Who is Kamala Harris’ father? Donald Harris absent from DNC

Vice President Kamala Harris spoke at length about her mother, Shyamala Gopalan Harris, during her speech on the final day of the 2024 Democratic National Convention where she formally accepted the Democratic nomination for president.

She explained how her mother, a “five-foot-tall brown woman with an accent” who came to the U.S. from India at age 19, taught her and her sister, Maya, to “do something” about injustice.

Harris also mentioned her father, Donald Harris, in her speech, recalling pleasant early childhood memories.

“At the park, my mother would say, “Stay close.” But my father would say, as he smiled, “Run, Kamala, run. Don’t be afraid. Don’t let anything stop you.” From my earliest years, he taught me to be fearless,” she said.

But when Harris was in elementary school, she said, her parents split up.

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“It was mostly my mother who raised us,” she said.

According to Harris’ 2019 memoir, Donald Harris continued to see his daughters during the weekend and summer.

Who is Donald Harris, Kamala Harris’ father?

Donald Harris is a post-keynesian economist who has written on Marxist theory. He is a retired Stanford University professor who has served as an economic advisor to his home country of Jamaica. He also taught at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

In her speech, Harris described her father as a “student from Jamaica” when he and her mother met.

Born in Jamaica, Donald Harris immigrated to the US to complete a doctorate degree at the University of California, Berkeley. That’s where he met Shyamala, who was pursuing a degree in biochemistry there.

Was Kamala Harris’ father at the DNC?

Donald is Harris’ only living parent. Shyamala died of colon cancer in 2009.

But he was absent from the Democratic convention this week, as he has largely been from his daughter’s political life in general. He hasn’t weighed in on her political career since 2019, when he criticized a comment she made about whether she’s smoked marijuana before.

“Half my family’s from Jamaica. Are you kidding me?” Harris had said.

Donald Harris responded in a statement to Jamaica Global Online, saying that his grandmothers and parents “must be turning in their grave right now” to see their Jamaican identity being connected to “the fraudulent stereotype of a pot-smoking joy seeker.”

Harris’ campaign did not issue a response at the time.

Doug Emhoff, Maya Harris; Kamala Harris’ family at the DNC

While Donald Harris didn’t appear at the Democratic convention, many other members of Harris’ family were there.

They included her husband, Second Gentleman Doug Emhoff, her sister Maya Harris, her stepchildren Ella and Cole Emhoff, and nieces and nephews Meena Harris, Alexander Hudlin, Jasper Emhoff, and Arden Emhoff.

Maia Pandey of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel contributed to this report.