US Senator Kamala Harris has been selected by Joe Biden as his Democratic vice-presidential candidate.

The Economist magazine described her as the “daughter of an Indian cancer researcher and a Jamaican economics professor, she is the first woman, first African-American and first Asian attorney general of California”.

The 55-year-old senator claims she has not grappled with her identity and describes herself simply as “an American”.

Harris got married to Douglas Emhoff, a lawyer, in 2014. To keep up with their respective Indian and Jewish heritage, she put a flower garland around her new husband’s neck and he stomped on a glass.

Harris’s public image has revolved around her identity as an African-American politician, particularly recently concerning the current conversation around race and the Black Lives Matter movement in the US. However, Indian-Americans also regard her as one of their own, her candidacy suggesting a potential wider recognition of the Indian and South Asian communities in the country.