Sports and entertainment lawyer to quit day job to support Biden-Harris administration.
Indian American Vice President-elect Kamala Harris‘ husband Douglas Emhoff is getting ready to be America’s first Second Gentleman come January inauguration of the new Joe Biden-Harris administration.
Call him Second gentleman, Second husband or Second dude, Emhoff, too would be making history as the first male spouse of a vice president along with Harris, daughter of an Indian mother and a Jamaican father.
In preparation for the unchartered territory as the spouse of the first woman, the first Black person and first person of Indian descent to occupy America’s second highest political office, Emhoff will sever all ties with his law firm DLA Piper by Inauguration Day.
Emhoff will work with the Biden-Harris transition team to develop a portfolio that will support the work of the incoming administration within his new role, CNN reported citing a campaign spokesperson.
Emhoff, a partner of the prominent law firm, took a leave of absence from DLA Piper soon after Biden picked Harris as his running mate in August.
At DLA Piper, he practiced law in intellectual property and technology and its media, sports and entertainment sector, according to the firm’s website.
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“[Emhoff] completely focused on supporting the Biden-Harris campaign since Kamala Harris joined the ticket, and he is not resuming his private law practice at the firm,” the spokesperson said.
The campaign did not rule out Emhoff eventually holding a position outside the administration, as Jill Biden did when she was second lady during former President Barack Obama’s tenure.
“So proud of you,” Emhoff tweeted on Saturday, with a picture of him and Harris hugging after major networks projected the victory of Joe Biden and Harris
On the campaign trail, Emhoff crisscrossed the country to hold his own events in Michigan, Ohio and Texas, among other battleground states.
But he shied away from the spotlight, and was often seen backstage or at the edge of the crowd at Harris’ events sporting a “Kamala” T-shirt, CNN noted.
READ: Kamala Harris makes history again as Biden’s VP pick (August 11, 2020 )
But he is active on social media, with his supporters calling themselves the #DougHive, modeled after Harris’ supporters and the #KHive.
He garnered attention last year when he rushed onstage to protect Harris after a protester came close enough to the senator to grab her microphone, the news channel noted.
Emhoff also defended Harris when Donald Trump Jr., the President’s son, retweeted an insinuation that Harris is not a Black American because her parents immigrated from Jamaica and India.
Harris and Emhoff met after they were set up on a blind date in 2013 by Harris’ best friend when Harris was California’s attorney general. Emhoff was, at the time, divorced from Kerstin Emhoff, with whom he has two children, Cole and Ella.
Emhoff proposed to Harris in 2014 after a swift courtship. The couple was married at the courthouse in Santa Barbara later that year in a ceremony officiated by Harris’ sister Maya.
Harris wrote in Elle magazine in May 2019 that her stepchildren came up with her moniker “Momala” a few years after she and Emhoff were married because they preferred the term over “stepmom.”
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“My family means everything to me. And I’ve had a lot of titles over my career, and certainly, ‘Vice President’ will be great, but ‘Momala’ will always be the one that means the most,” Harris said in her first speech after Biden chose her to run with him for the White House.