Doug Emhoff could be the first US First Gentleman
'Hey, it's Doug!' - Kamala Harris's husband on how they met
- Published
When Kamala Harris found out President Joe Biden was stepping aside in the 2024 presidential race, she immediately called her husband.
But Doug Emhoff was busy - 2,000 miles (3,200 km) away taking a cycling class with friends in Los Angeles.
He has recounted the story a handful of times on the campaign trail in the weeks since Vice-President Harris became the Democratic nominee for president.
The second-gentleman said when his friends showed him the news on their phones, he ran to his car to grab his phone, which was "on fire".
When he called his wife back, she picked up and said, "where the ... were you, I need you," Mr Emhoff, 59, recounted.
The pair have had a genial public relationship, so it is not a surprise Mr Emhoff, a former Los Angeles entertainment lawyer, shared the personal and relatable moment.
Ms Harris and Mr Emhoff met in 2013 after being set up on a blind date.
"I'm too old to play games or hide the ball", Mr Emhoff said at the time, Ms Harris wrote in her 2013 memoir, The Truths We Hold. "I really like you, and I want to see if we can make this work."
They married less than a year later in a ceremony that paid tribute to his Jewish faith and her Indian heritage.
These days - at campaign stops and in television interviews - Ms Harris can be heard affectionately referring to her husband as “Dougie,” or “My Dougie".
Through the marriage, Ms Harris became a step-mother or "Momala," as she is also known, to Mr Emhoff's children from his first marriage, Cole and Ella.
He has his children's initials tattooed on his left wrist: "I just really wanted a reminder of what's important to me," he said in an interview pointing to the tattoo. "I wanted a visceral reminder of them."
Born in Brooklyn, New York, Mr Emhoff spent his youth in New Jersey, and fulfilled his dream of becoming an entertainment lawyer in Los Angeles - something he did for 30 years.
Since then, Mr Emhoff has been there through his wife's 2016 Senate run, her 2019 primary campaign for president and the 2020 race - which she won, making history as the first black and South Asian women to become vice-president.
Mr Emhoff was a largely unknown figure when she was sworn in, but has taken a more public role since he became the nation's first second-gentleman. He gave up his entertainment law career and began teaching at Georgetown Law School when he relocated to Washington DC.
Mr Emhoff has used his new platform to advocate for reproductive rights and at recent campaign stops has discussed restrictions on abortion access since the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade.
But it's been Mr Emhoff's role as the face of the administration's fight against a global rise in antisemitism where he's found the biggest spotlight.
As the first Jewish spouse of a White House principal, he traveled to the former site of the Auschwitz-Birkenau death camp in Poland and marked International Holocaust Remembrance Day in Germany in 2023.
“People used to be afraid to say the ugly epithets and lies out loud," Mr Emhoff said during remarks at the former concentration camp.
"Now, they are literally screaming them. We are witnessing an epidemic of hate in the United States and internationally."
He spoke out against antisemitism when protests over the war in Gaza sprang up on US university campuses this year.
Doug Emhoff lauded his wife in a speech at the Democratic National Convention.
In the weeks since Ms Harris became the party's presidential nominee, Mr Emhoff has been traveling more, making campaign appearances on behalf of his wife and her running mate Minnesota Governor Tim Walz.
Mr Emhoff travelled to Paris earlier this month to lead a US delegation to the Paris Olympics closing ceremonies, taking first lady Jill Biden's place.
But Mr Emhoff also faced new criticism as his wife has faced more scrutiny on the top of the ticket.
Earlier this month, reports surfaced about an extramarital affair Mr Emhoff had in his previous marriage.
"During my first marriage, Kerstin and I went through some tough times on account of my actions,” he said in a statement, appearing to acknowledge the report. “I took responsibility, and in the years since, we worked through things as a family and have come out stronger on the other side.”
The team that vetted Mr Emhoff before Ms Harris was chosen as President Joe Biden's running mate knew of his previous affair, a source familiar with the process told the BBC. The affair was also known to Ms Harris before the pair married, according to the source.
Mr Emhoff made his primetime debut when he spoke at the Democratic National Convention in Chicago.
He described the ways in which his life and those of his kids changed when he met Ms Harris. He spent some 15 minutes humanizing his wife, praising her many accomplishments and leaning into his internet-dubbed title of "wife guy".
"Kamala was exactly the right person for me at an important moment in my life. And at this moment in our nation's history, she is exactly the right president," Mr Emhoff said.
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- Published13 November 2020
