A Glance at the New First Lady and Second Gentleman

Dr. Jill Biden, wife of President-elect Joe Biden, and Douglas Emhoff, husband of Vice President-elect Kamala Harris, are making history this election in different ways. Dr. Biden was the only Second Lady to hold a paying job outside government while actively in that position, and is going to be the only First Lady to do this, as she is planning to continue teaching English at a community college in Virginia. In addition, Emhoff will be the first male and first Jewish spouse of a president or vice president, perfectly complementing his wife’s historic election.

Jill Biden met the President-elect in 1975, during his first term as a U.S. Senator from Delaware, and just a few years after he lost his first wife and daughter in a car accident. They got married two years later and had a daughter, Ashley, who — along with Biden’s sons Hunter and Beau from his previous marriage — formed the family Dr. Biden helped raise.

Throughout her long career as an educator, Dr. Biden has worked in a psychiatric hospital as well as public schools and colleges across Delaware and Washington, D.C., all while earning a bachelor’s and master’s degree in English, a master’s in education, and a doctorate in educational leadership. She began working at Northern Virginia Community College in 2009 and continued there throughout her term as Second Lady. In an August 2020 interview with CBS News, Dr. Biden described how important her job was to her: “I teach a lot of immigrants and refugees. I love their stories, I love who they are as people, and I love the fact that I can help them on their path to success.”

In addition to teaching, Dr. Biden began the Biden Breast Health initiative in 1993 and continued to work for a variety of causes during her time as Second Lady. While in the White House, as listed on the White House government website, she “worked to bring attention to the sacrifices made by military families, to highlight the importance of community colleges to America’s future, and to raise awareness around areas of particular importance to women, including breast cancer prevention.”

The new Second Gentleman-designate, Douglas Emhoff, was born in New York and moved to Los Angeles as a teenager. He graduated from Agoura High School in Agoura Hills, Calif., California State University Northridge, and the University of Southern California, before starting a career as an entertainment lawyer. He and Harris, then the California Attorney General, met on a blind date and got married in 2014. Harris joined the family of Emhoff and his two children from a previous marriage, Cole and Ella. 

The Biden-Harris campaign has benefitted from the efforts of both of these spouses. Dr. Biden and Emhoff have played active roles in the campaign over the past two years, making appearances on the campaign trail with their spouses and holding separate solo events. “When we’re out on the trail…in separate cities, we stay connected all day,” Emhoff said in an October 2020 People Magazine interview. “It helps drive the campaign, because we’re responding to what’s going on out there in the real world.”

The Biden-Harris presidency will also benefit from Emhoff’s and Dr. Biden’s efforts. Emhoff has not talked about any specific policies or initiatives he will take as Second Gentleman, but said, “there are things that I’m really passionate about, like justice and access to justice, but…I really just want to focus on winning this election.”

Dr. Biden stated in an interview on The View that her main priority as First Lady will be education, including advocating for free community college and greater internet accessibility for students. Her other priorities will include supporting military families and cancer health and research, continuing what she has worked on in her foundations and as the Second Lady.

She has also said she wants to continue to teach when she becomes First Lady. “It’s important,” she said in a CBS News interview. “I want people to value teachers and know their contribution.” She has also discussed her and her husband’s education plan. “We have to make our education policy teacher-centric,” she said in a June 2019 interview on The Daily Show with Trevor Noah. “We want a Secretary of Education who is a teacher, and we want to raise up the profession. We are professionals, and we want to be paid like professionals and respected like professionals.”

The Biden-Harris campaign’s education policy includes similar ideals, including raising pay for teachers, ensuring student equality regardless of demographic or socioeconomic factors, and providing career opportunities to middle and high school students.

In regards to holding political positions in the White House or working on their spouses’ staffs, both Dr. Biden and Emhoff have said they plan to leave it to Biden and Harris. “I’m her husband, that’s it,” Emhoff said in a People Magazine interview. “She’s got plenty of great people giving her political advice…. I’m here to have her back.” Dr. Biden echoed this sentiment in a CBS News interview back in August, before her husband had picked Harris as his running mate: “We’ve talked about all the women candidates, but it’s gotta be Joe’s decision, who he feels most comfortable with, who shares his values.”

While the charisma and chemistry between Joe Biden and Kamala Harris have been in the spotlight throughout the campaign, the relationship between Dr. Biden and Emhoff has yet to be seen in a major light. Former First Lady Michelle Obama and Dr. Biden were known for having a very close, friendly relationship, but the same has not been observed in current First Lady Melania Trump and Second Lady Karen Pence. Dr. Biden expressed her sentiments about her future partnership with Emhoff in an interview on The View: “It’s been fun traveling with Doug…. When we were on the campaign trail we got along really well together, so, I think that relationship will just continue”.

Dr. Jill Biden’s husband, the president-elect, was first elected to a national office in Washington 47 years ago, and has since held a variety of the highest positions in our government and run for president three times. She has been through it all. Douglas Emhoff’s wife, the vice president-elect, was first elected to the Senate just three years ago and has only run for president once, so Emhoff is more of a newcomer. Either way, when their spouses are inaugurated on Jan. 20, 2021, the country will watch as Dr. Biden and Emhoff celebrate and explore their new roles as First Lady and Second Gentleman of the United States.

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