The attempt on Donald Trump’s life has breathed new life into the Republican Party and its campaign for a second Trump presidential term. The political momentum this has created has finally prompted the Democrats to convince Joe Biden to abandon the race.

That the 81-year-old President held on to the nomination for so long despite losing support since his disastrous debate performance has been the subject of a lot of criticism, but ultimately it only creates problems for the Democrats and the heir apparent to the nomination: Vice President Kamala Harris.

Harris appears to have won over enough Democratic delegates to secure the nomination to take on Trump for the presidency. Other contenders in the Democratic Party, like transportation secretary Pete Buttigieg and California governor Gavin Newsom, have deftly avoided it, leaving the field to Harris. Speculation is rife; the other contenders just didn’t want to be handed the poisoned chalice of facing an election wipeout against a resurgent Trump campaign.

So who is Harris? She’s 59, born in California to academic parents who worked at several universities. Harris began her professional career as a district attorney in California, rising to Attorney-General of California in 2011 and becoming a Senator for the state in 2017 before she accepted the nomination as Biden’s running mate in 2020. She’s the first woman in US history to be vice president, and the first African-American and Asian-American to hold the office.

Her tenure was marked by high staff turnover in her office (also a feature of her term as California’s AG), one of the lowest approval ratings of any vice president, the most tie-breaking votes ever by a vice president in US history (vice presidents are also President of the US Senate), profound policy failure at the US southern border, and campaigning on abortion rights.

While Democrats are claiming she’s the best person they have for the job, they can’t escape accusations that Harris is effectively a DIE (diversity, inclusion, equity) nomination selected for being a woman of colour. In March 2020, Biden made it clear he’d pick a woman as his running mate, and in August 2019, he told journalists he’d prefer a running mate “of colour and/or a different gender.” While many American institutions and corporations are now abandoning DIE policies as useless virtue-signalling, it remains very much part of the Democrats’ ‘progressive’ DNA, but if all they have to offer is diversity for its own sake, then their campaign will struggle. Americans want a leader.

Biden’s pullout is also a first in American history. The 2024 presidential election is effectively in uncharted waters. Whatever might be thought of Trump, there’s no denying that he’s transformed American politics, and this race is going to be worth watching.