Doug Emhoff would become the country’s first first gentleman if Kamala Harris wins the presidency

WASHINGTON (AP) — 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 gentlemen if his wife, the likely Democratic nominee, wins in November.

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