that we can do both. We can innovate responsibly. ~ Kamala Harris.
The bottom line on the Hyde Amendment is that it is directly, in effect, targeting poor women and women who don’t have money. ~ Kamala Harris.
These days, children can text on their cell phone all night long, and no one else is seeing that phone. You don’t know who is calling that child. ~ Kamala Harris.
My daily challenge to myself is to be part of the solution, to be a joyful warrior in the battle to come. ~ Kamala Harris.
I’ve had the good fortune and blessing to run for the offices for which I really wanted to do the work. ~ Kamala Harris.
I believe you’ve got to do your due diligence. ~ Kamala Harris.
My mother came from India to go to the University of California, Berkeley. ~ Kamala Harris.
Anti-Semitism is real in this country. ~ Kamala Harris.
There was a little girl in California who was part of the second class to integrate her public schools and she was bused to school every day. That little girl was me. ~ Kamala Harris.
I’m opposed to any policy that would deny in our country any human being from access to public safety, public education, or public health, period. ~ Kamala Harris.
So these were the 95 top Kamala Harris quotes on life, leadership, racism and ambition.
If you like these quotes and sayings, then you can also read my other posts on Jimi Hendrix quotes and Hunter S. Thompson quotes.
