Finding Kamala

IN A CANDID INTERVIEW AT HOME, VICE PRESIDENT KAMALA HARRIS OPENS UP ABOUT HER MARRIAGE TO THE SECOND GENTLEMAN, THE BEYONCÉ SONG SHE CALLS HER ANTHEM AND HOW SHE FACES HER CRITICS 

- MICHELLE TAUBER , KYLER ALVORD

Kamala Harris is Vice President "24/7, 365" as her husband of nine years, Second Gentleman Doug Emhoff, puts it. But on her 59th birthday on Oct. 20, she was planning on a slightly more relaxed day than usual: after a morning interview and photo shoot with People, perhaps a few moments in her vegetable garden-where she likes to pick fresh tarragon for salads-followed by a small gathering with family and close friends. An early summons from the President to report to the Oval Office amid the ongoing crisis in Israel and Gaza meant that Harris was thrust into action, with her staff scrambling to rearrange her day. Of course, for the highest-ranking woman in U.S. history, birthdays-along with nearly everything elseare a distant second to the job.

At the end of each evening, after reading her nightly "binders" of briefing documents ("about this thick," she explains, placing her hands a foot apart), Harris says she tries to have some "wind-down time." Still, she admits that the brief respite and a mug of chamomile tea aren't quite enough. "I usually wake up in the middle of the night with some thought of what's going on," she says. "Then I fall back asleep, and the next day starts."