The Democratic nominee has a large, blended family. Here’s what it looks like.
Vice President Kamala Harris has talked about her family at length throughout her short campaign, with many members of that extended, blended family showing up in Chicago across the four days of the Democratic National Convention to help introduce the nominee to the country.
Here’s what to know about Harris‘ family.Doug Emhoff: Husband
Dougy, as Harris calls him, has stood beside his wife of a decade as her star rose, going from California’s top lawyer to its junior senator before President Biden chose her in 2020 to be his running mate. When Biden won the election, Harris became the first Black, first Asian and first female VP in US history.
Emhoff got his own historic superlative: „Second Gentleman of the United States.“
Born in Brooklyn, New York, Emhoff was raised in New Jersey with his brother and sister and moved to Los Angeles when he was in high school.
He earned a bachelor’s degree in communications from California State University, Northridge and a J.D. from the University of Southern California Gould School of Law.
Emhoff is an avid golfer and a fan of the Los Angeles Lakers and Los Angeles Dodgers (though Harris, from the Bay Area, supports San Francisco’s teams).
He married Harris on Aug. 22 2014, a year after the pair were set up on a blind date.
Emhoff spoke at the DNC on Tuesday, delivering one of the more memorable and light-hearted speeches focused on how he awkwardly started dating his future wife.Shyamala Gopalan: Mother
Many of the speakers this week have mentioned Harris‘ mother, Shyamala, whom the vice president often cites as her inspiration. She was a biomedical scientist at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory who worked to isolate progesterone receptor genes to advance studies into breast biology and oncology.
Shyamala met her husband Donald Harris, while she was a Ph.D. student. A year later, in 1963, they were married.
Harris’s mother died of colon cancer in 2009 at 70 years old. Harris later carried Shyamala’s ashes to Chenai, on the southeastern coast of India.Maya Harris: Sister
Maya Harris is the vice president’s younger sister. She is a lawyer as well and was one of three senior policy advisors for Hillary Clinton’s 2016 presidential campaign.
She went to the University of California Berkeley and Stanford University. At 17, she gave birth to her only child, Meena Harris. In 1998, she married Tony West. They were both part of the 1992 Stanford Law School class.
In 2006, Maya was the lead attorney in League of Women Voters of California v. McPherson. The state court case restored the voting rights to over 100,000 Californians in county jails on probation from felony convictions.
She also served as the vice president for democracy, rights and justice at the Ford Foundation and also co-wrote „The Shriver Report: A Woman’s Nation Pushes Back from the Bring.“
In 2020, the public policy advocate and writer served as chair of the 2020 presidential campaign for her sister.
