Kamala Harris gestures during a speech.

Gulf Today report

Even as millions of Americans gear up to vote in Tuesday’s elections, the Democrat grabbing a lot of attention both on and off television is perhaps not Joe Biden, but his running mate Kamala Harris. The woman of mixed descent is a remarkable trailblazer.

But it has not been a smooth ride to the top. In a report, when asked what advice she has for women, Harris said: "You never have to ask anyone permission to lead. I have in my career been told many times, 'It's not your time'', 'It's not your turn''. Let me just tell you, I eat 'no'' for breakfast. So, I would recommend the same. It's a hearty breakfast."

She was the first woman and first person of colour to be district attorney for San Francisco.

She was California’s attorney general in 2011, again being the first woman and the first person of colour to hold the position.

Upon winning her US Senate seat in 2017, she became the second black woman and first South Asian woman to serve as a congressional Senator.

Now Harris, 55, is the first woman of colour to run as vice president on a major political party’s presidential ticket. If she wins, she would become the first first woman and first person of colour to hold the position of Vice President.

The prospect of an Indian-American being named Vice President of the US is creating a whirlwind of excitement in the country where Harris’s mother, a Tamilian, was born. Her father is Jamaican.

Shashi Tharoor, a senior MP with the opposition Congress Party in India, said a Biden-Harris victory “would inspire Indian-Americans”.

However, Harris calls herself first a Black woman rather than Indian-American.

But this does not diminish her love for Indian food. According to a report, she loves idlis (steamed rice cakes) with a ‘really good sambar (a lentil-based vegetable stew)”  and "any kind of tikka (an Indian dish of small pieces of meat or vegetables marinated in a spice mixture).”

To take care of her mental health on the campaign trail, she works out every morning, speaks with her kids and loves to cook.

Harris' first name Kamala, which means lotus, has long been mispronounced in US political circles. It has become the butt of jokes among Republicans.

Fox News' Tucker Carlson and more recently Georgia Senator David Perdue do more than mispronounce Kamala Harris' first name. They jump off the deep end.

"KAH-mah-lah? Kah-MAH-lah? Kamala-mala-mala? I don't know. Whatever," Perdue, who has worked across the aisle with Harris for three years in the US Senate, said in his speech at a recent campaign rally for President Donald Trump.

Harris uses the legacy of her cultural tradition to blunt the pejorative remarks.

"I think that the name that your parents give you, whoever you are, meaning whatever your gender or race or background or language your grandmother speaks, is a very special thing," Harris, 56, told the latest edition of People magazine in an interview with her husband.