Veep choice Harris lived in Champaign-Urbana

U.S. Sen. Kamala Harris’s father taught economics at University of Illinois

U.S. Sen. Kamala Harris and Vice President Joe Biden announce they’re Democratic running mates in the presidential campaign earlier this week. (Facebook/Kamala Harris)

U.S. Sen. Kamala Harris and Vice President Joe Biden announce they’re Democratic running mates in the presidential campaign earlier this week. (Facebook/Kamala Harris)

By Ted Cox

Illinois can claim something of a brush with greatness in the selection of U.S. Sen. Kamala Harris to be the running mate of soon-to-be-nominated Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden.

Born in Oakland, Calif., in 1964 to academic parents, Harris moved with the family to Champaign-Urbana in 1966 when her father, Donald Harris, taught economics at the University of Illinois. Her mother, Shyamala Gopalan, was a breast-cancer researcher at the university. Her sister, Maya, was born there the following year.

Although the couple soon moved on to Northwestern University and the University of Wisconsin before divorcing in 1971, they remain fondly remembered by Diane Gottheil, a close friend of Gopalan, who gave an interview to WCIA-TV in Champaign when Kamala Harris first announced her run for the presidency in early 2019.

Gottheil recalled that Gopalan “immediately recognized the need for social justice for African Americans in this country, and we fought together for that in those days.” Gottheil shared a photo of her daughter Lisa with the Harris girls taken on a return visit to Urbana in the early ‘70s.

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Kamala Harris revists Urbana as a girl in the early ‘70s. (WCIA-TV)

Gottheil said she wasn't surprised by Harris’s rise in politics. “When I saw that she became attorney general of the state of California, I said, ‘Oh my goodness! She’s destined for an even bigger position,’ and then she became senator.”

When Harris announced her run for president, Gottheil said, “I’m excited for her candidacy. And, it’s in part, of course, because of her ties to Champaign-Urbana, but it’s largely because I think she represents what’s really wonderful in this country. I hope she continues to rise to the top.” She added that Harris “has all the credentials that would make her a wonderful president.”

Harris shut down her campaign late last year, before the Iowa caucuses, but made an impression on the debate stage when she tangled repeatedly with Biden. The former vice president prevailed in the primaries, and he clearly didn’t hold that against her when he named her his running mate this week.

Gottheil, who is president of the Josh Gottheil Memorial Fund for Lymphoma Research, posted on Facebook this week: “I only wish Shyamala Harris was with us today to see her daughter but I always see her in Kamala.”

The Biden-Harris ticket is slated to be formally nominated as the Democratic standard bearers next week in a convention based in Milwaukee but largely set to take place remotely due to the coronavirus pandemic.