On Monday, Jan. 21, California senator Kamala Harris announced that she will be running as a democratic candidate in the 2020 presidential election.

The date of her campaign launch was fully intentional and symbolic to Harris’ message for the public. In announcing her candidacy on Martin Luther King Jr. Day, Harris pays tribute to Luther and his inspirational fight against racism in America. She has also modeled her slogan “For the People” after Rep. Shirley Chisholm, the first black woman to run for the presidency.

Harris is joining what is already a diverse field for the democratic party. Winning the 2020 election would make her the first female president, as well as the second person of color to have been elected to office following Obama in 2008-2016.

The core of her platform is based on the principles of equality and opportunity for all, a perspective she was able to gain an appreciation for through growing up with immigrant parents. Harris is the daughter of immigrants, her mother Shyamala is from India, and her father Donald is from Jamaica.

Harris has been a lifelong public safety and civil rights leader. She was the second African American woman to be elected to the U.S Senate and the first woman to serve as the Attorney General for the state of California. Breaking new barriers seems to be a common aspect of Kamala Harris’s work, and it will be interesting to see how her candidacy unfolds and whether or not she will be able to break yet another barrier.