Campaigning for wife Kamala Harris, Doug Emhoff embodies (and redefines) masculinity

PITTSBURGH, Pa. ― Vice President Kamala Harris walked off Air Force 2 and into the wind. Her husband, second gentleman Doug Emhoff, was right behind.

She flashed a broad smile and waved at the crowd before grabbing onto the railing. Emhoff offered his arm. Harris was the most powerful woman in the country. She was also his wife.

The couple descended, step by step, until they reached the bottom together.

Emhoff had seen his spouse through high-profile campaigns over the last decade. And now, he was doing everything to help her become president.

Sometimes, it’s lending an arm. Sometimes, it’s procuring a bag of Doritos.

“Ahh, Dougie,” Harris' face lit up at a gas station pitstop as Emhoff handed Harris her favorite chips — a staple snack on the trail. “I know you wanted those,” he replied.

Emhoff hasn’t seen much of his wife in recent weeks. Ever since Harris formally accepted the Democratic nomination for president, their conversations usually follow a single track – where he's been, where he’s headed, what he’s hearing from voters, volunteers and donors.

“I’m crawling over glass,” Emhoff told a group of roughly five dozen of Harris’ supporters who’d crammed inside the Montgomery County Democratic Party’s headquarters in Norristown to hear him speak last Sunday ahead of a canvas.

Harris was in Pittsburgh, preparing for her debate with former President Donald Trump. Emhoff was on the campaign trail in her stead.

He has been on the road nonstop since she launched an eleventh-hour bid to win the White House. Emhoff is headlining fundraisers, rallies and volunteer appreciation events across the country, while Harris fulfills her duties as vice president, builds out her campaign platform and introduces herself to voters in battleground states.

A “guy’s guy” who intersperses quips about his Fantasy football team with knocks on his wife’s Republican opponent, Emhoff has redefined the role of the nation’s second spouse as he hustles to help Harris become the first female president of the United States.

“The model of masculinity he's presenting is one where you can still like sports. You can still like to hang out with your friends. You can still like to defend your family from threats and be supportive of your wife in her role as the leader of the free world–  or the leader of whatever organization she is in charge of,” former Harris communications director Jamal Simmons said.

Emhoff is Harris’ closest confidante, staunchest defender and eyes and ears on the trail. Although he reports back on his trips and tip-toes into policy at times, a dozen allies, former aides, and people close to the couple who spoke to USA TODAY, some of whom requested anonymity to discuss private interactions, said he does not act as an adviser to the vice president.

He wants voters to know his wife is a "badass,” who has what it takes to run the country, in the face of heightened media scrutiny and a litany of insults from Trump. That she loves her country, understands business and has an agenda for average Americans.

‘That’s all he’s got?’: Harris' husband Doug Emhoff slaps back at Trump

“I love him. I think that his support of his wife is exactly what I want to see white men in America doing. I think that he is representing what it looks like to stand behind a powerful woman,” said Carol Vinatieri, a Harris volunteer from Abington, who’s training to become a precinct captain.

Vinatieri, 33, attended the Norristown canvas launch with her husband, Josh Linder, 32. Linder said that Emhoff, a former entertainment lawyer, is a “role model for men” like himself.

In his role as second gentleman, Emhoff has already shown what it’s like to be a nurturing spouse. Emhoff quit his job at the global law firm DLA Piper, where he was a partner, in 2020 after Harris and President Joe Biden won the election. He took up teaching at Georgetown Law as a second career while devoting much of his time to supporting the Biden-Harris administration in the unpaid position of second gentleman.

His support has ranged from the personal to the official. When his wife tested positive for COVID, Emhoff shared a close-up of her working from home. After a busload of migrants were dropped off at the vice presidential residence in a bid by GOP governors to embarrass her, Emhoff went outside to talk with them as a human being about their struggle. He did so without the knowledge or prior permission of Harris’ staff.

Were the couple to make it to the White House, Emhoff would take on the position of first gentleman. He would be expected to assume new responsibilities that have traditionally been carried out by first ladies, helping with state dinners, putting on open houses and picking out holiday decorations. Emhoff is Jewish and says he’d put a mezuzah in the residence.

The role of first lady has varied and evolved over time . First lady Jill Biden was the first spouse of a president to work in a paid position outside of the White House. Emhoff could do the same.

For much of the past century, men were customarily cast as the breadwinner in most American families. But like Emhoff's case, it's becoming more common for women to be the leading lady: 16% of married couples now have a woman who earns more than her spouse, up threefold from the 1970s, according to Pew Research.

Emhoff tries not to be a scold. He wants his ascent to signal to men throughout the country that there’s more to their identity than their work.

“I’ve always been proud of the work that I’m doing, it’s an important part of my life. But sometimes I take pride in supporting my wife and making a great life for us together,” Linder explained. “And so when I see what Doug did, I'm seeing that's a model for me.”

Harris’ closest confidante and staunchest defender

The couple met in 2013 through a friend. Emhoff was divorced with two teenage children; Harris was the California attorney general. They hit it off immediately. Love struck for the pair in their late 40s. They married the following year. They celebrated their 10 year wedding anniversary the night Harris accepted the Democratic nomination.

Emhoff has always seconded Harris’ political ambitions. He traveled with his wife as often as he could during her 2019 campaign for president. He was a prolific fundraiser for Democrats in the lead up to the 2022 midterms.

But the vice president’s husband has taken on a more prominent role now that she’s leading the ticket.

The Norristown event was one of three that Emhoff did last weekend in Pennsylvania. He also took a rare evening off to see the band Pearl Jam in Philadelphia with Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro.

He’d just come off a swing that included a trip to Los Angeles, a fundraiser in Chicago, and a night in Pittsburgh, where he finally caught up with Harris.

“Even in the few minutes that we have together, and we're barely seeing each other, and it's not the happy couple talk these days, it's get back out there,” he said in Allentown on Saturday.

But he returned to Pittsburgh the next evening the be with his wife. Walking hand-in-hand with her husband, Harris said she was ready to face Trump. Emhoff was off to North Carolina.

He’s attended nine fundraisers that have raised more than $7 million in the three weeks since Harris formally accepted the nomination. A tenth one, in Mississippi, is scheduled for Friday. He’s appeared at another ten political events, including one on Friday in Florida. He says he’ll sleep on Nov. 6 once voting has concluded.

“His steadfast support of Vice President Harris is a powerful example of how men can champion women in leadership,” Montgomery County Board of Commissioners chair Jamila Winder told the crowd in Norristown. “He shows us what it means to be an ally, one who listens, advocates and stands shoulder to shoulder in the fight for equality.”

His work on issues such as gender equity and abortion rights has complemented his wife’s. It was at Harris’ urging that he took up that work and leaned into the Biden’s administration’s fight against antisemitism, Emhoff has said on several recent occasions.

Much like his candidate wife, who has appeared more comfortable as the nominee than she did as Biden’s running mate, Emhoff is embracing the spotlight.

“They're now representing themselves and are willing to take risks that articulate who they are at their very core,” said Ashley Etienne, a senior advisor to the Biden-Harris campaign in 2020 who went on to work for the vice president.

Emhoff has been a crucial reinforcement for Harris on the trail – and not just when it comes to hopscotching between swing states. He appeared at a Jewish Democratic Council of America event in Chicago on the day Harris accepted her party’s nomination and said at the Democratic National Convention that Harris brought him closer to his faith.

“The foundation of his work is her support of it,” JDCA executive director Halie Soifer, a former adviser to Harris on national security, said. “It is her policy that he is advancing.”

Trump has sought to make Harris’ stance on Israel a voting issue. He claimed at their debate that she hates Israel; Harris told him that’s not true.

Emhoff made a point of stating that Harris “has fought against antisemitism and all forms of hate her whole career” in his convention remarks.

“I think it does kind of give it an air of credibility to hear it coming from her husband, who is a Jew,” said Isaac Kaufer, 27, a Somerville, Mass. resident and full-time volunteer for Democrats, after Emhoff’s appearance at the JDCA event.

Emhoff helps draw the contrast for Harris

Kaufer said the second gentleman’s address was one of his favorites at the convention.

Emhoff talked about the awkward and rambling voicemail he left Harris before their first date. He said she makes him listen to it every year on their anniversary. She did so again on the final day of the convention.

“The story he told was very, like, vulnerable,” Kaufer said. “It contrasts well with the Republicans.”

Harris wasn’t there. She was in Milwaukee. She circled her plane above the convention site after the event so she could see his remarks while in the air.

Emhoff acknowledged that his first marriage ended in divorce. His son, Cole, spoke about the break-up in a video that his ex-wife, Kerstin, produced for the convention. She attended the DNC alongside Cole and daughter Ella and has been a vocal supporter of Harris’ presidential bid.

“Our blended family wasn't used to politics or the spotlight. But when Kamala became senator, we were all excited to step up, especially my dad,” Cole said.

The term “blended family” is one Emhoff uses frequently.

“Don't worry about us. We're fine,” he told an Allentown crowd on Saturday afternoon, after he referenced Trump’s personal attacks on Harris. “We got each other. We got that big, beautiful, blended family. They're going to love us up.”

In Norristown, at the volunteer event, Vinatieri said she’s had multiple, independent voters tell her how refreshing it is to see a family on the national stage that looks like theirs.

“Everyday Americans, who are sitting down for their dinner and pick up their phone to talk to me, are saying, I identify with her, I identify with this family,” Vinatieri said. “I think that's really powerful.”

Emhoff hopes they also see the first female president.

Francesca Chambers is a White House correspondent for USA TODAY . Follow her on X, formerly Twitter, @fran_chambers.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Campaigning for wife Kamala Harris, Doug Emhoff embodies (and redefines) masculinity