Vice President Kamala Harris and Second Gentleman Doug Emhoff on Sept. 10, 2024. Photo by DOMINIC GWINN/Middle East Images/AFP via Getty Images

By Jacob Kornbluh September 16, 2024

Second gentleman Doug Emhoff, campaigning for the Harris-Walz ticket in Florida on Friday, made an emphatic plea to Jewish voters to support his wife, Vice President Kamala Harris. In a 30-minute speech posted online, Emhoff said Harris is the reason he rediscovered his Judaism. 

“She was the one who has encouraged me to live openly and proudly as a Jewish person,” he said. “She’s the one who encouraged me to make sure we have a mezuzah at the vice president’s residence.” 

In front of Jewish crowds, Emhoff frequently talks about his deep connection to his Jewishness, which he has showcased in public in recent years. Since Harris won the vice presidency in 2020, the couple hosted Passovers Seder, celebrated Hanukkah and affixed mezuzahs on the doorposts of the vice president’s residence. Emhoff also baked matzo with Jewish day school kids, and traveled to Krakow, Poland and Auschwitz-Birkenau. Emhoff, 59, is also the public face of the Biden administration’s national strategy to combat antisemitism, a role that became even more important after Oct. 7 and the subsequent campus protests. 

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But since Harris replaced President Joe Biden on the Democratic ticket in July, Emhoff has also become an effective campaigner — and not just to lure Jewish voters, who represent about 2% of the national electorate. In campaign appearances, Emhoff has often boasted about potentially becoming the first-ever first gentleman — historic by itself — but also credited his wife for connecting him more deeply to his identity.

A new anti-Harris ad targeting Muslim voters in the critical swing state of Michigan highlights the fact that her Emhoff would be the first Jewish presidential spouse.

Sam Lauter, a major Democratic fundraiser from San Francisco who has been advising Harris since the early 2000s, said in an interview that Harris had encouraged Emhoff to travel to Israel for the first time in his life after they married in 2014 “because she wanted him to see the country that she loved.” Harris first visited Israel in 2004 as the district attorney of San Francisco on a mission sponsored by the Bay Area Jewish Community Relations Council. 

Harris and Emhoff traveled to Israel together in 2017. Lauter, now a board member at the Democratic Majority for Israel, said in conversations afterwards, Emhoff shared with him that the Israel trip was “a seminal moment in connecting with his Judaism.”

In his speech at The Villages, a large Florida retirement community, Emhoff said that Harris played a big part in his decision to step in to formalize and implement the administration’s creation of a national strategy to counter rising antisemitism. “None of this would have happened without Kamala’s encouragement,” he said. “I didn’t have to explain to her what a Jew was, she already knew.” 

Emhoff’s remarks, reported on Sunday, drew mixed reaction on X.. In some of the 391 replies and 91 quote tweets as of Monday morning, some people attacked Emhoff for intermarriage and having a non-Jew help him discover his Judaism. Others commented on it with pride that he embraces diversity. 

The second gentleman shared with the crowd that in a conversation with a Jewish family waiting in the line to get into the event, he said, “Look there’s a lot of stuff going on out there right now, but I love being Jewish. I love it. I want to make sure that if you are Jewish, just make sure you live openly and proudly and without fear. I am going to do that as much as I can.” 

Emhoff said he hopes to put a mezuzah on the White House, “if they let me.”

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