Over 6 million followers and counting: A look at US Vice Prez Kamala Harris’ Twitter handle

Kamala Harris was on Wednesday sworn in as the first female Vice President of the United States by Justice Sonia Sotomayor during a grand inauguration at the West Front of the US Capitol. Harris, 56, who is the 49th Vice President of the US is also the first African-American and Indian-origin woman to hold this position. Leaders from across the globe congratulated her and President Joe Biden and looked forward to strengthening ties with the United States further.

After taking the oath, Harris took to Twitter and wrote, “Ready to serve’- which already garnered over 525,000 likes and over 86,000 re-tweets at the time of writing this piece. Her official Twitter handle currently has more than 6 million followers, 778 followings and the bio states: “Vice President of the United States. Wife to the first @SecondGentleman. Momala. Auntie. Fighting for the people.” Her husband, Douglas Emhoff, is the first ‘Second Gentlemen’- the first male spouse of a Vice President in the United States. He will use @SecondGentleman account on the social media site from today.

Out of the 778 profiles that Harris follows, there are tennis player Serena Williams, actors Priyanka Chopra Jonas, Neil Patrick Harris, Mark Hamill and Chris Evans. She also follows celebrated author Padma Lakshmi and the official handle of The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA). The tweets on her official handle are majorly focused on the ongoing coronavirus (Covid-19) pandemic and the impact of the crisis on the American economy, precautions to combat the disease and updates on the number of cases and deaths.

Also Read| 'Ready to serve': Kamala Harris' first tweet as US Vice-President

Kamala Harris was born in Oakland, California in 1964 to an Indian mother and an African-American father from Jamaica. Her mother, Shyamala Gopalan Harris- who hailed from Chennai, was a breast cancer researcher and had died of cancer in 2009. While her father, Donald, is a Jamaican American professor of economics. During the US 2020 Presidential campaign trail, Harris often spoke about how her parents would push her in her stroller at civil rights marches.

Harris had won her first race for San Francisco district attorney in 2003, becoming the first black female to hold such an office in California. She also became the first black woman to be elected as California attorney general in 2010 and in 2016, she was the only second black woman ever to be elected as a US senator. Before departing as a senator from California, Harris tweeted, ‘ Thank you California—it has been an honor serving as your senator for the past four years. Our country has faced many challenges, but I remain certain that our best days are ahead. I promise to keep standing up for our shared values as your Vice President.”

Meanwhile, during Wednesday’s event- Harris and Emhoff, stood on the Capitol steps Wednesday to bid farewell to her predecessor, former Vice President Mike Pence, and his wife, Karen. The two couples stood and talked for a few moments even laughing, on the steps before the Pences got into a vehicle and were driven away.

(With agency inputs)