The king is dead - long live the king. Or queen. After weeks of swelling inevitability, on Sunday the dam finally burst and Joe BidenThe president of the USA, elected in 2020. stepped aside. Now a new candidate for US president steps forward: Vice PresidentIn the USA, the vice president can take over from the president if they are unable to run the country. Kamala Harris.

Yesterday she became the presumptive Democrat nominee for president as virtually every rival bowed out and she clinched the support of enough delegates to win the nomination - even though the pledged support is not totally binding until the delegates cast their votes, which party officials said would take place during the first week of August.

A Harris presidency would break a lengthy list of records: first woman to become president, first president of South Asian heritage, second Black president.

It would cap off a meteoricSomething that develops very fast and attracts a lot of attention. career for Harris, who had her political start as district attorneyThe chief prosecutor in a US county. in San FranciscoA city in the US state of California, home to more than 800,000 people. in 2003. In 2010 she was elected attorney generalThe top legal officer of a state or territory. of California, then senatorA politician who has been elected to a body called a Senate. In the US, one of the two houses of Congress is the Senate. Ancient Rome also had a senate and senators. in 2016, before winning the 2020 election with Biden to become VP.

Since then she has kept a relatively low profile but built up a cult following online, drawn to her iconic belly laugh and a widely-circulated clip of her asking, "You think you just fell out of a coconut tree?"

But can she win? Harris inherits an economic miracle: last year the US economy grew by 3.3%, by far the highest rate in the G7A group made up of six of the world's major industrialised nations/advanced economies (Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the UK) plus the EU. All of its current members are democracies. .¹ It also gained 2.7 million new jobs.²

Keep the Democrats in power, she will be able to tell voters, and they will keep delivering prosperity.

She may also be able to wipe the slate clean with the voters Biden alienated: left-wingers and young people, especially those from ethnic minorities, who were put off by his support for Israel's war in GazaThe smaller of two Palestinian territories, home to two million people. It is located on the Mediterranean coast, bordered by Israel and Egypt. .

And at 59, she would be the youngest candidate put forward by either party since 2012. Simply ending the constant questions about Biden's age will give the Democrats a boost. Now 78-year-old Donald Trump may come under similar scrutiny.

And Harris will be better placed than Biden, who is thought to be privately opposed to abortion, to make the race about women's rights, a key Republican PartyAlso known as the Grand Old Party or GOP, it is one of the USA's two major political parties. Its first president was Abraham Lincoln. It sits on the right of the political spectrum. weakness.

But there are challenges too. US economic growth is slowing down. Moreover, there are signs that the economic miracle was uneven: among the poorest Americans, prices have risen faster and jobs have become more precariousUnpredictable; uncertain.. Debt is also rising among the least well-off.³

Trump is already appealing to those voters. He persuaded a major union leader to appear at the Republican National Convention. His own pick for VP, JD Vance, crows that his party is "pro-worker".⁴ They might be able to peel them off to the GOPShort for "Grand Old Party", a term for the US Republican party. .

Some voters may see it as undemocratic that Harris was not picked by party members, but foisted on them by political elites.

For the last four years, Harris has been in charge of stopping illegal immigration. That leaves her vulnerable to one of Trump's favourite attack lines, that Democrats are soft on the border.

Finally, the eternal question: is the US ready to vote for a Black woman as president?

Can she defeat Donald Trump?

Yes: Harris is a former prosecutor up against the first convicted criminal to run for president. That is a compelling narrative that she can ride all the way to the White House.

No: Trump is looking increasingly unstoppable. Harris is a largely untested candidate with low approval ratings. This is a final throw of the dice for desperate Democrats.

Or... This election could still swing either way. What matters is the way Harris and Trump both campaign over the rest of the year. We probably will not know until election night itself.

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