Doug Emhoff: America's self-deprecating Second Gentleman who just charmed the DNC
America’s vice president and new presidential hopeful Kamala Harris isn’t the only person in her marriage to join history’s lists of firsts.
Alongside her achievements as the first female and person of African-American and South Asian-American descent to get the job, her husband Doug Emhoff is America’s first ever second gentleman, the first Jewish person to be married to a president or vice president — and could become the country’s first-ever first gentleman, if his wife is elected POTUS in November.
“Wherever she's needed, however she's needed. Kamala rises to the occasion,” the 59-year-old told a crowd of cheering supporters at the Democratic National Convention this week, speaking candidly about their first date back in 2013 and cracking self-deprecating jokes about how his mother is the only person in the world to think Harris is the lucky one for marrying him.
“She did it for me and our family,” he continued. “And now that the country needs her, she's showing you what we already know. She's ready to lead.”
Visits to Covid vaccine clinics, advocating for gender equality and becoming a leading voice in the White House’s efforts to combat antisemitism have been among the career highlights of his four years as second gentleman so far — and current president Joe Biden has apparently been a great support. “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,’” he said in a tribute to Biden last month.
Emhoff, a Brooklyn-born former entertainment lawyer with two adult children who also gave powerful speeches at the DNC, isn’t just Harris’ ultimate cheerleader (their picture hugging after her 2020 victory – still in running kit – remains one of the defining images of her career). He’s also (almost) as popular as she is, with more than 996,000 Twitter followers and his very own hashtag, DougHive.
From their modern-day love story to the ultimate blended family, here’s everything you need to know about the man who could become the first-ever first gentleman to enter the White House.
The second couple by numbers
Before becoming second gentleman, Emhoff brought home an annual salary of more than $1 million as a partner at a law firm, making his and Harris’ net worth an estimated $5.8 million.
The Brooklyn-born father-of-two was raised in Matawan, New Jersey, before he moved with his parents and two siblings to LA. He attended college and law school in California and went on to start his own entertainment litigation practice, which he later folded into a large law firm, Venable.
He later became a partner at the firm DLA Piper but left in 2020 to avoid potential conflicts of interest between that firm’s lobbying portfolio and Harris’s political career. “I’m humbled, I’m honored to have put it all on hold — my career, family life, everything,” he said at the time of supporting the Biden-Harris campaign.
Today he teaches at Georgetown Law School and describes himself in his Twitter bio as “Devoted dad. Proud husband to @KamalaHarris. Advocate for justice and equality”, with a second Twitter account for his official duties as second gentleman.
He and Harris are both 59, with Emhoff exactly a week older than Harris, and have been married for nine years.
Time to make history, @KamalaHarris. pic.twitter.com/UC01RsSoCt
— Doug Emhoff (@DouglasEmhoff) July 23, 2024
His cover picture on Twitter is a poster calling for ‘Harris for President’, but Emhoff is not without his own following and he’s joked he’d like Bradley Cooper to play him in a film about his life.
A modern romance
Emhoff and Harris’ love story began in 2013 — a tale he chose to make the subject of his DNC speech in Chicago this week.
They were set up on a blind date by one of Harris’ close friends, PR consultant Chrisette Hudlin, and clicked immediately when he texted her from an LA Lakers game and she replied “Go Lakers” despite being a Golden State Warriors fan.
Some of my favorite memories together—here’s to many more. I love you. pic.twitter.com/WFzrbCsECt
— Doug Emhoff (@DouglasEmhoff) August 22, 2024
He left her an awkward voicemail message the next morning which she still has on her phone because she found it “endearing” — they still play it on every anniversary. “It sounds corny, I know, but the conversation just flowed,” Harris wrote in her memoir, saying she called him back that day and they spoke for an hour.
“I remember us cracking each other up, joking and laughing at ourselves, just the way we do now.”
They married in a private ceremony at the Santa Barbara Courthouse the following year and in line with their Indian and Jewish heritages, she put a flower garland around his neck and he stomped on a glass.
Making Momola
Emhoff’s two adult children, Ella and Cole, reportedly call Harris Momola because they don’t like the term stepmum. “They are brilliant, talented, funny kids who have grown to be remarkable adults,” Harris has said.
“I was already hooked on Doug, but I believe it was Cole and Ella who reeled me in.”
Ella, now 25 and living in Brooklyn, currently works as a textile artist selling her own knitwear alongside her works as a model, attending the Met Gala in 2021 wearing Adidas by Stella McCartney after signing with the agency IMG Models in January that year.
Her older brother Cole, 30, a newly-married psychology graduate, lives in LA and works in entertainment like his mother — and his father before he became second gentleman. According to his IMDB page, he has worked on several films including as an assistant on the 2020 award-winning film 'Minari' as well as the 2022 remake of 'Father of the Bride.’
”Because Doug and Kamala together are like almost vomit-inducingly cute and coupley. I’m like, When is this going to wear off?” he said in a Times interview before his stepmother was sworn in as vice president, adding that he and his sister call their father by his first name as a term of endearment.
Harris says she was careful about how she inserted herself into Ella and Cole’s lives at first, and she wore her now Vogue-famous Converse and brought cookies when she first met them.
Clearly, her efforts paid off. Cole married his long-term girlfriend Greenley Littlejohn in October last year and Harris was asked to officiate the ceremony. “It was so wonderful that the kids asked me to do it," she said afterwards.
"For us, we think of marriage as being not just between these two people, but the coming together of families. So it was very much with that spirit that we all participated.”
She continued: “I want for those two [Cole and Greenley] to have a loving marriage where they are best friends and they know that it’s not just them against the world, that our family supports them. That the community of people that came together at the wedding supports [them].”
Harris says she’s even “dear friends” with Emhoff’s ex-wife, the film producer Kerstin Mackin, and that the pair used to attend Ella’s swim meets and basketball games together.
“We really hit it off,” Harris has said. “We sometimes joke that our modern family is almost a little too functional.”
Mackin was one of many members of Harris’ “blended family” to appear the DNC this week, attending the first two days and resharing a post on X pointing out that “Kamala’s husband’s ex-wife is supporting her more enthusiastically than Trump’s current wife is supporting him”. “Damn right,” she wrote.
Harris’ hype-man — and America's first-ever first gentleman?
“Imagine working from home with Kamala Harris, during a pandemic and all the other issues going on,” Emhoff told Marie Claire when she was first appointed. “She just works hard, and she’s relentless… It’s just incredible how much she does.”
How did he feel about being America’s first ever second gentleman? The lawyer has been clear to mark his role as a partner not a colleague.
“I’m not her political adviser. I’m her husband,” he told an reporter after his wife’s decision to drop out of running for president in 2019. Instead, he said he was excited to work alongside Jill Biden as a super-spouse.
“Let’s go @DrBiden” he tweeted, tagging the future First Lady after his wife was announced as joining the campaign trail. “Ready to work!”
Alongside the supportive tweets and interviews, he’s also taken an active role. When Harris was harassed by a protester on stage at the start of her tenure, Emhoff jumped onto the platform to drag the man away, and a video of his “dad dance moves” has received thousands of views after he joined his wife in fundraising efforts at the San Francisco Pride.
Since then, he’s proven himself to be a man dedicated to his position as a super-spouse, working to expand access to legal aid services, advocating for gender equity and helping to lead White House’s efforts to combat antisemitism.
After the October 7 Hamas attack in Israel, he told reporters that he felt “sheer pain and shock” but that “I’m still going to keep doing what I’m doing — focus on fighting against hate and antisemitism and Islamophobia.”
Emhoff has shared many a picture of himself and fellow super-spouse Jill Biden at work over the last four year, last month sharing an image of the two couples standing side-by-side, thanking the Bidens for their leadership.
“To Joe and Jill, thank you for your unwavering support and for all you have done in service to this great country,” he wrote in a tweet that has already received more than 34,000 likes.
Let’s go win this. pic.twitter.com/T2ymv7AozP
— Doug Emhoff (@DouglasEmhoff) August 23, 2024
Now, for his wife’s turn at shooting for the White House. “I’m the first man to take this role — but I definitely don’t want to be the last,” he says in his White House biography.
Perhaps that won’t be the only role he’s saying that about in a few months time.