Meet Kamala Harris’ beloved husband Doug Emhoff: from blind date to their private wedding

Kamala Harris is running for President of the United States in 2024 after being named the Democratic presidential nominee. A former attorney turned politician, Kamala served as a United States senator of California from 2017 until 2021 when she became President Joe Biden’s right-hand woman as Vice President.

At the 2021 inauguration she was joined by her husband Doug Emhoff, and her blended family, and they have continued to support her throughout the campaign.

But who is the leading man in her life? Here’s what we know about him.

How did the couple meet?

© Win McNamee

Kamala first met Doug through a mutual friend on a blind date in 2013. A client of the litigator’s gave him her phone number, although he didn’t find it easy striking up an introduction.

At the DNC, he told the audience about the awkward voicemail he sent his future wife early in the morning: “Now, for generations, people have debated when to call the person you’re being set up with. And never in history has anyone suggested 8:30am,” he added. “And yet, that’s when I dialed. I got Kamala’s voicemail and I just started… rambling.”

Apparently the voicemail was so embarrassing that Kamala still brings it up, even now — in fact, “she makes me listen to it on every anniversary.”

They tied the knot a year later, with their Santa Barbara courthouse wedding officiated by Kamala’s sister Maya.

Doug is Kamala’s biggest supporter

When Joe Biden won the election, in November 2020, and Kamala became Vice President, Doug reacted with a heartfelt photo that he shared on X (formerly Twitter), in which he was seen embracing his wife.

“So proud of you,” he simply wrote.

He staunchly supports her, regularly posting about Kamala’s wins on social media.

On July 12, 2024 he posted a snapshot of his wife with the President and wrote: “For the past three years, I’ve seen @POTUS and @VP fight for the American people – and they’re not done yet.”

When asked about how she may perform in the run up to the only presidential debate between Kamala and Donald Trump, Doug joked on Pod Save America about their own debates, quipping: “I haven’t won one.”

Inside Doug’s career

© Jason Merritt

Doug began his career as an entertainment lawyer and in 2000 opened his own firm. It was sold in 2006 to Venable and he became managing director of their West Coast offices; clients included Walmart.

In 2017 he became a partner at DLA Piper, and while his bio has now been deleted, at the time it said that he represented “large domestic and international corporations and some of today’s highest profile individuals and influencers in complex business, real estate and intellectual property litigation disputes”.

He left his job as a lawyer when Kamala was elected Vice President at the end of 2020, and he transitioned into teaching, joining the faculty at Georgetown University Law Center in Washington, D.C.

He has also embraced his role as Second Gentleman of the United States, and if Kamala wins in November 2024, he will become the first First Gentleman of the United States.

© Instagram

Is Doug Jewish? 

© MICHAEL SOHN

 Yes, and Doug has emerged as a prominent face in the fight against antisemitism in recent years.

His ancestors moved to America in the late 19th century to avoid persecution in Poland, and they settled in New York. His family moved to California when he was 17.

In January 2023, Doug visited the Auschwitz concentration camp in Poland alongside Holocaust survivors to commemorate International Holocaust Remembrance Day, and later that year he was part of the White House team that launched the U.S. National Strategy to Counter Antisemitism.

He has also been vocal in condemning the conflation of Jewish identity with the Israeli government, especially in the wake of increased hostility.

“When Jews are targeted because of their beliefs or identity, and when Israel is singled out because of anti-Jewish hatred, that is antisemitism, and it must be condemned,” he said, saying that “calls for genocide” and the murder of Jews are “completely unacceptable and must be stopped”. 

Kamala’s parents and siblings

Kamala’s father is Donald J. Harris, a retired economics professor from Stanford University. Her mother, Shyamala, was a breast cancer researcher, but sadly died of colon cancer in 2009 aged 70. 

The couple had split when Kamala was seven, with Shyamala winning custody of their daughters.

Success really runs in this family, as Kamala’s sister Maya is also a lawyer and writer. Maya is married to Tony West, who she met at Stanford Law School. They are parents to daughter Meena, 40, also a lawyer.

Meena and her husband have two young daughters, Amara and Leela, who appeared at the Democratic National Convention in 2024 to  help the audience (and anyone watching who may have been confused) learn how to pronounce their aunt’s name correctly.

Kamala proudly talks about her childhood, and in 2024 took to her Instagram page to share a photo of her mother bottle-feeding her as a baby. 

She proudly wrote: “My parents were born half a world apart from each other: my mother in India and my dad in Jamaica. But like so many others, they came to America in pursuit of a dream. And that dream was a dream for themselves, for me, and for my sister Maya.”

She continued: “Born in Oakland, I was raised by my mother Shyamala Gopalan Harris, one of the few women of colour to have a position as a scientist at the University of California, Berkeley. She was all of five feet, but if you ever met her you would think she was seven feet tall.

“It’s because of her that I was raised in a community where we were taught to see a world beyond just ourselves. To be conscious and compassionate about the struggles of all people.

“My mother always used to say, ‘Don’t sit around and complain about things, do something.’ I’ve tried to follow that advice every day and live by the example she set.”

Doug and Kamala’s family

© Rob Carr

Doug was previously married to American film producer Kerstin Emhoff but the former couple divorced after 16 years together. They share two children, Cole and Ella. Through Doug, Kamala is stepmom to his grown-up children. 

The second gentleman has stayed close with his ex-wife, which according to his son Cole, meant that they “grew closer than ever.” Meanwhile, Kamala  “took over Sunday night dinners and taught Doug how to actually cook.”