Vice President Kamala Harris — with the help of about 100 opinionated colleagues — broke a nearly 200-year-old record in the U.S. Senate on Tuesday, casting her 32nd tie-breaker vote in the U.S. Senate. It's the most of any vice president, a job whose duties include presiding over the Senate and breaking deadlocks, and a record that Harris broke in fewer than three years.

Harris was honored for her achievement by Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer with a golden-colored gavel, symbolic of her role as president of the Senate — and, perhaps, as a hammer breaking through the logjams caused by the fiercely divided Democratic and Republican conferences.

Harris's latest tie-breaker advanced the nomination of Loren L. AliKhan for judgeship to the U.S. District Court of the District of California.

"I'm honored. I am truly honored,” Harris said, shortly after her record-setting vote to settle the deadlock. She’s been proud, she said, to ensure that the Inflation Reduction Act, the American Rescue Plan and dozens of nominations and confirmations moved forward.

"It's very appropriate that the vice president cast all those votes for judges because two-thirds have been people of color and two-thirds have been women,” Schumer said in response.

The previous record was held by John C. Calhoun, a two-term vice president under John Qunicy Adams and Andrew Jackson and an ardent defender of slavery. Calhoun’s legacy also includes Southern secession, the American Civil War and the notoriety of being the first vice president in American history to resign from the post. (Richard Nixon's first vice president, Spiro Agnew, was the second.)

That Harris is the person to smash his record — in only a matter of years — is appropriate, House Assistant Democratic Leader Jim Clyburn, D-S.C., said. 

“The 191-year-old tiebreaking record was held by John C. Calhoun, one of the biggest proponents of slavery. It is only fitting that Vice President Harris — the first woman, the first Black American, and the first South Asian American elected Vice President — has set a new standard and brought us into the 21st century,” Clyburn said. “This historic moment should serve as a monument to the significant progress we have made under the Biden-Harris Administration and a testament to this administration’s promise to deliver on behalf of the American people.”

Over the last 42 years, no other vice president has cast more than 13 tie-breakers — that was Mike Pence during his four-year tenure — and two VPs — Joe Biden and Dan Quayle — cast zero tie-breakers during their tenures.