The 59-year-old former lawyer would be the first “First Gentleman” of the USA. And he would also be the first Jewish spouse of the head of state of the USA.
As the husband of the first woman to hold the office of Vice President, Emhoff is already the first “Second Gentleman” of the USA. He is married for the second time to Harris, who is the same age – they will celebrate their tenth wedding anniversary on August 22nd.
From her first marriage, Emhoff brought a son, Cole, and a daughter, Ella, who were both teenagers at the time. Harris, who has no children of her own, has developed a close relationship with her stepchildren. They both coined the name “Momala” for their stepmother, a combination of her first name Kamala and “mom,” the English abbreviation for “mother.”
“Second Gentleman”
Emhoff was already showing increasing public presence as a “Second Gentleman” even before Harris became the Democratic presidential candidate when President Joe Biden dropped the nomination. This had to do with his Jewish identity – since the major attack by the radical Islamist Hamas on Israel on October 7 and the start of the Gaza War, Emhoff has been involved in a government campaign against anti-Semitism.
Nevertheless, Harris’s election rival Donald Trump claims that Harris “doesn’t like Jewish people.” And in a radio interview, the Republican presidential candidate agreed when Emhoff was called a “crazy Jew” by the interviewer. Harris’ campaign team then condemned “Trump’s hideous attack on the Second Gentleman.”
Extramarital affair
Emhoff has recently felt that his resilience is now in particularly high demand in the wake of his wife’s presidential candidacy in another respect: The British tabloid “Daily Mail” reported on an extramarital affair that Emhoff had had during his first marriage. Emhoff then confirmed the affair in a statement to CNN.
According to US media reports, the affair ended several years before Emhoff began dating Harris. According to a source quoted by CNN and the New York Times, Emhoff also told Harris about his previous affair before they married.
Emhoff and Harris met in 2013 when she was Attorney General of the State of California. Their first date was a blind date arranged by a mutual friend – so neither of them knew each other beforehand. After that, their relationship developed very quickly, and the following year they got married in Santa Barbara, California. It was Harris’ first marriage.
At the time, Emhoff was working as a lawyer, including in the entertainment industry. He grew up in New York and New Jersey and, as a teenager, moved with his parents and siblings to California, where he earned a law degree at the University of Southern California.
In the course of his legal career, the later “Second Gentleman” has also represented clients who are not necessarily to the liking of the left wing of the Democratic Party, for which his wife is now running in the presidential election – according to earlier research by the “New York Times”, these were the pharmaceutical company Merck and the arms dealer Dolarian Capital.
Video message to Trump
However, that was several years ago now, when Emhoff worked for the Venable law firm. Emhoff later moved to another firm, and in 2020 he took a break from his job to campaign alongside his wife, who was then running for vice president. After that, he did not return to the legal profession, but focused on his role as “second gentleman.”
Emhoff is now campaigning for his wife again. He is proving that he can not only take a hit, but also dish it out – and he does so with a sense of humor.
The possible future “First Gentleman” sent the following video message to Harris’ opponent, who constantly and apparently intentionally mispronounces her first name: “Mr. Trump, I know you have such difficulty pronouncing her name. But here’s the good news: After the election, you can just call her ‘Madam President.'”
