Who is Doug Emhoff?

When Kamala Harris discovered President Joe Biden was stepping apart within the 2024 presidential race, she instantly known as her husband.

However Doug Emhoff was busy – 2,000 miles (3,200 km) away taking a biking class with associates in Los Angeles.

He has recounted the story a handful of instances on the marketing campaign path within the weeks since Vice-President Harris grew to become the Democratic nominee for president.

The second-gentleman stated when his associates confirmed him the information on their telephones, he ran to his automotive to seize his telephone, which was “on fireplace”.

When he known as his spouse again, she picked up and stated, “the place the … had been you, I want you,” Mr Emhoff, 59, recounted.

The pair have had a genial public relationship, so it isn’t a shock Mr Emhoff, a former Los Angeles leisure lawyer, shared the non-public and relatable second.

Ms Harris and Mr Emhoff met in 2013 after being arrange on a blind date.

“I am too previous to play video games or cover the ball”, Mr Emhoff stated on the time, Ms Harris wrote in her 2013 memoir, The Truths We Maintain. “I actually such as you, and I wish to see if we will make this work.”

They married lower than a 12 months later in a ceremony that paid tribute to his Jewish religion and her Indian heritage.

Today – at marketing campaign stops and in tv interviews – Ms Harris might be heard affectionately referring to her husband as “Dougie,” or “My Dougie”.

By means of the wedding, Ms Harris grew to become a step-mother or “Momala,” as she can also be identified, to Mr Emhoff’s youngsters from his first marriage, Cole and Ella.

He has his youngsters’s initials tattooed on his left wrist: “I simply actually wished a reminder of what is necessary to me,” he stated in an interview pointing to the tattoo. “I wished a visceral reminder of them.”

Born in Brooklyn, New York, Mr Emhoff spent his youth in New Jersey, and fulfilled his dream of changing into an leisure lawyer in Los Angeles – one thing he did for 30 years.

Since then, Mr Emhoff has been there by means of his spouse’s 2016 Senate run, her 2019 major marketing campaign for president and the 2020 race – which she gained, making historical past as the primary black and South Asian ladies to turn into vice-president.

Mr Emhoff was a largely unknown determine when she was sworn in, however has taken a extra public position since he grew to become the nation’s first second-gentleman. He gave up his leisure regulation profession and commenced educating at Georgetown Legislation Faculty when he relocated to Washington DC.

Mr Emhoff has used his new platform to advocate for reproductive rights and at latest marketing campaign stops has mentioned restrictions on abortion entry because the Supreme Court docket overturned Roe v. Wade.

Nevertheless it’s been Mr Emhoff’s position because the face of the administration’s struggle towards a world rise in antisemitism the place he is discovered the largest highlight.

As the primary Jewish partner of a White Home principal, he traveled to the previous web site of the Auschwitz-Birkenau demise camp in Poland and marked Worldwide Holocaust Remembrance Day in Germany in 2023.

“Individuals was once afraid to say the ugly epithets and lies out loud,” Mr Emhoff stated throughout remarks on the former focus camp.

“Now, they’re actually screaming them. We’re witnessing an epidemic of hate in america and internationally.”

He spoke out towards antisemitism when protests over the warfare in Gaza sprang up on US college campuses this 12 months.

Within the weeks since Ms Harris grew to become the celebration’s presidential nominee, Mr Emhoff has been touring extra, making marketing campaign appearances on behalf of his spouse and her working mate Minnesota Governor Tim Walz.

Mr Emhoff travelled to Paris earlier this month to guide a US delegation to the Paris Olympics closing ceremonies, taking first girl Jill Biden’s place.

However Mr Emhoff additionally confronted new criticism as his spouse has confronted extra scrutiny on the highest of the ticket.

Earlier this month, studies surfaced about an extramarital affair Mr Emhoff had in his earlier marriage.

“Throughout my first marriage, Kerstin and I went by means of some powerful instances on account of my actions,” he stated in a press release, showing to acknowledge the report. “I took accountability, and within the years since, we labored by means of issues as a household and have come out stronger on the opposite facet.”

The crew that vetted Mr Emhoff earlier than Ms Harris was chosen as President Joe Biden’s working mate knew of his earlier affair, a supply conversant in the method informed the BBC. The affair was additionally identified to Ms Harris earlier than the pair married, in response to the supply.

Mr Emhoff made his primetime debut when he spoke on the Democratic Nationwide Conference in Chicago.

He described the methods through which his life and people of his children modified when he met Ms Harris. He spent some quarter-hour humanizing his spouse, praising her many accomplishments and leaning into his internet-dubbed title of “spouse man”.

“Kamala was precisely the fitting individual for me at an necessary second in my life. And at this second in our nation’s historical past, she is precisely the fitting president,” Mr Emhoff stated.