The presumptive Democratic nominee for president has "a lot of work to do" if she wants to win the White House, according to a close family member.
Speaking to RTÉ's States of Mind podcast from India, Kamala Harris' uncle said that he is "so proud" of his niece and all that she has achieved.
However, Dr Gopalan Balachandran acknowledged that winning November’s election and becoming the US's first woman president is not going to be an easy task.
"We had Margaret Thatcher, Indira Gandhi, and in Pakistan Benazir Bhutto. Nobody bothered about them. Nobody even gave them a second thought" he said.
"The United States is just not … used to women in high political positions. She has a lot of work to do," he added.
Kamala Harris has already made history by becoming the first woman, black person and person of south Asian descent to serve as vice president.
If she was elected president, Ms Harris would break the highest glass ceiling left for women in the United States.
When speaking on the podcast, Dr Balachandran had not long returned from a trip to Washington DC, where he had dinner with his niece and the rest of their family last week.
When asked about President Joe Biden stepping aside, and whether the family had known anything about it during those hours they had spent with the Vice President, Dr Balachandran said that, "at the time, nobody knew what was going to happen".
Kamala Harris is the daughter of an Indian mother and a Jamaican father. She has strong ties to her family in India and speaks with them regularly.
Dr Balachandran also said that he wished his sister Shyamala, who died from cancer in 2009, was here to see all the attention her daughter is getting.
Listen above to the latest episode of RTÉ's States of Mind, or download from wherever you get your podcasts.
