【プロフィル】カマラ・ハリス氏、ガラスの天井打ち破れるか

【ワシントンＡＦＰ＝時事】米史上で女性、黒人、そして南アジア系として初めて副大統領の座に就いたカマラ・ハリス氏（５９）。これまで、共和党からは大統領の職務遂行不能時に権限を引き継ぐには不適任だと批判を受けてきたが、２１日にジョー・バイデン大統領が選挙戦撤退を表明したのを受け、ドナルド・トランプ前大統領の再選を阻止するには最良の人材として、民主党内で称賛されている。（写真はカマラ・ハリス米副大統領）
　支持率低迷に苦しんできたハリス氏だが、この１年でかつてのイメージを払拭（ふっしょく）してきた。
　民主党の大統領候補としてバイデン氏の支持を受け、候補指名を「勝ち取る」と声明で明言。「全力を尽くして民主党、そしてこの国を団結させ、ドナルド・トランプを打ち負かす」と宣言した。
　高齢のバイデン氏が昨年、見るからに衰えを見せた中、ハリス氏は人工妊娠中絶の権利を訴え、都市部郊外の女性や黒人男性を含むコアな有権者への訴えにも力を入れてきた。
　バイデン氏の出馬をめぐり、隙あらばチャンスを狙おうと我欲に走る者も現れる中、バイデン氏に忠誠を示し続けたことで党内からも称賛を得た。
　移民のルーツを持ち、父はジャマイカ人で、母はインド人。黒人として、また女性として初めてカリフォルニア州司法長官を務め、その後、南アジア系米国人として初めて連邦上院議員に選出され、輝かしいキャリアを築いてきた。
　一方で、副大統領就任後は失言が多いとの批判を受けた。不法移民問題でメキシコ国境を訪問した際には質問にうまく答えられず、守勢に追い込まれた。側近の離職も相次ぎ、内部の不協和音もささやかれた。
　しかし、２０２４年大統領選に向けた動きが本格化すると、状況は変わり始めた。
　中絶の権利を唱える党の主張を強調するため、激戦州にもたびたび足を運び、副大統領として初めて中絶クリニックも訪問した。
　うっかり汚い言葉を使うことも多く、家族の間で呼ばれている「モマラ」というニックネームが広まるなど、ここに来てようやく雑音をはねのけ、有権者の関心と熱狂を獲得し始めた。
　トランプ氏に勝利すれば、ハリス氏は米国女性に残された最も高いガラスの天井の一つを打ち破り、初の女性米国大統領となる。【翻訳編集ＡＦＰＢＢＮｅｗｓ】
〔ＡＦＰ＝時事〕（2024/07/22-17:04）

For years Kamala Harris faced criticism that she was not up to the job of being a heartbeat away from the US presidency. Now, she finds herself feted by Democrats as their best hope to stop Donald Trump's comeback.
Despite blazing a trail as the first woman, Black and South Asian vice president in the nation's history, the 59-year-old Democrat long struggled with approval ratings as bad or worse than President Joe Biden's.
The last 12 months, however, have revealed a transformed Harris.
And with Biden's endorsement in hand, after he stunned the world by dropping his own reelection bid Sunday, she's suddenly on the cusp of history.
In a statement full of plaudits for Biden's achievements in office -- it was unmatched in modern American history, she said -- Harris vowed to earn and win the nomination.
I will do everything in my power to unite the Democratic Party -- and unite our nation -- to defeat Donald Trump, she said.
Harris will hope she has done the hard work to earn her full party's backing in the midst of the political crisis.
As the aging Biden seemed to visibly fade over the last year, his veep emerged as a force on the campaign trail, pushing for abortion rights and reaching out to core voters, including suburban women and Black men.
With a fondness for the f-bomb and her family nickname of Momala going viral, she has also finally started to cut through the noise to voters who previously paid scant attention.
Harris has won praise in party circles by staying loyal to the 81-year-old president even as political vultures began circling his candidacy.
She now appears likely to face Trump -- a brutal battle against a candidate who defeated Hillary Clinton in her bid to become the first female president in 2016.
- 'Ready to serve' -
A child of immigrant parents -- her father was from Jamaica and her mother from India -- Harris grew up in Oakland, California, in an activist household that saw her attend her first rallies in a stroller.
Her focus on rights and justice saw her build an impressive CV, becoming California's first Black attorney general and the first woman of South Asian heritage elected to the US Senate.
Harris then went up against Biden in the 2020 primaries. In one stinging attack, she criticized him for allegedly opposing the busing of students to segregated schools.
There was a little girl in California who was part of the second class to integrate her public schools, and she was bused to school every day. And that little girl was me, she said in a barbed attack on her future boss.
But as his running mate, she consolidated the coalition that helped defeat the incumbent Trump in 2020.
Her transition to the White House, however, proved difficult.
Critics said she was underwhelming and gaffe-prone in a job that has been known to flummox many officeholders.
Struggling to carve out a role, she was tasked by Biden with getting to the roots of the country's illegal migration problem, but fumbled and then got defensive in response to a question during a visit to the Mexican border.
Unusually high staff turnover fed rumors of discontent in the vice presidential office.
And Republicans -- often resorting to stereotypes her supporters branded as sexist and racist -- relentlessly targeted her as being unfit to take over, should the worst happen to America's oldest-ever president.
Harris told the Wall Street Journal in February: I am ready to serve. There's no question about that.
- 'Momala' -
Things began to change as the 2024 race got underway.
The Biden campaign repeatedly deployed Harris to battleground states to hammer home the party's message on abortion rights; she became the first vice president to visit an abortion clinic.
Gradually, she began to draw more engaged and fired-up crowds.
Some of the outreach was, however, cringe-inducing. Earlier this year, she was mocked after she told chat show host Drew Barrymore that her family sometimes called her Momala, and Barrymore replied, We need you to be Momala of the country.
But voters seemed to be switching on.
A clip of her quoting her mother as often saying, You think you just fell out of a coconut tree? became a meme, with a rising sense among supporters that now could be her time.
If elected, Harris would break one of the highest glass ceilings left for women in the United States -- that of occupying the country's top office.
Her husband, Douglas Emhoff, would also be breaking new ground, moving from being the current Second Gentleman to the country's first First Gentleman.