Kamala Harris’s Husband Doug Emhoff Announces Next Move

Doug Emhoff, former Second Gentleman, has revealed plans to divide his time between Los Angeles and New York as he takes on a new role at a prestigious law firm. This announcement comes amid speculation about what his wife, former Vice President Kamala Harris, intends to do next.

“I am delighted to be joining Willkie, where I am looking forward to working alongside trusted and innovative legal counselors,” Emhoff stated in the firm’s press release. “I couldn’t be more thrilled to join this talented and collaborative team.”

Previously a Los Angeles-based lawyer specializing in entertainment, media, and intellectual property, the 60-year-old Emhoff will serve as a partner at Willkie Farr & Gallagher. His role will focus on advising businesses, organizations, and individuals facing legal shifts or crises.

“Doug’s leadership and his service as a trusted counselor to many global business leaders across a broad range of industries, as well as his extensive legal expertise and business acumen, make him a tremendous asset. We’re thrilled to be adding Doug to the Willkie partnership during this period of transformational firm growth,” said firm Chairman Thomas Cerabino in the statement.

Meanwhile, speculation is mounting regarding Harris's political future.

Harris has no intention of “go[ing] quietly into the night” following her defeat in the 2024 presidential election.

During a CNN segment, reporter Isaac Dovere disclosed that Harris has been privately telling supporters she is contemplating a run for California governor in 2026 or another presidential bid in 2028. She reportedly does not want her “final act” to be certifying Donald Trump’s election win over her.

“We haven’t seen or heard much from Vice President Kamala Harris since she lost the election last month,” CNN’s Manu Raju told viewers. “But the Democratic Party [is] still reeling from Trump’s victory.”

Dovere elaborated on the two potential paths Harris is considering.

“What she’s been saying to people over the last couple of weeks, donors, other supporters that she’s been talking with, [is] you haven’t seen the last of me, I’m not going quietly into the night. Advisers, people close to her are debating about what that means. They do not want her final official act ever to be essentially certifying Donald Trump’s win over her, especially four years after January 6th. And so they look at this governor’s race in California in 2026, and it seems to them like a layup essentially, that she would probably clear the field or mostly clear the field and she would get to be governor of California,” Dovere explained.

“But if she does that, that means that she couldn’t turn around and run for president again in 2028. She’d need to essentially declare right away. And that is what it really comes down to because there are people close to her who say she didn’t get a fair shot this year,” Dovere added.

He continued, “It wasn’t it wasn’t up to what she could have done. And look how well she performed anyway. She should get to go again in 2028. And then there are ones who say, look, with where things are with the Democratic Party at it, she would not have a clear field or a cleared field, rather, in the Democratic primary and could lose the nomination. And to come off of 2024 into that would be really terrible.”

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Harris has reportedly told associates she is “staying in the fight” and weighing either a 2028 presidential run or a gubernatorial campaign in 2026. This has led Democratic strategist Theryn Bond to advise against another presidential bid.

During an interview on Newsmax’s National Report, Bond urged Harris not to seek the presidency again, saying, “please don’t.”

Host Emma Rechenberg posed the question: “The Vice President has been instructing advisers and allies to keep her options open. That could be a possible 2028 presidential run or even a run for governor in her home state of California in two years. Harris has reportedly [been] repeating in phone calls, quote, ‘I’m staying in the fight.’ Let’s talk about it now with our political panelists. Theryn Bond joins us now, a Democratic strategist and Luke Ball is a Republican strategist. So two different perspectives here. Is this a good idea for VP Harris to continue her political ambitions?”

“Not to run for president again in 2028, please don’t. I can’t really speak for governor of California. Californians seem to support her significantly. We haven’t yet been able to measure what that support looks like after this current run she just had. That may be the only thing that she — I guess, may make sense for her to consider. But another shot at the presidency, I hope she doesn’t. And if she is relying on those same advisers that advised her this cycle, that’s not who I would listen to,” Bond responded.

Following Harris’s loss to Trump, Republican strategist Luke Ball speculated that her best bet would be a gubernatorial run, stating, “I believe she could have an advantage in California as it’s one of the few states where she could potentially gain an advantage.”

“I believe she could potentially gain an advantage in California, as it’s one of the few states where she could truly have a competitive advantage,” Ball reiterated. “She’d have high name ID. But if she ran anywhere else in the country, I don’t think she’d be able to get elected to dog catcher, unfortunately,” he added.

“Because if I’m a donor, if I’m a Democrat, I’m looking at this race and I’m looking at the aftermath as we start to go through the autopsy of the campaign, and I’m seeing that we’re paying millions of dollars to celebrities to astroturf the campaign instead of spending that money on critical resources. Even like the DNC, if I’m on that side of the political aisle, I’m wondering why can’t we give that to staff members as opposed to sending it to celebrities?” Ball continued.

“Paying $5,000 for having their nails done. Like the RNC went through this just over a year ago and we cleaned house ahead of the election. And I think that if I’m a Democrat strategist and I’m operating within the DNC, I’m having the same thought process. We have to have a come to Jesus meeting and figure out number one, who the heck is the leader of our party? Number two, what sort of drastic changes are we going to make to position ourselves to come up in this next upcoming midterm election and start to change the direction of the country from our perspective? So I don’t think Kamala Harris is going to have a shot at a national campaign anymore,” Ball concluded.