Who is Doug Emhoff? Harris’s husband could be the first first gentleman
Vice President Kamala Harris, left, kisses second gentleman Doug Emhoff at her campaign headquarters in Wilmington, Delaware, on Monday. (Erin Schaff/The New York Times via AP, Pool)
The chant began at Vice President Harris’s campaign headquarters in Wilmington, Delaware, on Monday as she prepared to kick off her campaign for the Democratic presidential nomination.
As Doug Emhoff walked up to the lectern to introduce his wife, Harris staffers shouted his name over and over—that of a man who made history as America’s first male vice-presidential spouse, and who could do so again in November if Harris were to win the presidency.
After almost four years of upending centuries-old gender stereotypes, Emhoff told the enthusiastic crowd he was ready for the next challenge: “Now I get to support my wife, Kamala Harris, running for president of the United States.”
Emhoff, who could become the first first gentleman of the United States, set aside his 30-year career as a high-profile Los Angeles entertainment lawyer when Harris assumed office. He has spoken candidly about the difficulties of leaving the work he loved to support Harris’s political aspirations - including at Monday’s event, where he paid credit to President Biden, who Emhoff said “had my back personally in some of my toughest moments as second gentleman.”
“It was always the president who came up to me and said: ‘Look, I know, kid, you’re a great lawyer. I know this must be tough, but what better way to leave that and to support your wife, who you love so much and your country that you love so much,’” an emotional Emhoff said, as Biden - who was unable to make the event as he recovers from covid-19 - listened in.
Emhoff, 59, was born in Brooklyn and raised in Matawan, N.J., before he moved with his parents and two siblings to the Los Angeles area in his teens. He attended college and law school in California and went on to build a successful entertainment litigation practice, which he folded into a large law firm, Venable.
Second Gentleman Doug Emhoff delivered an emotional speech before introducing Vice President Harris to campaign staff on July 22. (The Washington Post)
A former colleague, Alex Weingarten, described Emhoff in 2021 as someone who specialized in building teams. On cases, the two partners would assume the roles of good cop and bad cop: Emhoff was always the good cop, Weingarten told the Washington Post.
Emhoff later became a partner at DLA Piper but left in 2020 to avoid potential conflicts of interest between that firm’s lobbying portfolio and Harris’s political career.
Harris and Emhoff’s story is one of later-in-life love—written, literally, in Hollywood. Harris’s close friend, Chrisette Hudlin, set the pair up in 2013 after she met Emhoff at a business meeting.
Emhoff made his introduction to Harris in part through a lengthy voicemail—which he worried was “disastrous,” the vice president wrote in her memoir. But Harris, then living in San Francisco and working as California’s attorney general, was charmed and flew to Los Angeles for their first date.
The morning after, Emhoff shared his availability for another date, writing in an email that he was “too old to play games or hide the ball. I really like you, and I want to see if we can make this work,” he said.
He told CBS in a recent interview: “It was love at first sight, and we’ve been together ever since.”
They married in 2014 at a small ceremony in Santa Barbara that involved smashing a glass in honor of Emhoff’s Jewish background and in which Emhoff wore a flower garland to celebrate Harris’s Indian heritage. Emhoff’s children from his first marriage, Cole and Ella, call the vice president “Momala”—and Harris has forged a friendship with Emhoff’s first wife, film producer Kerstin Emhoff, who is vocal online about her support for the vice president.
Emhoff and Harris’s relationship would ultimately lead him to the unprecedented role of the nation’s first second gentleman and the first Jewish vice-presidential spouse.
During the past three and a half years, Emhoff has carved out a multifaceted role for himself. He has visited coronavirus vaccine clinics, worked to expand access to legal aid services, advocated for gender equity and become a leading voice in the White House’s efforts to combat antisemitism, including by taking a trip to Auschwitz-Birkenau in 2023 to mark International Holocaust Remembrance Day. He has also embraced his Jewish heritage by celebrating Passover at the White House.
After the Oct. 7 Hamas attack in Israel, he told the Los Angeles Times that, despite feeling “sheer pain and shock … I’m still going to keep doing what I’m doing - focus on fighting against hate and antisemitism and Islamophobia.”
Emhoff also teaches at Georgetown Law School, which described him as “one of the nation’s leading intellectual property and business litigators.” He took up the role after stepping away from his position at DLA Piper.
And while he has discussed the attendant difficulties, he told Glamour in 2020 that “I’m humbled, I’m honored to have put it all on hold - my career, family life, everything” to help the Biden-Harris campaign.
In his White House biography, Emhoff is quoted as saying that he hopes to “inspire the next generation of supportive spouses.”
“I’m the first man to take this role,” he said, “but I definitely don’t want to be the last.”
