Doug Emhoff had a ‘typical Jersey suburban childhood’ before he was second gentleman

Second gentleman Doug Emhoff reintroduced himself to the world during a primetime address at the Democratic National Convention Tuesday ahead of Vice President Kamala Harris’ official acceptance of the presidential nomination Thursday — their 10-year wedding anniversary.

Far before Emhoff, 59, could become the first second gentleman in U.S. history — and perhaps the first-ever first gentleman, should Harris win the election in November — he spent his childhood in New Jersey.

“I had a typical Jersey suburban childhood,” Emhoff said during his approximately 15-minute speech. “I biked around the neighborhood, I took the bus to Hebrew school, and I rode to Little League practice in the way back of my coach’s wood panel station wagon.”

If their team did well? “We got to have a Slurpee after,” Emhoff said.

So when he got on stage Tuesday night, ahead of speeches from the former President Barack Obama and First Lady Michelle Obama, Emhoff excitedly embraced the delegation from the Garden State.

“Where’s New Jersey? I see you out there!” he exclaimed to the rowdy crowd.

Emhoff, an entertainment lawyer, has started to make a name for himself in the political world.

In D.C., he’s the first Jewish spouse of a U.S. president or vice president and is helping to lead the Biden-Harris strategy against antisemitism. Online, he’s been dubbed a certified “wife guy” to the vice president for boasting her accomplishments.

Emhoff was born in Brooklyn to parents Barb and Mike, who worked in the shoe business, before the family moved to Jersey, where they lived in Matawan and Old Bridge Township from 1969 to 1981.

The family resided in the Lakeridge development of then-Madison Township before it was changed to Old Bridge in 1976, according to Jersey’s Thomas Warne Museum.

Emhoff attended Cedar Ridge High School, a now defunct public school following a merger, but his family moved to California when he was in the 11th grade.

Still, Old Bridge Superintendent of Schools David Cittadino celebrated their almost-alumnus in November 2020, when Emhoff became the second gentleman-elect.

“No matter what candidate you supported, it is a momentous time in history for Old Bridge as we proudly congratulate 1st Second Gentleman [Douglas Emhoff],” Cittadino wrote in the 2020 post on X (then Twitter), accompanied by a yearbook photo of Emhoff.

Sports seemed to serve an important role in Emhoff’s upbringing. A 1979 yearbook photo from Cedar Ridge shows he was a member of the ski club. Emhoff was also a camper at Camp Cedar Lake in Milford, Pa. in the summer of 1978. There, 13-year-old Emhoff was voted the “most athletic” of his division.

During his DNC speech, Emhoff emphasized the long lasting community he found during his childhood, from athletics to his neighborhood’s communal approach to meals.

“Everyone left their garage door open,” Emhoff said of his neighborhood. “Wherever you ended up at dinner time, that’s the family that fed you. Everyone took care of everyone else.”

The second gentleman is still close with his childhood best friends.

“The group chat is active every day, and it’s probably blowing up right now,” Emhoff told the audience.

Emhoff was also heavily involved with New Jersey’s Jewish community, and was proudly claimed by the NJY Jewish summer camps’ alumni.

The family were congregants of Temple Shalom, a reform synagogue in Aberdeen Township where Emhoff’s bar mitzvah was held in 1977 (he wore a brown velour suit).

Many years later in California, Emhoff met Harris while she was serving as the state’s attorney general.