(NewsNation) — Since President Joe Biden stepped out of the 2024 race last month, Vice President Kamala Harris has stirred up enthusiasm among Democrats as the party’s presidential nominee, shaking up a race that had previously left voters unenthusiastic about a 2020 rematch.
President Joe Biden listened to calls from within his own party to bow out of the 2024 presidential race and threw his support behind Kamala Harris to beat former President Donald Trump in November.
More notable Democrats endorsed Harris in the following days.
Kamala Harris later secured enough Democratic delegate votes to become the party’s nominee at the beginning of August.
Along the way, several members of her immediate family, including her husband Doug Emhoff, have jumped into action to support Kamala Harris’ campaign.
Doug Emhoff
The role of the first lady of the United States has changed over time. Now, we might have a first gentleman.
Doug Emhoff and Kamala Harris met on a blind date in 2013 and married the following year. It was her first marriage and his second.
If Kamala Harris wins the 2024 presidential election, not only will she become the first woman to serve as president of the United States, but her husband will serve as the first-ever first gentleman of the U.S.
Doug Emhoff recognizes the historical value of his position in the Biden-Harris administration and has traveled to 37 states, two native nations and 14 countries to meet people in different communities, according to the administration.
As the first-ever second gentleman, Doug Emhoff has expressed the importance of his wife as a champion of gender equality, emphasizing that he wants a future where it isn’t rare for there to be a second (or first) gentleman.
He has also made history as the first Jewish spouse of an American vice president and has been a leading voice in combating antisemitism in the U.S.
As a lawyer for over 30 years, Doug Emhoff has advocated for removing barriers that prevent people from having access to legal aid.
Since Biden withdrew from the race and endorsed Kamala Harris, Doug Emhoff has already begun his work on the campaign trail. He has been traveling for events in different states and doing speaking appearances.
On a podcast episode of “Stay Tuned with Preet,” Doug Emhoff said he was proud of Kamala Harris.
“I’m honored now to have my wife be at the top of the ticket,” he told host and former federal prosecutor Preet Bharara on the episode.
Cole Emhoff
Kamala Harris’ stepchildren, Ella and Cole Emhoff, were teenagers when their father remarried.
Cole Emhoff, 29, said during an interview with Glamour in 2020 that he instantly liked Kamala Harris from the moment he met her, People reported.
As their stepmother — or rather “Momala” — has stepped into the spotlight, so have they.
Cole Emhoff married his longtime girlfriend in October 2023, and Kamala Harris officiated their wedding. In an interview with People, she said it “meant so much for so many reasons.”
Ella Emhoff
Ella Emhoff, the youngest member of the second family, helped Kamala Harris along the campaign trail before she was elected as vice president, occasionally appearing at events and supporting her during the 2021 inauguration.
Most recently, the 25-year-old has spoken out against JD Vance’s “childless cat ladies” comment he made last month after being picked as former President Donald Trump’s running mate.
“How can you be ‘childless’ when you have cutie pie kids like Cole and I?” she posted to an Instagram story in July. “I love my three parents.”
Since the pandemic, Ella Emhoff has become a large social media presence, often posting images of her knit paintings.
Kerstin Emhoff
Kerstin Emhoff was Doug Emhoff’s first wife before he married Kamala Harris.
Earlier this month, Doug Emhoff acknowledged he had an extramarital affair years ago that contributed to the breakup of his first marriage.
The affair was known to the team that vetted Kamala Harris before President Joe Biden picked her to be his running mate in 2020, according to a person familiar with the events who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss the sensitive situation. The vice president knew about the affair before she married Emhoff, the person said.
Kerstin Emhoff has spoken positively of Harris as a “co-parent” of her daughter and son and as “loving, nurturing, fiercely protecting and always present.” She issued a statement supporting her ex-husband after he acknowledged the affair.
“Doug and I decided to end our marriage for a variety of reasons, many years ago,” she said. “He is a great father to our kids, continues to be a great friend to me and I am really proud of the warm and supportive blended family Doug, Kamala, and I have built together.”
Kerstin Emhoff also spoke out against Vance’s comments about “childless cat ladies,” calling the comments “baseless.”
“For over 10 years, since Cole and Ella were teenagers, Kamala has been a co-parent with Doug and I. She is loving, nurturing, fiercely protective, and always present. I love our blended family and am grateful to have her in it,” she told NBC News.
Maya Harris
Nearly inseparable, Kamala Harris has brought her younger sister, Maya Harris, along for the ride. She has considered Maya Harris her closest ally and political advisor, even so much as to have her serve as the chairwoman of her presidential campaign, according to a Town & Country report.
Maya Harris also introduced her sister during the 2020 Democratic National Convention.
“We forged a bond that is unbreakable,” Kamala Harris said of her sister last year during a Washington Post interview.
Like her sister, Maya Harris is also a lawyer. Not only has she worked on Kamala Harris’ campaigns, but Maya Harris worked as a senior policy advisor to Hillary Clinton during her 2016 presidential campaign, the Town & Country report said.
When Kamala Harris and Doug Emhoff married, Maya Harris officiated the service.
Meena Harris
Meena Harris, 39, the daughter of Maya Harris and Kamala Harris’ niece, is also a lawyer. She graduated from Stanford and Harvard Law, and was among the women who helped introduce Kamala Harris at the 2020 DNC.
“You’re my role model, who taught me I could do or be anything I wanted,” Meena Harris said.
She jumped on the wagon with her mother, working several roles in her aunt’s presidential campaign. This included roles such as deputy campaign manager and adviser.
According to Politico, Meena Harris has spent the past seven years building a for-profit business for “women and underrepresented communities.”
Most recently, she joined in on the “weird” bandwagon, calling Trump a “weirdo” in an Instagram post after he questioned Kamala Harris’ ethnicity at the National Association of Black Journalists convention in Chicago.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.