This comes after Harris lost the presidential election, in which she garnered fewer votes in each state than former President Joe Biden. Harris outperformed Biden in only 58 counties and lost every swing state to President Donald Trump. She also lost the popular vote. The NAACP National Board of Directors Chairman Leon W. Russell stood by the decision to give her the award as she was the first black woman to be a presidential nominee.

“Vice President Kamala Harris is more than a leader — she is a force of change, driven by an unwavering passion to shape a brighter, more equitable future. It is with great honor that we present her with the Chairman’s Award at this year’s NAACP Image Awards, celebrating her relentless dedication to justice, equality, and the betterment of our society,” Russell wrote in a statement.

Other Chairman’s Award recipients include former President Barack Obama and the late Rep. John Lewis, who was honored posthumously. Obama attended the Image Awards in 2005 to accept the award when he was nominated as a senator.

The Image Awards is a ceremony largely dedicated to media accomplishments. For example, Entertainer of the Year nominations include Cynthia Erivo, Keke Palmer, Kendrick Lamar, Kevin Hart, and Shannon Sharpe. The ceremony will be broadcast from the Pasadena Civic Auditorium in California, Harris’s home state.

Harris is a former prosecutor who served as the district attorney of San Francisco, where she had an 87% conviction rate for homicides and a 90% conviction rate for all felony gun violations in her first two years in office. Later, she served as California’s attorney general and then as a senator. Harris was the first woman to serve as vice president and the first black and Indian person in the role ever.

Californians are eyeing Harris to run for governor. A poll from Emerson College Polling-Inside California Politics-the Hill reported that 57% of primary voters in Harris’s party would vote for her in a hypothetical election. Harris is trailed by former Rep. Katie Porter at 9%. Nearly a fifth, 17%, remain undecided.

Since November, Harris’s husband, Doug Emhoff, has become a partner at the law firm Willkie Farr & Gallagher, which has offices in New York City, where the couple has an apartment on the Upper West Side, and Los Angeles, California. They still own their home in Brentwood, California.