Vice President Kamala Harris' father, Donald J. Harris, a retired Stanford University professor of economics, has been making headlines for his background and legacy within academia. Born in Jamaica in 1938, Harris earned his bachelor's degree from the University of London before completing his doctorate in economics at the University of California, Berkeley in 1966.

Harris met Kamala's mother while attending Berkeley, and they went on to marry and raise their daughters. However, the couple divorced when Kamala was seven years old, and she spent much of her youth with her mother and sister in Canada. There, their mother worked as a researcher at McGill University School of Medicine.

Donald Harris's career in academia took him to teaching positions at Northwestern University and the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign before joining Stanford in 1972. At Stanford, he became the first Black scholar to receive tenure within the university's economic school. Described as a "Marxian economist" and teaching "radical political economics," Harris retired from teaching in 1998 to focus on public policies promoting economic growth and social equity.

Despite his achievements, Donald Harris has remained relatively silent about his daughter's political successes. He did, however, write an essay in which he discussed his fight to maintain a relationship with his daughters after the divorce and custody battle.

In 2019, he responded to a comment made by Kamala Harris about smoking marijuana when she was younger. Harris expressed concern, stating that his grandparents and deceased parents would be "turning in their grave" over the comment. He made it clear that he wished to dissociate himself and his Jamaican family from any association with this stereotype.

Since then, Donald Harris has chosen to stay out of the political limelight, refusing interviews with the media. Fox News Digital reached out for comment but has not received a response at the time of publication.

Kamala Harris has rarely mentioned her father throughout her political career. In her 2019 memoir, she acknowledged his presence in her life but highlighted her mother's primary role in shaping her and her sister. However, during her acceptance speech at the Democratic National Convention, she mentioned her father's influence in teaching her to be fearless.

As Kamala Harris continues her presidential campaign, her father's Marxist background and academic legacy bring attention to her family's diverse heritage and upbringing.