Inside Kamala Harris’ Bond with Her Rarely Seen Sister, Maya Harris

Kamala Harris may be incredibly successful, becoming the first woman of color to be vice president and to secure a major party presidential nomination, but her achievements are mirrored by others in her family, particularly her sister, Maya Harris. Maya is a lawyer, public policy advocate, and TV commentator.

Maya has been a significant figure in Kamala’s life, assisting with her political campaigns since 2003. Now, as Kamala aims for the White House as the Democratic candidate, her younger sister continues to stand by her side.

Here’s all you need to know about Kamala’s close bond with Maya.

Maya is Kamala’s younger sister, born in Champaign-Urbana, Illinois on January 30, 1967, and raised in both the San Francisco Bay Area and Montreal. The sisters stayed together, raised by their mom after their parents divorced in the 1970s.

According to Kamala, their bond is “unbreakable” as she told The Washington Post, “All of the joyous moments in our lives, all of the challenging moments, all of the moments of transition, we have always been together.”

Before she became a well-respected lawyer, Maya became pregnant with her daughter Meena during her senior year of high school. She would take her little one to class and on-campus protests throughout college and law school.

It was certainly a juggle to manage work, school, and be an attentive mom. However, Maya succeeded as Meena is now the founder and CEO of Phenomenal Woman Action Campaign. Meena has also become a mother of two daughters, Amara and Leela.

Both Kamala and Maya are lawyers, having earned their bachelor’s degrees at UC Berkeley before attending different law schools. Kamala attended Howard University for her juris doctor, while Maya went to Stanford and received her JD with distinction.

Maya returned to teach several classes at law schools in California, becoming the Dean of the Lincoln Law School of San Jose at 29. She was the youngest law school dean ever in the United States and the only Indian woman to do so at the time.

When Kamala married Doug Emhoff in 2014, Maya officiated the ceremony at a courthouse in Santa Barbara, California. Her daughter read Maya Angelou’s “Touched by an Angel” at the ceremony.

In 2020, Maya revealed that she was diagnosed with Lupus when she was 22-years-old. She kept the information private for three decades, only speaking up after then-president Donald Trump suggested hydroxychloroquine, used to control lupus symptoms, could prevent COVID-19, despite its unproven efficacy.

Maya pointed out in a piece for Women’s Health that “nine in ten lupus patients are women,” with women of color being “two to three times more likely to develop the disease.” She further explained, “For black women like me, lupus can be particularly cruel: The illness tends to take hold younger, so we’re forced to cope with it earlier and live with it longer. Tragically, our mortality rate is dramatically higher.”

She added in The Atlantic: “When the president of the United States decided to hype – as a coronavirus treatment – the primary medication used for controlling lupus, he put an already disadvantaged group of patients in even greater jeopardy.”