Doug Emhoff
Doug Emhoff (Photo: @DouglasEmhoff/X)

President Joe Biden’s decision to quit the Presidential race has thrust his Vice President, Kamala Harris, into the spotlight. In turn, this has also significantly raised the profile of her husband, Second Gentleman Doug Emhoff.

Online this week, a photo of a young Mr Emhoff has gone viral.

“i need Gen z to see this picture of Kamala’s husband in the 80s and make him TikTok’s white boy of the month,” said X user @onedankmom

“White boy of the month” is what cultural observers call a tendency for social media users to find, and then obsess over, a new, cute white man (think Timothee Chalamet or Tom Hollander). The white boy in question is generally regarded as unproblematic, may or may not be in an interracial relationship, and is typically someone followers of all ethnicities may project their fantasies upon.

The tweet has quickly turned viral, with many agreeing that a young Emhoff fits the “white boy of the month” mold.

John Hughes romance

A reply tweet, highlighting a young, 80s-era Kamala Harris, also then went viral. Some commentators thought the future power couple could have starred in a John Hughes movie.

How they met

Harris married Emhoff, an entertainment lawyer, ten years ago following a whirlwind, one-year romance. They met after being set up on a blind date by Harris’s best friend. Emhoff was divorced and had two children. Harris was then California’s attorney general.

Harris later wrote in her 2019 memoir, The Truths We Hold: An American Journey, “As a single, professional woman in my forties, and very much in the public eye, dating wasn’t easy.

“I knew that if I brought a man with me to an event, people would immediately start to speculate about our relationship.

“I also knew that single women in politics are viewed differently than single men. We don’t get the same latitude when it comes to our social lives. I had no interest in that kind of scrutiny unless I was close to sure I’d found ‘the One’ – which meant that for years, I kept my personal life compartmentalized from my career.”

Emhoff defends his wife

With Harris now the presumptive Democratic nominee for President, political observers say you can expect to see plenty of Emhoff on the campaign trail. He was in Virginia on Tuesday, defending his wife from attacks made by Donald Trump.

“That’s all he’s got?”, Emhoff said when asked by reporters to respond to Trump calling Harris, “dumb as a rock.”

“You heard the vice president yesterday making the case against Donald Trump very clearly,” Emhoff continued. “Laid out the case directly, and in a compelling fashion. But she also laid out a vision for the future, a vision where there’s freedom, where we’re not having to talk about these issues of today in this post-Dobbs hellscape that Donald Trump created.”

Reports emerged on social media yesterday that Emhoff will be joining Chasten Buttigieg at a fundraising event on Fire Island Pines, NY, next week. The two men apparently get along well since meeting in 2020 on the election trail. They undoubtedly both relate to being married to high-profile political figures.

The event comes after Kamala Harris and Pete Buttigieg both appeared last week at a fundraising event in Provincetown.

In other election-related news, Kamala Harris yesterday joined TikTok.

@kamalaharris

Thought it was about time to join!

♬ original sound – Kamala Harris

Also, just this morning, former President Barack Obama and wife Michelle Obama officially endorsed Kamala Harris. Obama was the most high-profile Democrat not to have yet thrown his support behind Harris. He and his wife posted a video to their social media showing them calling Harris to let her know.

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