Kerri Evelyn Harris (born December 24, 1979) is an American activist and politician who is the Democratic state representative for

Delaware Delaware ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Mid-Atlantic (United States), Mid-Atlantic and South Atlantic states, South Atlantic regions of the United States. It borders Maryland to its south and west, Pennsylvania to its north, New Jersey ...

's 32nd district. She was previously a Democratic candidate for United States Senate in 2018, mounting an unsuccessful

primary Primary or primaries may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Music Groups and labels * Primary (band), from Australia * Primary (musician), hip hop musician and record producer from South Korea * Primary Music, Israeli record label Work ...

challenge to incumbent US Senator

Tom Carper Thomas Richard Carper (born January 23, 1947) is an American politician and former military officer who served from 2001 to 2025 as a United States Senate, United States senator from Delaware. A member of the Democratic Party (United States), D ...

Political career

In February 2018, Harris announced that she would be challenging three-term incumbent US Senator Tom Carper in the Democratic primary election. She ran on a platform supporting

Medicare for All Single-payer healthcare is a type of universal healthcare, in which the costs of essential healthcare for all residents are covered by a single public system (hence "single-payer"). Single-payer systems may contract for healthcare services from pr ...

, universal pre-K, a $15 an hour minimum wage, and

criminal justice reform Criminal justice reform is the reform of criminal justice systems. Stated reasons for criminal justice reform include reducing crime statistics, racial profiling, police brutality, overcriminalization, mass incarceration, under-reporting, and ...

, among other progressive proposals. Harris identifies as a progressive, but has said she "doesn't necessarily consider herself" a

democratic socialist Democratic socialism is a left-wing economic and political philosophy that supports political democracy and some form of a socially owned economy, with a particular emphasis on economic democracy, workplace democracy, and workers' self-mana ...

. She received endorsements from progressive groups and individuals, including Justice Democrats, Our Revolution, state representative Sean Lynn, and future congresswomen

Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (born October 13, 1989), also known as AOC, is an American politician and activist who has served since 2019 as the United States House of Representatives, US representative for New York's 14th congressional distric ...

, Ilhan Omar, and

Ayanna Pressley Ayanna Soyini Pressley (born February 3, 1974) is an American politician who has served as the United States House of Representatives, U.S. representative for Massachusetts's 7th congressional district since 2019. This district, which was once re ...

. Ocasio-Cortez held multiple rallies with Harris in Delaware after Harris assisted her with her own successful primary campaign against incumbent congressman

Joe Crowley Joseph Crowley (born March 16, 1962) is an American former politician who served as U.S. Representative from New York's 14th congressional district from 1999 to 2019. He was defeated by Democratic primary challenger Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez in ...

. Harris lost to incumbent Senator Tom Carper in the September 2018 primary, receiving 35% of the vote. Despite her loss, Harris received the highest vote share of a Democratic primary candidate challenging a statewide incumbent in Delaware in 20 years. Harris announced in January 2022 that she would be launching a campaign for the

Delaware House of Representatives The Delaware State House of Representatives is the lower house of the Delaware General Assembly, the state legislature of the U.S. state of Delaware. It is composed of 41 Representatives from an equal number of constituencies, each of whom is ...

in the 32nd district. Harris defeated three other candidates in the Democratic primary, receiving 65% of the vote. She defeated Republican Cheryl Precourt in the general election on November 8, 2022, by a 16-point margin. Following Carper's retirement announcement in 2023, it was reported that Harris was looking at a 2024 run for U.S. House, since the seat will be vacant due to incumbent Representative

Lisa Blunt Rochester Lisa LaTrelle Blunt Rochester (née Blunt; born February 10, 1962) is an American politician serving since 2025 as the junior United States senator from Delaware. From 2017 to 2025, she served as the U.S. representative for . A member of the ...

's campaign for Carper's U.S. Senate seat. Harris ultimately decided against running. In June 2023, Harris was elected majority whip for the Democrats in the Delaware House of Representatives.

Personal life

Harris lives in

Dover, Delaware Dover ( ) is the List of capitals in the United States, capital and the List of municipalities in Delaware, second-most populous city of the U.S. state of Delaware. It is also the county seat of Kent County, Delaware, Kent County and the princ ...

. She joined the

United States Air Force The United States Air Force (USAF) is the Air force, air service branch of the United States Department of Defense. It is one of the six United States Armed Forces and one of the eight uniformed services of the United States. Tracing its ori ...

in 2001 following the

September 11 terrorist attacks The September 11 attacks, also known as 9/11, were four coordinated Islamist terrorist suicide attacks by al-Qaeda against the United States in 2001. Nineteen terrorists hijacked four commercial airliners, crashing the first two into ...

and retired from active duty in 2008. Harris identifies as a

lesbian A lesbian is a homosexual woman or girl. The word is also used for women in relation to their sexual identity or sexual behavior, regardless of sexual orientation, or as an adjective to characterize or associate nouns with female homosexu ...

and

African American African Americans, also known as Black Americans and formerly also called Afro-Americans, are an Race and ethnicity in the United States, American racial and ethnic group that consists of Americans who have total or partial ancestry from an ...

. She has two children.

Electoral history

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Harris, Kerri Evelyn 1979 births 21st-century African-American women politicians 21st-century African-American politicians 21st-century American women politicians 21st-century members of the Delaware General Assembly Activists from Delaware American lesbian politicians Candidates in the 2018 United States Senate elections Democratic Party members of the Delaware House of Representatives Howard Community College alumni LGBTQ state legislators in Delaware Living people People from Dover, Delaware Women state legislators in Delaware