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50 free Kamala Harris trivia questions with answers — history quiz, new questions added Aug 2026.
Kamala Harris was born in Oakland to a Tamil biomedical scientist and a Jamaican economist, finished high school in Montreal, pledged Alpha Kappa Alpha at Howard, and prosecuted homicides in Alameda County before becoming the first woman, first African American and first Asian American vice president of the United States. She cast more tie-breaking votes than any vice president in history, ran the country for 85 minutes during a colonoscopy, and led the shortest major-party presidential campaign in modern times. This Kamala Harris trivia quiz runs 50 questions across her life and career: Shyamala and Donald, Berkeley and Westmount High, Vanier College and Howard, Hastings law school, Willie Brown, Terence Hallinan and the 2003 DA race, the death-penalty pledge, truancy citations, the Homeowner Bill of Rights, the 2016 Senate win over Loretta Sanchez, the Sessions, Kavanaugh and Barr hearings, the 2019 campaign and the busing debate, Biden's pick, tie-breaking records, the Root Causes Strategy, the 2024 nomination and Tim Walz, the Trump debate, the loss, Doug Emhoff, Cole and Ella, the coconut tree, and 107 Days. Easy questions come first; the last third is for people who remember Ronald Gold. Every answer is verified against Wikipedia's biography of Harris, with the supporting sentence quoted under each question. Fans of this quiz should also try our vice presidents and Joe Biden quizzes.
30 of 50 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01Kamala Harris served as vice president under which president?
Joe Biden
She was the 49th vice president, serving from 2021 to 2025.
Q 02Harris was born in 1964 in which California city?
Oakland
She launched her 2019 presidential campaign there in front of a crowd police estimated at more than 20,000.
Q 03Harris's mother Shyamala Gopalan came to the U.S. from India in 1958 to study which subject at Berkeley?
Endocrinology
Her 40-year research career on the progesterone receptor gene advanced breast cancer research.
Q 04Donald Harris, Kamala Harris's father, was the first Black scholar tenured in which university's economics department?
Stanford
Kamala and her sister Maya spent weekends at his Palo Alto house after their parents divorced.
Q 05As a child Harris often visited her maternal grandfather in which Indian city?
Chennai
She learned to wear traditional Indian dress and picked up a few phrases of Tamil.
Q 06Harris graduated from high school in 1981 in which city?
Montreal
Her mother had taken a research post at McGill's medical school in 1976; Harris attended Westmount High and then Vanier College.
Q 07Harris earned her undergraduate degree at which historically Black institution in Washington, D.C.?
Howard
She majored in political science and economics and joined a Divine Nine sorority.
Q 08Harris joined which "Divine Nine" sorority as an undergraduate?
Alpha Kappa Alpha
It is the oldest of the historically Black Greek-letter sororities.
Q 09Harris earned her law degree in 1989 from which San Francisco school?
UC Hastings
She was president of its Black Law Students Association chapter.
Q 10Harris began her legal career in 1990 as a deputy district attorney in which California county?
Alameda
She was described as "an able prosecutor on the way up."
Q 11Which California Assembly Speaker, whom Harris dated in the 1990s, appointed her to two state boards?
Willie Brown
He later became mayor of San Francisco.
Q 12Which incumbent, her former boss, did Harris beat to become San Francisco DA in 2003?
Terence Hallinan
She won 56 percent of the vote and became the first person of colour elected to the job.
Q 13As DA, Harris kept a campaign pledge never to seek what, even after a police officer was killed in 2004?
The death penalty
The Isaac Espinoza case drew heavy criticism from police and Senator Feinstein.
Q 21Harris gained national attention in 2018 by questioning which Supreme Court nominee about the Mueller investigation?
Brett Kavanaugh
She had earlier grilled Jeff Sessions and Rod Rosenstein in Senate hearings.
Q 22On what date in 2019 did Harris announce her first presidential campaign?
January 21
She matched Bernie Sanders's record for first-day donations after an announcement.
Q 23In the June 2019 debate Harris confronted Biden over his remarks about senators who opposed what?
School busing
Her poll numbers jumped six to nine points; two months later Tulsi Gabbard's attacks on her record sent them back down.
Q 14In 2008 Harris's office became the first in San Francisco to prosecute parents over what?
Their children's truancy
She cited six parents whose children had missed at least 50 days of school; none was jailed.
Q 15Harris was elected attorney general of California in which year?
2010
She narrowly beat Republican Steve Cooley and was the first woman and first African American in the job.
Q 16Which future opponent donated $6,000 to Harris's 2014 re-election campaign for attorney general?
Donald Trump
She gave the money to a nonprofit for Central American civil rights in 2015.
Q 17As attorney general, Harris created which set of protections against aggressive foreclosure practices?
Homeowner Bill of Rights
It came with multiple nine-figure settlements against mortgage servicers.
Q 18Harris won her 2016 U.S. Senate race against which fellow Democrat?
Loretta Sanchez
California's top-two primary produced an all-Democratic final; she took over 60 percent and carried all but four counties.
Q 19Whose retirement opened the California Senate seat Harris won in 2016?
Barbara Boxer
Boxer announced in early 2015 she would not run again; Harris declared the next week.
Q 20Harris was the first senator of what heritage in U.S. history?
South Asian American
She was also only the second Black woman ever elected to the Senate.
Q 24Harris withdrew from the 2020 presidential race in December 2019 citing what?
A shortage of funds
She endorsed Biden in March 2020, and he picked her as running mate five months later.
Q 25Harris was the third woman on a major-party ticket, after Sarah Palin and whom?
Geraldine Ferraro
Ferraro was Walter Mondale's running mate in 1984.
Q 26How many tie-breaking Senate votes did Harris cast as vice president, a record?
33
She passed a record set before the Civil War in December 2023; her first year alone produced 13.
Q 27Whose record for most tie-breaking votes by a vice president did Harris break in December 2023?
John C. Calhoun
Calhoun cast 31 in nearly eight years; Adams held the single-year record of 12 until she cast 13 in 2021.
Q 28For 85 minutes on November 19, 2021, Harris was acting president while Biden underwent what?
A colonoscopy
It made her the first woman to hold presidential power, from 10:10 to 11:35 a.m.
Q 29Biden assigned Harris in March 2021 to address the root causes of migration from Mexico and which region?
The Northern Triangle
El Salvador and two neighbours; critics dubbed her "border czar," a title she never held.
Q 30Harris's first foreign trip as vice president, in June 2021, took her to Mexico and which other country?
Guatemala
The visit was part of the Root Causes Strategy on migration.