Kamala Harris's Stepchildren Were at Her Side at the Inauguration
In her victory speech as the vice president-elect, Kamala Harris honored not only the brave women who came before her, but also the loving family members who supported her throughout her campaign and beyond. Those who received special thanks included her husband, lawyer Doug Emhoff, and his two kids, Cole and Ella Emhoff.
"To my husband Doug; our children, Cole and Ella; my sister, Maya; and our whole family, I love you all more than I can express," Harris said while addressing her historic win. "We are so grateful to Joe and Jill [Biden] for welcoming our family into theirs on this incredible journey."
Leading up to the election, Harris expressed the importance of family to her, whether it's the way her parents inspired her career in public service or her own experiences of motherhood. "I've had a lot of titles over my career, and certainly 'vice president' will be great," she said in her first speech as President Joe Biden's running mate. "But 'Momala' will always be the one that means the most."
With the inauguration quickly approaching, the country will soon see more of Harris—not only in her historic role as VP, but also likely in her beloved role of Momala.
It was "love at first sight" when they first met.
Emhoff shares children Cole, 26, and Ella, 21—named after John Coltrane and Ella Fitzgerald—with his ex-wife, Kerstin Mackin Emhoff. The former couple married in 1992 but parted ways amicably after 16 years of marriage. (Kerstin even helped out during Harris's presidential campaign.) Before Emhoff met Harris, he wasn't very vocal about his dating life.
"First I was a little blindsided, to be honest," Cole recalled to Glamour, of his first impression of Emhoff and Harris's relationship. "Doug was like, 'I met this woman. She's cool. I'm excited about her.' And Doug hadn't talked about his dating life for a long time. He said, 'I think you just have to know, though, that she is the attorney general of California.' I was like, 'Okay, cool, whatever.'"
Cole was in high school at the time his dad and then Attorney General Harris started seeing each other. "Right, so I was kind of in my own world, just about to graduate, go to college," he said. "And then I met her and we had this amazing dinner. And I realized like, Oh, my God, Doug has met someone who is completely unique and totally special. I think for all of us, it was love at first sight."
Ella added, "I think when we met her, I was about to go into high school, so I was in an equally intense time, but for different, more angsty reasons. It felt serious when [Doug] was just talking about her, because I could hear it in his voice. When we did meet, it all felt so natural that it wasn't even a big deal. It felt like we had known each other forever. And I think what was important was getting to know her as a person first—a person before a politician."
Even then, Harris was wearing her signature Converse and jeans. Emhoff told CBS Sunday Morning that the attire "wasn't just some thing that she started doing on the campaign. When I met her, it was Chucks and jeans when she met the kids."
Harris and Emhoff wed in 2014 in a private ceremony in Santa Barbara, California, five months after their engagement.
Kamala and Doug took it slow before she met the kids.
"As a child of divorce, I knew how hard it could be when your parents start to date other people," Harris wrote in an essay about motherhood for ELLE. "And I was determined not to insert myself in their lives until Doug and I had established we were in this for the long haul. Children need consistency; I didn't want to insert myself into their lives as a temporary fixture because I didn't want to disappoint them."
She added, "So, we took it slow, and Doug and I put a lot of thought into when and how I would first meet the kids."
The big meeting happened at a seafood restaurant on the Pacific Coast Highway, Reel Inn. "On my way to meet Doug, I picked up a tin of cookies and tied a ribbon in a bow around them," Harris recalled. "I took a few deep breaths. I was excited, and I was nervous. I rehearsed what I would say."
But in the end, Harris had nothing to worry about. "Cole and Ella could not have been more welcoming," she wrote. "They are brilliant, talented, funny kids who have grown to be remarkable adults. I was already hooked on Doug, but I believe it was Cole and Ella who reeled me in."
Cole and Ella coined the term, "Momala."
"A few years later when Doug and I got married, Cole, Ella, and I agreed that we didn't like the term 'stepmom.' Instead they came up with the name 'Momala,'" Harris wrote for ELLE. She also brought up the term of endearment throughout her campaign when speaking about her kids. "Family is our beautiful children, Cole and Ella, who as you just heard, call me Momala," she said while accepting the nomination for vice president at the 2020 Democratic National Convention.
Ella even mentioned the nickname while introducing Harris in a video for the DNC. "To my brother and me, you'll always be Momala, the world's greatest stepmom," she said.
The Emhoff kids have grown up since their time first meeting Harris in high school. According to Marie Claire, Cole, a graduate from Colorado College, works as an executive assistant for Plan B Entertainment, while Ella is studying at Parsons School of Design in New York City, where she's pursuing a bachelor of fine arts in Apparel and Textiles.
Family dinners are important to them.
Harris has attended Ella's basketball games and swim meets (sometimes with Ella's mother included), but her children are also understanding with her work, busy schedule, and the sacrifices she has to make considering her job. "Fortunately for me, both Ella and Cole do get it. They are my endless source of love and pure joy," Harris also wrote.
Their signature bonding activity is Sunday dinner. "We come together, all of us around the table, and over time we've fallen into our roles. Cole sets the table and picks the music, Ella makes beautiful desserts, Doug acts as my sous-chef, and I cook," Harris added.
The dinner discussion would sometimes get intense and intellectual during these meals. "We would just have these real conversations at dinner, almost Socratic, where we would all bounce off each other," Cole recalled to Glamour.
When they're not together, Harris likes to keep in touch by leaving voicemails, not text messages. "It'll just be something sweet like, 'Hi, I was just thinking about you, hope your day is good,'" Ella told Glamour. "And then I call back!"
They stay close with weekly Zoom calls.
Harris, Emhoff, and their kids also have family Zoom calls every weekend, which were helpful for staying close while the future VP was on the campaign trail, and while social distancing during the COVID-19 pandemic. "We have a Sunday Zoom, and we talk during the week," Emhoff told Glamour.
Videos shared with ELLE and CBS Sunday Morning reveal moments from their virtual, family-wide gatherings, which also include parents, grandparents, cousins, aunts, and uncles. "We are so blessed as a family to have each other, and all the zooms—Doug and I talk about it all the time—all the Zooms that we’ve been doing every Sunday some combination of all the family," Harris told ELLE.
They're not opposed to the occasional family Instagram.
Among her campaign Instagrams, Harris shares casual family photos with her kids.
And Emhoff seems to be a fan of family selfies.
They were all together on Inauguration Day.
The Emhoffs were gathered at Harris's side at the Capitol for the big ceremony. As she took her oath as vice president, Doug held the bibles she swore on as their kids watched on proudly. Cole and Ella were also in tow at Arlington ceremony and as the VP headed back to the White House.
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