The nation’s Second Gentleman, Douglas Emhoff, 59, is the first to hold the title, as husband to Vice President Kamala Harris. At a private event hosted by Mandy and James Cooper in Old Tappan Saturday afternoon, the first Second Gentleman spoke with supporters, friends, and family, among them Congressman Josh Gottheimer. Later in the day, Emhoff was scheduled to travel to Red Bank as part of his ongoing campaigning on behalf of his wife, seeking the country’s top office against former President Donald Trump.

The clear, sunny, warm autumnal afternoon in one of the most affluent parts of New Jersey is also one of its most conservative, with a small but animated gathering of Trump supporters on the opposite side of the street making their feelings known throughout the occasion.

The New Jersey Republican Party used the news of the visit by the Second Gentleman’s visit as a fundraising opportunity, citing a New York Post article–which in turn cited a Daily Mail article–alleging that Emhoff had slapped an unnamed ex-girlfriend twelve years ago while in France. The allegations were reportedly brought to the Daily Mail by three women, whose identities have not been disclosed. The NJ GOP said in its email, “October is Domestic Violence Awareness month. Did these guys miss the recent headlines?”

Emhoff’s staff had denied the accusations with the news site Semafor. “Any suggestion that he would or has ever hit a woman is false.”

Former President Trump was found liable of defamation this year and ordered to pay $83.3 million following E. Jean Carroll v. Donald J. Trump, where Carroll claimed Trump sexually assaulted her at Bergdorf Goodman in New York City in the mid-90s. Trump has appealed the ruling.

Emhoff Saturday was introduced by his sister, Jamie, who talked about their lives growing up. Born in New York and raised in New Jersey, she said “It is surreal to see my brother in this very public role. I am so proud of how he has taken our New Jersey values and our Jewish values forward into this part of his life.” Describing her brother as funny, competitive, and a sports fan, she said he pushed himself in school and applied his personal values in standing up to bullies.

While working as an entertainment industry attorney in California eleven years ago, Emhoff and Harris met on a blind date. They were married in August, 2014. From a previous marriage with film producer Kerstin Emhoff, he has two adult daughters, Ella and Cole, who have been known to refer to their stepmother as “Mamala.”

“He is Kamala’s biggest supporter and most loyal champion,” Jamie Emhoff said of her brother, “and he has shown it is important for men to stand up for women’s equal rights and reproductive freedom. They have stood up for the Jewish community and have worked tirelessly against anti-Semitism and hate in all forms. Yes, we are safe in New Jersey, many of us just celebrated Rosh Hashanah last week. Our thoughts were with the hostages and with Israel. Doug and Kamala are personally invested in this issue, and I trust her as a leader on Israel, that she will continue to keep working to bring home the hostages. Kamala Harris and Tim Walz reflect our values and will be an amazing team in the White House.”

She also noted with amusement how she and her brother would watch Saturday Night Live when they were younger. “Now my little brother Doug is being portrayed on SNL by Andy Samberg.”

When the Second Gentleman came out to speak, he said the occasion was a homecoming, back to New Jersey. He thanked his supporters and hosts. “We just have so much at stake right now and there’s only 31 days left [until Election Day.]” He praised Congressman Gottheimer as someone “fantastic behind the scenes as well as out front” before going into his address.

“New Jersey,” Emhoff said, “is about loyalty, family, and it’s about sticking up for one another. It’s about pushing back on BS, it’s about telling the truth, and it’s about being there for each other. That’s who we are, that’s who I am, and that’s who Kamala Harris is. I think that’s one of the reasons we bonded so much. Just two weeks ago I went on a tour of Matawan with Michael Strahan for Good Morning America.” Emhoff referred to an article by the Asbury Park Press questioning whether he lived in Old Bridge or Matawan. “Our mailing address was Matawan, we spent a lot of time there, but we lived in Old Bridge. We went to Stewart’s Root Beer in Matawan, and we actually got to stand in front of my parents’ house in Old Bridge.”

Talking about growing up, Emhoff described a close-knit community where kids rode their bicycles around the neighborhood, garage doors were left open, and kids might end up doing homework or eating dinner at the homes of friends without much concern. He described this New Jersey set of values as ones to model for the rest of the nation. “Everyone took care of everyone else, and that’s who we are here in New Jersey. That’s who we need to be as a country. Those are the values in which Kamala Harris believes and that’s why I am so honored not only to be married to her, but to be spending most of my time advocating for her, so she can be our next President of the United States.”

The Second Gentleman strongly channeled his Jersey Pride as he spoke on the back deck of his friend’s house, pointing out recent celebrity endorsements of the Vice President. “The Boss himself just endorsed Kamala,” he said of Bruce Springsteen. “Watch the video if you haven’t seen it. Just like Taylor Swift did, The Boss explained why he was endorsing Kamala Harris. When I was in Pittsburgh with Michael Stipe of R.E.M.—who hasn’t performed live in like 16 years—he performed live last night for Kamala Harris with Jason Isbell.” Emhoff said that they would later be joined by Jon Bon Jovi when he meets with Governor Phil Murphy and First Lady Tammy Murphy—more Jersey cred for the campaign.

Together, Emhoff said, he and Harris have seen their share of ups and downs, but he said he was proud to watch her career ascendancy from when they met during her first term as California Attorney General. “I then got to see her progression to a second term attorney general, with all those accomplishments, standing up to the big banks, and the mortgage crisis, shutting down scammers who were taking advantage of students, and standing up to the transnational gangs down at the border. I got to see this all firsthand and then she was elected as our United States senator in California.”

The Vice President, he said, has stepped up to the challenge of running for the role of president since President Joe Biden decided not to seek a second term just prior to the Democratic convention, where he was to be officially nominated. Emhoff said that Harris has been with Biden these nearly four years, present at major decisions, in the Situation Room, and has the experience to carry out the job. “She is in the Oval Office with the president making incredibly tough decisions. She’s in the Situation Room with all these very difficult and thorny national security issues, including what’s happening in Israel and Iran. She doesn’t have to learn what it would be like to be on the world stage, she’s been on the world stage for this entire time.”

Emhoff said that Harris has four major points which she has made known to the American public on assuming the nomination. The first was that she would earn the nomination. The second, he said, was that she would unite the party. Third, she would unite the country. This last part, of course, remains to be seen, but Emhoff cited the support of Republicans like Liz Cheney, arch conservative as she is, as a sign that Harris can be a leader voters can rally around from either side of the spectrum, given their shared American values, even if they disagree on points of policy. The fourth point is to win the election itself, which will be determined in the weeks ahead.

Personal time, he said, has been somewhat scarce, given the rigors of campaigning, but Emhoff said Harris knew what to expect. He spoke at length about her television debate with Donald Trump, saying that she was collected and focused, while characterizing the former president as a coward and a bully, refusing to even look at her on stage, pointing and gesturing instead.

“Remember when she said ‘you got something to say, say it to my face? Well, he had his chance. At that debate he did not look at her one time, and she had no such problem looking at him. She’s got no fear. She’s got no problem with all this stuff that’s coming at us, it just bounces off. It’s just a distraction from Project 2025 and the Dobbs decision that’s taken rights away. It’s a distraction from wanting to be a dictator and wanting to weaponize the DOJ to go after one’s political enemies. This is what it is—that’s their game plan. They try to ‘nice it up’ a little bit with J.D. Vance, the sycophantic, extremist misogynist. That’s what they’re doing, so don’t get duped.”

Emhoff slammed Trump following a visit by Ukrainian president Vladimir Zelenskyy. “Trump just doesn’t know what he’s talking about. When you have the chance to actually be with Zelenskyy, all Trump could do with Zelenskyy was brag about his friendship with Putin. It’s unbelievable. This week, when Iran brazenly attacked Israel, Kamala was right there with the president in the Situation Room. Following the meeting, she made clear in her remarks that the United States will continue to ensure that Israel can defend itself and that Iran will be held accountable for its actions.”

As the spouse of a Vice President, Emhoff said that he had to find a role for himself in that capacity. As the first Jewish person to be in that position, he said he looked to the values he grew up with from his family and temple. “I hated bullies as a little kid. You had to get through me to get to that person, and that’s one of the reasons I became a lawyer. I got to do that for a living, standing up for other people.” Emhoff said that Harris encouraged him to use his position to take on the battle against rising antisemitism in the country. “On this fight against antisemitism, which I’ve been so proud to have been a part of as Second Gentleman, we were able to initiate the first ever White House strategy to combat antisemitism that was released in May of 2023, before those horrific days of October 7.” Recalling the events of Charlottesville in 2017, Emhoff said there had been a rise in antisemitism when Trump said there were “fine people on both sides.” He also cited the Tree of Life Massacre in Pittsburgh.

The Second Gentlemen encouraged all those in attendance to reach out to their friends, family, and support the campaign to get his “joyful warrior” wife, the Vice President, across the finish line in November. “She’s someone of such high character and someone we can all be proud of. You don’t have to wake up in the middle of the night like we did when Trump was president, when you didn’t even want to look at your phone, or you have stomach pain or had headaches, when you couldn’t sleep at night because of that stress [Trump] brings.”

Emhoff said of former President Trump, “You can see him; he’s degrading in front of our very eyes. He is a degraded version of an already horrible person and he’s getting worse. That’s why you’re hearing that ‘we’re not going back’ chant. We have to move forward because we can’t go back to the way it was, with this fake tough guy charlatan. It’s all illusion, it’s all a fraud, and she’s the real deal. We’ve got to be there for her, as she has been there for us.”