Washington, November 7: Minutes after US media networks declared Joe Biden the winner from Pennsylvania, virtually calling an end to the White House race, he was dialled by his running mate - Kamala Harris. With three words - "we did it" - the Indian-origin Senator summed the outcome of their hectic campaign to unseat President Donald Trump from power. Donald Trump Not Conceding Defeat Against Joe Biden, Says 'US Entitled to an Honest Election'; Read Full Statement.

Kamala, with this victory, will add another 'first' to her storied political career so far. After emerging as the the first woman of colour to be elected district attorney of San Francisco, the first South Asian American to become a US senator, the 56-year-old would now become the first woman of colour, and the first woman of foreign-origin, as the well as the first-ever woman to hold the post of Vice President. Here's all you need to know about her.

Kamala Devi Harris, born in 1964 in Oakland, California, is the daughter of an Indian immigrant mother and father who had migrated to the United States from British Jamaica. Kamala, along with her sisters, visited Tamil Nadu -- her mother's province in India, several time during the formative years of her life.

Kamala began her career as a lawyer in the 1990s at the Alameda County District Attorney's Office in the city of Oakland. She went on to become the first woman of colour in 2011 to serve as California's attorney general.

In 2017, she was elected the junior Senator from California. The same year saw her drawing global media glare following her scathing questioning of Attorney General William Barr and then-Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh in the crucial Senate hearings.

A US-based policy tracker has said that Kamala has been one of the busier senators when it comes to introducing congressional legislation. "Her 54 bills introduced in 2019 tied for 19th-most among all 100 senators, while her 52 bills introduced in 2017-18 put her in the top third among senators," the report by GovTrack said.

In the past three years as a Senator, Kamala was also a member of key Legislative Committees including the Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, the Select Committee on Intelligence, the Committee on the Judiciary, and the Committee on the Budget.

In 2019, Kamala decided to enter the presidential race, despite the odds of candidacy then leaning heavily in favour of Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders. Though her entry was met with fanfare, Kamala failed to remain in the race after consecutive defeats in the primaries. In January, she dropped herself out of the quest to clinch Democratic party's nomination.

On the policy front, some of Kamala's priorities are criminal justice reform and racial justice legislation. She supports the legalized same-sex-marriage and calls for a ban on assault weapons in the US. Policy-watchers also remain on the tenterhooks to observe how the US-India relations shape out with her being the VP.

'We Did It': Kamala to Joe After Historic Poll Results

"This election is about so much more than Joe Biden or me. It’s about the soul of America and our willingness to fight for it. We have a lot of work ahead of us. Let’s get started," Kamala posted in another tweet.

(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Nov 08, 2020 12:19 AM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).