What to Know About Doug Emhoff, Prospective First Gentleman

If Vice President Kamala Harris is the Democratic candidate and beats Donald Trump in the November presidential election, her victory would be historic in many ways—including her husband Doug Emhoff becoming the country’s first-ever First Gentleman.

After President Joe Biden announced he would drop out of the race and instead endorsed Harris as his replacement on the Democratic ticket, Emhoff praised the President and his wife, First Lady Jill Biden, in a statement on X Sunday night.

“I am deeply grateful to @POTUS and @FLOTUS for their years of friendship and support,” he wrote. “President Biden is a true patriot who leads our nation with honesty, decency, and integrity. Alongside @VP, they have fought tirelessly for families and communities, delivering for Americans across our nation. I am so proud of their accomplishments and thankful for their leadership.” 

In the past three and half years as Second Gentleman, Emhoff has pursued a small policy portfolio under the Biden Administration, revolving around his practice of law and his Jewish identity. Now that Harris is on her presidential campaign, the spotlight is also on Emhoff and how he might craft an unprecedented role as First Gentleman.

Here’s what you need to know about Emhoff.

Family life

Emhoff was born in Brooklyn to Mike and Barbara Emhoff on Oct. 13, 1964 and raised in Old Bridge, N.J., with siblings Jamie and Andy. When Emhoff was 16, he and his family moved to Los Angeles, Calif. Emhoff earned a bachelor’s degree in communication studies in 1987 at California State University - Northridge and a J.D. from University of Southern California Gould School of Law in 1990.

Emhoff married film producer Kerstin Emhoff in 1992, and they have two children: Cole, 29, and Ella, 25. The couple divorced after 16 years of marriage.

In 2013, Emhoff met Harris, then California attorney general, on a blind date. “The morning after our first date, Doug emailed me a list of his available dates for the next couple of months,” Harris wrote. “He said, ‘I want to see if we can make this work.’ We’ve been making it work ever since.” In an interview with Stephen Colbert in May, Emhoff said it was “love at first sight.” 

Emhoff and Harris married in a Santa Barbara, Calif. courthouse on Aug. 22, 2014, with Harris’ sister Maya officiating the ceremony.

Harris has a close relationship with Emhoff’s kids, who call her “Momala.”

Law career

Emhoff has been a lawyer for over 30 years, focused on media, entertainment, and intellectual property. He rose up the ranks in major law firms like Venable LLP, representing clients including the pharmaceutical company Merck and the arms dealer Dolarian Capital in a case related to the sale of weapons to Afghanistan, the New York Times reports. While at Venable, Emhoff won one of his most high-profile cases—a decades-long battle over the Taco Bell chihuahua.

When Harris won a Senate seat in 2016, Emhoff moved to Washington D.C. with her, and found a job as a partner in DLA Piper in 2017, where he had earned as much as $1.2 million per year.

With Harris’ inauguration as Vice President in 2021, Emhoff left DLA Piper. But he didn’t leave law behind: he joined the Georgetown Law Faculty in January 2021. He has also applied his legal expertise in helping the Biden Administration in its initiatives to facilitate and simplify legal aid. “He is an advocate for access to legal aid and removing barriers – legal, social, and financial – to ensure that every person can get the help they need to arrive at justice,” the White House writes in Emhoff’s biography.

Representing the Biden Administration, Emhoff led delegations to South Korea and the Philippines, and promoted the Biden-Harris policy agendas and COVID vaccination pushes. Emhoff maintains an office at the White House Eisenhower Executive Office Building.

Antisemitism advocacy

Emhoff also made history as the first Jewish spouse of a U.S. President or Vice President, and he has embraced his identity, helping the Biden Administration in its fight against antisemitism. He has convened Jewish leaders for what the White House called a first-of-its-kind roundtable on antisemitism awareness, and as Second Gentleman, he has criticized Donald Trump and Kanye West for their antisemitic remarks.

After the Oct. 7, 2023 attack by Hamas on Israel and the subsequent assault by Israel in Gaza, Emhoff spoke before Jewish leaders: “We witnessed a mass murder of innocent civilians,” he said. “It was a terrorist assault, and there is never any justification for terrorism. There are no two sides to this issue.”