Sen. Kamala Harris just ended a big week. At the Democratic National Convention last week, she made history as the first the first Black woman and the first Asian American to
be on a major-party ticket in the United States.
At the DNC, America also met Harris's blended family, the step-kids who call her "Momala," and her husband of six years, entertainment lawyer Douglas Emhoff. On her Instagram yesterday, Harris posted a photo of her and Emhoff, along with a message celebrating their six-year wedding anniversary.
View this post on Instagram@douglasemhoff, there’s no one I’d rather be with on this journey. Happy anniversary!
A post shared by Kamala Harris (@kamalaharris) on
"@douglasemhoff, there's no one I’d rather be with on this journey," she wrote. Happy anniversary!"
Emhoff posted a photo from his and Harris's wedding with the caption: "Dearest Kamala: here's to us, our family, friends and our beautiful life together. Wouldn't change a thing. Happy Anniversary! Love, D."
In a 2019 essay for ELLE, Harris wrote about what it was like to join her husband's family and to become a stepmom to two children of divorce.
"When I met Doug, the man who would become my husband, I also met a man who was a divorced father of two children, Cole and Ella, named after John Coltrane and Ella Fitzgerald," she wrote. "As a child of divorce, I knew how hard it could be when your parents start to date other people. 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. There's nothing worse than disappointing a child...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.' Our time as a family 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."
Last Wednesday, during the speech she gave to accept her nomination as the vice presidential candidate for the Democratic party, Harris gave tribute to the women who have come before her.
"These women inspired us to pick up the torch, and fight on. Women like Mary Church Terrell, Mary McLeod Bethune, Fannie Lou Hamer, and Diane Nash, Constance Baker Motley, and the great Shirley Chisholm," she said. We're not often taught their stories. But as Americans, we all stand on their shoulders."
She also touched on this moment of reckoning that America is feeling surrounding racial justice.
"There is no vaccine for racism," she said. "We've got to do the work, for George Floyd, for Breonna Taylor, for the lives of too many others to name ... None of us are free until all of us are free."