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When President Joe Biden dropped out of the presidential race and propelled Vice President Kamala Harris into a political vortex, her husband was far from the first to find out.
Doug Emhoff, in fact, was closer to the last.
At home in California, Emhoff had attended a Sunday morning SoulCycle class in West Hollywood and left his cellphone in the car while going for coffee and a chat with friends in a park.
When Biden’s statement posted, Emhoff ultimately saw it on a borrowed phone, but he wasn’t sure it was authentic at first and skipped to the end — initially missing the key part. When he finally retrieved his phone, it was “self-immolating with the amount of messages and calls,” Emhoff said in an interview with The Associated Press.
And after he reached Harris, “First, it was kinda like, ‘Where the … were you?’’ Emhoff laughed, before recalling that he told his wife, ”’I love you, I’m proud of you, I’m here for you, I kinda know what to do.”
‘We haven’t had time for the history’
Emhoff has demonstrated a flair for defining the role of the nation’s first second gentleman over the past three-plus years. He would become the country’s first first gentleman if his wife, the likely Democratic nominee, wins in November.
In White House shorthand, Emhoff would elevate from SGOTUS — second gentleman of the United States — to FGOTUS.
He’s already used to traveling the country championing his wife and the Biden administration’s accomplishments. With her now pursuing the nomination, those efforts have quickly gone into overdrive.
“It happened so suddenly, the change,” Emhoff said, “we haven’t had time to really reflect on the history.”
Emhoff, 59, has visited 37 states and 14 countries as second gentleman. He’s already been to four states just since Biden bowed out, and he’ll be in Massachusetts, New Hampshire, and Maine from Monday to Wednesday.
“I’ve picked up a lot more events,” Emhoff said, “and events are getting bigger.”
He’s leading a delegation to the Paris Olympics closing ceremonies and will headline a fundraiser there, taking first lady Jill Biden ‘s place. The second gentleman is also filling in for Jill Biden, who is scaling back travel with her husband out of the race, at the upcoming fundraiser on Martha’s Vineyard in Massachusetts featuring former late-night host David Letterman.
Spreading Harris’ campaign message
The vice president has built her early campaign around the theme of freedom, and Emhoff was one of the nascent campaign’s first surrogates to trumpet that message last week when he visited an abortion clinic in the Washington suburbs — an event planned before Biden’s announcement.
