“My mother is the only person in the world who thinks Kamala Harris was the lucky one when she married me.” In August, during the Democratic convention in Chicago, Doug Emhoff wanted to show America that he was his wife’s main supporter.
The American “second gentleman”, husband of the vice president and Democratic Party candidate for the presidential elections Kamala Harris, has established himself over the weeks as a figure in the campaign. In the official Kamala Harris campaign store it is even possible to buy a sticker of the couple hugging.
Their relationship is an element highlighted by Kamala Harris’ teams in the run-up to the November 5 election. Doug Emhoff, 60, periodically returns to his meeting and his love story with the candidate for the White House. The couple met during a meeting arranged by a mutual friend in 2013. Just after this meeting, the lawyer left her a “nice” message on her answering machine, Kamala Harris said in an interview on CBS.
A self-deprecating message delivered by Doug Emhoff at the Democratic convention in August: “I just started rambling.” “I remember trying to grab the words out of the air and put them back in my mouth. And after what seemed like too many minutes, I hung up,” he said.
A blended family
They married the following year, forming a blended family with Doug Emhoff’s two children, Cole and Ella, from a previous marriage. The candidate’s closeness to them was also addressed during the campaign, as Kamala Harris was criticized by Donald Trump’s running mate, JD Vance, for not having biological children.
JD Vance mocked the “unhappy cat ladies” in 2021, referring to people who don’t have a partner or children, saying that those people, quoting Kamala Harris, have no “direct interest” in the good of the country, since they lack descendants.
Doug Emhoff’s own ex-wife came to the defense of Kamala Harris. “For more than 10 years, since Cole and Ella were teenagers, Kamala has co-parented with Doug and me,” Kerstin Emhoff told CNN. “I love our blended family and I’m thrilled she’s a part of it.”
“Difficult” beginnings
Born in Brooklyn, New York in 1964, Doug Emhoff grew up in New Jersey before moving with his family to Los Angeles, where he spent his teenage years. Beginning with the 2020 presidential campaign, he had to pause a 30-year career as a lawyer in the media and entertainment industry, specializing in intellectual property, to support Kamala Harris for vice president.
“It was difficult,” his son Cole testified in a video shown at the Democratic Convention. “We had the impression that Doug was out of place” in the places of power in Washington. “I was wondering what my stupid father was doing here,” he added.
Doug Emhoff, however, says he felt “no frustration” after beginning his new career as America’s first “second gentleman.” “It’s an honor. I love my wife. I love my country,” he told Korea JoongAng Daily, a South Korean newspaper, in 2022.
“I really loved my job as a lawyer, but when the opportunity presented itself, I stepped back for my wife to become the first vice president and do everything I could for her. Helping them succeed wasn’t even a question,” he said . aggregate.
Committed to antisemitism
Over the years, Doug Emhoff has made his mark, notably during a series of speeches denouncing anti-Semitism following the Hamas attack on Israel on October 7. In August, it was he who announced, on behalf of the United States, an exceptional contribution of 2.2 million dollars (about 2 million euros) to UNESCO’s program to combat anti-Semitism.
“The issue of anti-Semitism, of hatred, affects me deeply as a Jewish person,” he declared during a press conference at the Paris headquarters of the United Nations for education, science and culture.
And since the start of the campaign, he has not missed the opportunity to reiterate how much he admires his wife, painting a glowing portrait of her with many personal anecdotes. “Yesterday I was working and I came back in the afternoon from a trip and inside the refrigerator there was a bowl of chicken noodle soup with a little note that said, ‘I love you, this is for you.’ Even with everything that’s going on, “I always she thinks about her husband, her children and her family,” she said, for example, at the beginning of October on Jennifer Hudson’s show.
The American media has widely highlighted in recent months the model of masculinity presented by the affable sexagenarian. HE time magazine He thus noted that it presented “another model of manhood to admire and aspire to than the one often projected in culture” where “successful men can support their wives and be respected” without “casting shadows” on their wife. A “wife man”, summarizes the magazine (a man always willing to support his wife). And perhaps the future first American “First Gentleman.”
Source: BFM TV