When Kamala Harris makes history as the first black woman and vice president of the United States, her husband Doug Emhoff will blaze his own path: as the original “second husband.”
Harris and Emhoff, who married in 2014 – she for the first time, he for the second – will also be the first mixed race couple to fill their positions. He is white while she is the daughter of Indian and Jamaican immigrants. They are both 56 years old.
The contours of Emhoff’s new role as the nation’s “second husband” – some prefer the “second gentleman” – have yet to be determined; He has been vague about his plans thus far.
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Traditionally, the spouses of presidents and vice presidents were expected to strike a careful balance between support and independence. Many choose a charitable cause to promote.
Emhoff, who was credited as a “secret weapon” in his wife’s election campaign, even gaining a following on social media, is an accomplished attorney who specializes in media, sports and entertainment law.
He was fired in August from the multinational DLA Piper, which has lobbying offices in Washington. That could create thorny conflicts of interest with Harris’s work.
Emhoff has been publicly vague about whether he will stay at the firm, though he has told interviewers that he may want to do pro bono legal work.
Emhoff marks another milestone: he would be the first Jew to be part of America’s first or second family.
His friends have described him as an unobservant Jew, but one who strongly identifies with Judaism and is deeply shaped by it.
The Jewish publication Forward embraced him as the “Second Mensch.” When his reporter asked Emhoff’s mother, Barbara, about his religious upbringing, she was shy but offered, “It was a mitzvahed bar in New Jersey, I can tell you that.”
Born in Brooklyn and raised in New Jersey, he is said to have happy memories of Jewish summer camp, where he won sports awards.
While he was in high school, his father moved the family to Los Angeles. Emhoff graduated from the University of Southern California with a law degree and later worked at other law firms before coming to DLA Piper.
When Emhoff met Harris on a blind date arranged by friends, it was “love at first sight,” he said later.
Her children from her first marriage, Cole, who is named after John Coltrane, and Ella, who is named after Ella Fitzgerald, have embraced their stepmother as “Momala.”
Emhoff’s ex-wife, Kerstin Mackin, remains friendly and even joins the family on Thanksgiving.
The “second elected husband”, by the way, shares one thing with Donald Trump: They are both avid golfers.
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