Kamala Harris, the California Senator of Indian origin has been named by Joe Biden as his running mate on August 11.The announcement came via a tweet, where Biden named Kamala Harris as his running mate.
Harris, a 55-year-old first-term senator, is in the race to become America's first black female Vice President.
This is a series of firsts for the Californian senator. In addition to being the first Black woman on a major party's presidential ticket, she's also the first Indian American.
Vera Mindy Chokalingam or Mindy Kaling, Indian-American comedian and actress, has been a longtime supporter of Harris, who is of mixed Indian and American heritage. Harris’ mother, Shyamala Gopalan, was born in Chennai and immigrated to the United States to attend a doctoral program at UC Berkeley.
Last year, in a less-than-nine-minute-video with Mindy Kaling, posted to the senator's Youtube page during Harris's presidential run last year, the two cook Indian food together and embraced their shared South Indian background.
In this viral video from 2019, Harris helps Kaling with the preparation as the two chat about their childhood and Indian dishes they used to eat growing up. The senator shared an anecdote about how her family would only eat vegetarian food but her grandfather would cheekily suggest they eat French toast (made with egg) when her grandmother was away. Towards the end of the video, Mindy Kaling’s father Avu Chokalingam makes a small appearance and briefly interacts with Harris, who tells him of the times she visited her grandparents in Besant Nagar in Chennai, Tamil Nadu.
Harris shared in an interview that her grandfather was one of the original Independence fighters in India, adding that some of her fondest memories from childhood were walking along the beach with him after he retired and lived in Besant Nagar.
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