Kamala Harris
The teller of the tale is the central figure of the story. In the late summer of 2020, Kamala Harris was Senator from California whom Democratic nominee for President Joe Biden chose to be his running mate and, if elected, move into the position of Vice President of the United States. The book tells much of the story highlights about Harris made that journey to groundbreaking and revolutionary position as the first woman of African-American and Indian-American descent to realize those lofty historical heights.
Doug Emhoff
Doug Emhoff is Kamala’s husband. He is a high-powered attorney for the rest of the world, but, for her, a kind of early morning alarm system informing her what kind of day is likely to loom ahead. She wakes up mornings to the sounds of her husband reading the newspaper. The sounds he produces in response to the news he is reading becomes a red alert that warns her on some days that it is going to be long and hard.
Brett Kavanaugh
A significant chunk of the book is devoted to an up-close-and-personal account of the notorious hearings to confirm Brett Kavanaugh to the Supreme Court. Those hearings were among the most-watched and controversial Congressional hearings so far in the 20th century due to the showdown between Kavanaugh and the woman who had accused him of sexual assaulting her when they were high school teenagers, Christine Blasey Ford. The visceral quality of the Senator’s description of both the televised proceedings and the lesser-known events which took place behind the scenes make this section really stand out from the rest of the book to the point that one wishes Harris had—or one day will—write a book specifically offering her perspective on this and other high-profile legislative sessions.
Donald Trump
Since this book does belong to that relatively new genre of volumes published in the wake of a campaign to become a party’s nominee for President, it is only to be expected that Donald Trump is an important figure. What is perhaps a little more surprising is that his presence as an actual figure involved in individual scenes is pared down to little more than a cameo role. Like Vito Corleone, however, his screen time is misleading as it is specter of his presence as perhaps the singular motivating factor behind the decision of Harris to run for President that is most important.
Arthur and Regina Shelton
In contrast to Trump stand the Sheltons. They are active characters in the story of Harris and they are neither famous nor infamous. The Sheltons ran a nursery school in the neighborhood in which Harris grew up and—and here they are similar to Trump—wielded the influence of a specter hanging over the lives of not just Harris, but many of her friends. The specter in this case is a positive one, an influence which earn the couple that rarest of distinctions, like being a second set of parents to a young child.
