Indian-American Kamala Harris wins California AG poll
Thursday, 04 November 2010, 09:00 IST
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Washigton: Endorsed by U.S. President Barack Obama, Indian-American Kamala Harris won the election for Attorney General of California , soon after Indian origin Nikki Haley of Republican Party scripted history by winning the governorship of South Carolina. Kamala will be the first woman to hold the office of Attorney General in California, elections for which were held yesterday. Daughter of an Indian mother and African-American father, Harris is currently the San Francisco Attorney General. She would replace Democratic Jerry Brown who won the election for Governor of California on Tuesday. Harris, who was the only Indian-American candidate to be publicly endorsed by Obama, defeated Steve Cooley of the Republican Party in a tough fight. "Kamala has done a remarkable job in San Francisco. Now it's time to send her to Sacramento so she can get those same results for all Californians -- but she needs our help if she's going to win this race," Obama had said in his endorsement message last month. The US President had also attended a fund raiser for Harris in California last month. In key mid-term polls in which President Obama's Democrats were routed, 38-year-old-Haley, born of Sikh parents who migrated from Punjab, became only the second Indian- American to be a Governor of a U.S. State after Bobby Jindal of Louisiana; and also the first Indian-origin woman governor. Haley received 52 percent of votes as against her Democratic rival Vincent Sheehan who polled 46 percent. She has served three-terms in the South Carolina House of Representatives where she represented Lexington County and was also the first Indian-American to hold office in that state. Born and raised in the East Bay, Kamala was elected as the first woman District Attorney in San Francisco's history in December 2003, and as the first African-American woman and South Asian American woman in California to hold the office. She was overwhelmingly reelected to a second term in November 2007. Kamala is the daughter of Shyamala Gopalan, a Tamilian breast cancer specialist who traveled to the United States from Chennai, to pursue her graduate studies at UC Berkeley.
Source: PTI
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