Kamala Harris has made history as the first woman elected to serve as vice president of the United States, CBS projects.
Her win comes as CBS News projected running mate Joe Biden’s election as the 46th president.
Biden tapped her as his vice presidential pick in August, making her the first Black woman and first Asian American woman to be on the presidential ticket for a major political party in the U.S.
Harris shared a message on social media shortly after she and Biden's projected White House win.
"We have a lot of work ahead of us. Let's get started," she wrote.
Harris, 56, served as the junior senator from California since 2017. She earned her undergraduate degree from Howard University and a law degree from the University of California, Hastings. Harris began her career in the Alameda County District Attorney’s Office before becoming the District Attorney in San Francisco.
After two terms as DA, she was elected as the first woman and African American person to serve as California’s Attorney General.
As a senator, Harris served on the Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, the Select Committee on Intelligence, the Committee on the Judiciary and the Committee on the Budget.
A native of Oakland, Harris describes herself as having a “stroller-eye view” of the Civil Rights movement. After her parents got divorced, Harris was raised mostly by her single mother – a civil rights activist and cancer researcher.
During the 2020 election, Harris was one of seven women who ran for president before ending her campaign in December 2019. Her campaign with Biden came a year after the two sparred about race and health care in the Democratic primary debates.
When he tapped Harris, Biden called her “one of the country’s finest public servants.”
Harris had a viral moment during the vice presidential debate when she told Mike Pence, “Mr. Vice President, I’m speaking.” Many women said it so closely reminded them of what it was like to be a woman in the workplace, a woman in a patriarchal society and just a woman in general.
When it comes to key issues during this election, she has channeled her progressive politics as well as her legal background in pushing for Biden. Like Biden, she opposes Medicare for All and has not openly called for defunding the police. She says she supports expanding health care coverage and “reimagining how we do public safety in America.”
Harris also supports abortion rights, higher pay for teachers and abolishing the death penalty.
Harris is married to attorney Douglas Emhoff. She is stepmother to his adult children, Cole and Ella, who call her Momala.
Harris was one of 11 women vice presidential candidates since Marietta Stowe in 1884, according to the Center for American Women and Politics. She’s also one of three women who have been officially nominated for the office of vice president alongside Sarah Palin in 2008 and Geraldine Ferraro in 1984.
Harris will be sworn in as vice president on Wednesday, Jan. 20, 2021.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.