Kamala Harris, who made history by becoming the first woman or person of color to hold the office of vice president, has now tied the Senate record for most tie-breaking votes.
On Wednesday, she cast her 31st such vote, advancing Kalpana Kotagal’s appointment to the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. John C. Calhoun, who served as vice president from 1825 to 1832, was the only other vice president to cast this many votes.
After the event, Harris told reporters, “I think there’s still so much that we have to do. It is a moment.
“My mother gave me great advice, which is that I may be the first to do many things,” the woman continued. “I’ll make sure I don’t end up being the last. Harris reached the age of 31 in two and a half years, as opposed to Calhoun, who took eight years to attain his total.
It’s a reflection of her particular circumstances, which include a Senate that is deeply divided along partisan lines. Joel K. Goldstein, a vice presidential historian, remarked that it “really says more about our time and our political climate than it does about anything else.
Even on issues that in the past would have passed without a vote, our politics are so divisive that the vice president must cast the deciding vote.
The event was not very formal or noteworthy.
Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, a Democrat from New York, congratulated Harris after she had only been in the chamber for a limited period of time and had read a short script to record her vote.
One of the vice president’s only obligations under the Constitution is to preside over the Senate and break ties. It is an “immense burden,” according to Schumer, who also noted that Harris has “carried out her duties with supreme excellence” despite “all the other demands she faces” at work.
After the midterm elections, when Democrats increased their margin of victory from 50 to 51 votes, Harris had anticipated receiving a break from that position. But then things changed.
The recently elected Democrat from Pennsylvania, Sen. John Fetterman, was admitted to the hospital for mental depression.
Sen. Dianne Feinstein, a Democrat from California, was hospitalized after developing shingles.
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