LSA’s program in Asian/Pacific Islander American Studies within the Department of American Culture at the University of Michigan commemorates Vice President Kamala Harris’s historic and groundbreaking election. Though Kamala Harris is the first Asian American elected to this office, we also celebrate the Asian/Pacific Islander Americans in politics, activism, and military service who came before her. The tide of Michigan and American politics is changing, as Asian/Pacific Islander Americans continue to fill spaces of power and fight for equal representation. With Kamala Harris assuming the vice presidency, she holds the door open for many more to follow.
“My mother had a saying: ‘Kamala, you may be the first to do many things, but make sure you’re not the last.”
– Kamala Harris, Vice President of the United States
Biographies of Interest
Kamala Harris
Vice President of the United States
January 20, 2021 – Present
First African American & Asian American Vice President
Grace Lee Boggs
Michigan Social and Political Activist
Major figure in the Civil Rights and Black Power Movements in Detroit, Michigan.
Stephanie Chang
Member of Michigan Senate
First Asian American woman elected to the Michigan legislature.
Jacqueline Nguyen
Circuit Judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit
May 14, 2012 – Present
First Asian American woman to serve as a federal appellate judge.
Daniel Inouye
President pro tempore of the United States Senate
June 28, 2010 – December 17, 2012
Until Vice President-Elect Kamala Harris’s victory, Sen. Inouye was the highest-ranking Asian American politician in U.S. History.
Katherine Tai
Nominee for United States Trade Representative Under the Biden Administration
Posed to be the first Asian American and woman of color to lead the Office of the United States Trade Representative.
Eric Shinseki
7th United States Secretary of Veterans Affairs
January 21, 2009 – May 30, 2014
First Asian American Secretary of Veteran Affairs and first Asian American four-star general.
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