The 'blended' family behind Kamala Harris
Doug Emhoff has been by his wife’s side as she has risen through the ranks
- Published
Vice-President Kamala Harris has had to quickly re-introduce herself to US voters, who are now having to size her up as a potential commander-in-chief, instead of Joe Biden's deputy.
And during the biggest moment of Harris's career so far - the Democratic convention in Chicago - they have got to know her family as well.
Here are the members of the big and blended family who have helped her get here.
Doug Emhoff, husband
Harris met her now-husband, Los Angeles entertainment lawyer Doug Emhoff in 2013, while she was serving as California’s attorney general. They were married the following year. Since then Mr Emhoff, 60, has stuck close to his wife’s side as she has risen in the ranks of US politics.
In 2020, when Harris made history as the first black and South Asian woman to become vice-president, Mr Emhoff made history too as the first husband of an American president or vice-president, as well as the first Jewish spouse of a vice-president.
He left his law firm that year to focus full-time on his role as "second gentleman", a position that has pulled him out of relative obscurity. He is now known as an enthusiastic champion for Democratic party causes and Harris’s most loyal surrogate on the campaign trail.
And in a prime-time slot at the Democratic National Convention (DNC), a beaming Mr Emhoff was his wife's biggest cheerleader once again.
"She’s always been there for our children,” Mr Emhoff said, “and I know she’ll always be there for yours too.”
Cole and Ella Emhoff, step-children
The vice-president’s marriage made her a step-mother to Cole and Ella, the two children Mr Emhoff shares with his first wife, Kerstin Emhoff.
Ms Harris has said often that of all her many titles, being "Momala" - the term coined by Cole and Ella - is the most important. That affection seems to go both ways - Cole and Ella, now 30 and 25, respectively, have been vocal supporters of Harris.
"The world’s greatest step-mother" was Ella’s introduction during the 2020 Democratic convention. "You’re a rock, not just for our dad, but for three generations of our big, blended family."
Harris has said her favourite role is "Momala" to Ella, left, and Cole
Cole, who graduated from Colorado College in 2017, has followed his father into the entertainment industry, with jobs at talent agency WME and, later, Brad Pitt’s production company Plan B. In 2023, he married Greenley Littlejohn in a private ceremony in Los Angeles.
Ella, who graduated from Parsons School of Design in New York City, signed with IMG Models in 2021 and walked in shows for high-fashion brands like Balenciaga and Proenza Schouler. She’s also an artist and a prolific knitter, who launched the knitwear brand and club Soft Hands in 2021.
Kerstin Emhoff, ex-wife of Doug Emhoff
Cole and Ella’s mom, Kerstin, has - perhaps unexpectedly - gone out of her way to speak warmly and positively of Harris. Recently, Kerstin came to Harris’s defence when JD Vance’s "childless cat lady" comments resurfaced.
"For over 10 years, since Cole and Ella were teenagers, Kamala has been a co-parent with Doug and I," Kerstin said in a statement to CNN. "She is loving, nurturing, fiercely protective, and always present. I love our blended family and am grateful to have her in it."
Kerstin, the founder and CEO of production company Prettybird, even provided her creative expertise and connections to the 2020 campaign.
"They were like, 'The ex-wife wants to do what?'" Kerstin said to Marie Claire in 2020.
Maya Harris, sister
Kamala Harris is known to be very close to her only sibling and younger sister, Maya Harris. After their parents’ divorce, the two girls were primarily raised by their mother, Shyamala Gopalan, in Berkeley, California.
Like her older sister, Maya pursued a career in law, graduating from Stanford University law school in 1992. She worked as a litigator and taught law classes before joining the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) of Northern California, where she became executive director in 2006.
Maya, 57, eventually shifted to politics, serving as a senior policy adviser to Hillary Clinton on her 2016 presidential campaign. She then served as campaign chair to her sister’s failed 2020 bid for Democratic nominee, before becoming a surrogate for the Biden-Harris ticket.
Maya Harris was campaign chair of Harris's 2020 presidential attempt
Meena Harris, niece
Maya’s only child, Meena, followed the Harris family tradition by graduating from law school. Meena advised her "Aunty" Kamala through the early stages of her political career, as she moved through positions at elite Silicon Valley companies like Uber, Facebook and Slack.
Beginning in 2017, the mother of two launched Phenomenal, a media and merchandising company that focuses on projects led by women and other underrepresented groups.
But Meena’s career is still linked in some ways to her aunt’s.
In June 2020, she published a children’s book about her aunt and mother called "Kamala and Maya’s Big Idea". And after Biden selected Harris as his running mate, Phenomenal began selling “Vice President Aunty” sweatshirts.
Meena Harris, centre, has written children's books featuring her Aunty Kamala
Tony West, brother-in-law
Husband to Maya, step-father to Meena, Tony West is another accomplished member of the Harris clan, and another lawyer.
A graduate of Stanford law (where he met Maya and her then-toddler daughter), Mr West has worked at high levels of the private and public sector. He was associate attorney general under President Barack Obama and worked as general counsel of PepsiCo.
Mr West is now the chief legal officer of Uber, but he's also emerged as a key adviser to his sister-in-law's campaign.
Uber said he would take a leave of absence to devote himself to Team Harris.
"I have always believed family comes first," Mr West said in a statement. "So I’ve decided to dedicate myself full-time to supporting my family and my sister-in-law on the campaign trail."
Shyamala Gopalan, mother
Although Dr Shyamala Gopalan died before she could see her daughter run for president, Kamala and Maya Harris say their scientist mother inspired both of their careers.
"My mother was the first person to tell me that my thoughts and experiences mattered," Ms Harris wrote on Facebook in 2022. “My mother would often say to me: 'Kamala, you may be the first to do many things. Make sure you are not the last.'"
Ms Gopalan, who died in 2009, moved to the US from India at age 19 to study science, going on to work as a breast cancer researcher.
Her activism in the civil rights movement led her to her future husband: economist and Jamaican immigrant Donald Harris. Harris has credited her mother with raising both her and Maya. Her current relationship with her father is unclear.
From left, Greenley Littlejohn, Cole and Ella Emhoff, and their father, Douglas Emhoff, Maya Harris and Tony West watch Harris on stage at the Democratic National Convention
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