Kamala Harris's Husband Douglas Emhoff Will Be the First 'Second Gentleman'

Photo credit: Drew Angerer - Getty Images
Photo credit: Drew Angerer - Getty Images
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From Men's Health

By the time Democratic presidential candidate and former vice president Joe Biden brought his months-long veepstakes to a close earlier this week, the public knew a lot about his eventual pick, California senator Kamala Harris. She was the first Black woman elected district attorney in the Golden State, serving in San Francisco, then went on to become the state’s first Black attorney general.

She was also the first Indian-American senator, and on Wednesday she notched up even more firsts, becoming the first Black woman and first Asian-American to run as a vice presidential candidate on a major-party ticket.

Harris, in other words, is a powerful, accomplished woman who’s already made her mark on history. None of which was news to her husband, Douglas Emhoff. His earnest, excited tweets after the big announcement—a picture of Biden and Harris captioned “America, let’s do this!” and a “Ready to work!” directed at Dr. Jill Biden—sparked positive attention on Twitter. So who is Doug Emhoff, and what should you know about him?

He’s a lawyer

A graduate of USC’s law school, he’s currently a partner at DLA Piper, according to his LinkedIn profile, where he focuses on media, sports, and entertainment, representing corporations and “some of today's highest profile individuals and influencers.” According to The Hollywood Reporter, he knew he wanted to be a lawyer even as a kid growing up in Brooklyn, New York.

He and Harris met on a blind date

A close friend introduced the two, according to The Hollywood Reporter; they hit it off and started dating. About a year later, in spring of 2014, Emhoff proposed to Harris, according to The San Francisco Chronicle. They were married that August, in a ceremony at a Santa Barbara courthouse.

View this post on Instagram

@k_jeanpierre says it’s GO TIME so LET’S GO!

A post shared by Doug Emhoff (@douglasemhoff) on Aug 12, 2020 at 9:33am PDT

According to SF Gate, Harris’s sister, Maya, presided over the ceremony, which included a cellist, and Harris’s niece read from Maya Angelou's poem "Touched by an Angel.” The couple wrote their own vows (with help from Maya Harris) and their first dance was set to Corinne Bailey Rae's "Like a Star."

Emhoff had two children from a previous relationship, and Harris has written “our modern family is almost a little too functional.”

He’s an unabashed social-media cheerleader for his wife

Emhoff isn’t shy about expressing his love, doing so frequently on Twitter. (His fans adopted their own hashtag, calling themselves the #DougHive.)

And during Harris’s run for the presidency, he tweeted pictures of her seeing her book in the wild for the first time, seeing her on TV with Jake Tapper, and on the campaign trail. Whatever else he may be, on social media Douglas Emhoff is a man still very much head-over-heels in love with his wife.

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