With just 23 days until Election Day, second gentleman Doug Emhoff celebrated his 60th birthday by speaking to and being serenaded by voters in Delaware and Montgomery counties.
Emhoff, the husband of Vice President Kamala Harris, the Democratic presidential candidate, said the stakes in this election are too high for him to appear anywhere else.
“As Kamala has said many times, and it is true, this is not just the most important election of our lifetimes, it is the most important in the history of our nation,” he said.
Emhoff said Harris is “brilliant,” “competent” and “ready to serve as president on day one.”
He promised to fight for reproductive rights and Israel, as well as against gun violence, anti-Semitism and censorship. He also said Harris would work to create greater economic opportunity through investments in pristine energy and artificial intelligence, as well as to make it more affordable to support a family.
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Emhoff was the first to address about 150 Jewish voters gathered at Narberth Borough Hall in Montgomery County. There the actor joined him Ben Stillercomedian Alex EdelmanAND EGOT victory composer and lyricist Benj Pasek.
They emphasized how essential the Jewish vote was in these elections. According to him, the majority of Jewish voters support the Democratic Party Data from Pew Research Center. Polls have shown that in the last few presidential elections, about 75% of Jewish voters voted for the Democratic candidate.
However, AP Voting a poll conducted after the 2020 election found that former President Donald Trump, the Republican Party’s nominee in that year’s election, won more Jewish votes than in 2016. Some questioned the accuracy of that poll, especially after it was published by the Jewish lobbying group J Street own survey showing that Jewish voters were consistent and favored President Joe Biden over Trump 77% to 21%.
Trump said during October 7 commemorative event last week that if Harris wins, “everything will have huge consequences,” claiming that the Oct. 7 attacks would not have happened if he were president.
Pennsylvania has the fifth largest Jewish population of any state and the largest of any swing state. According to data, there are approximately 290,000 Jewish adults in Pennsylvania, 78% of them in the Delaware Valley. 2021 report from the American Jewish Population Project.
“Donald Trump he spoke that if he loses, it will be because of the Jews,” Edelman said. “Let’s fix him!”
Trump faced criticism for the comments last month, during a speech at the National Summit of the Israeli-American Council that if he doesn’t win the election, “the Jewish people will really have a lot to do with it if that happens,” he added that “Israel, in my opinion, will cease to exist within two years. “
Trump claims Jewish voters will be partly to blame for his election defeat
Pasek, who shared the stage with Edelman on Sunday, told the audience that he had broken his Yom Kippur quick with Emhoff the night before and that Emhoff “really is a good, manly guy.”
Edelman said he has known Emhoff since 2022 and Emhoff “really thinks about anti-Semitism.”
“He’s against it,” Pasek interjected, drawing laughter from the audience.
Emhoff heads the White House task force focused on combating anti-Semitism. This work, he said, would not have happened without Harris.
“It’s because of her,” he told Jewish voters. “She knew who I was when we met on our first date. She goes back a long way with the Jewish community.
Emhoff said that as a little girl, Harris went door to door with the Jewish National Fund’s blue box to collect donations to plant trees for Israel.
“She was the one who took me to Israel,” Emhoff said, noting that he had always wanted to go but had never found the time before. “She was the one who put the skullcap on my head when we visited the old town.”
Emhoff said it was Harris’ suggestion that he lead the White House task force. And he said, “When she wins, I’ll continue with all the work I’ve been doing.”
Harris promised Jewish voters the invocation at the beginning of Yom Kippur on Friday that if elected president, she would “always work to ensure the security of the people of Israel and the Jewish people here in the United States and around the world.”
She also promised to defend Israel against Iran and prevent Iran from acquiring a nuclear weapon, saying: “My preferred path to achieving this goal is diplomacy, but all options are on consideration.”
Emhoff said he was “fed up” with talking about Donald Trump, but he had to.
“The list of anti-Semitic things he has said and done is longer than a CVS pharmacy receipt,” Emhoff said.
And Emhoff added. Trump won’t debate Harris anymore because he’s afraid of her. “I’m just trying to use the time so people don’t see how binary it is,” he said.
Jaime Bassman, a 40-year-old who lives in Lower Merion, said this election is “so close.”
“We need to really make sure that all Jewish voters understand what is at stake,” she said. “Someone who deals with dictators does not have Israel’s best interests at heart.”
Bassman said she worries Trump could “cozy up to Iran if it benefits him.”
Karin Fox of Narberth said Trump’s presidency was disordered and “there’s no way I’m going back to that.”
She is an autism supporter and says she opposes Trump because he said he wanted to eliminate the Department of Education. She said the Department of Education under Biden is “the first Department of Education in such a long time to respond. I feel that Kamala’s presence (in office) will be a continuation of this.
Sara Atkins, 45, of Lower Merion said she has two teenage daughters with special needs and worries about the future of their education if Trump wins the election.
She said that thanks to Trump, her daughters “have fewer rights now than I did when I was their age.”
If Trump wins and follows the plan set out in Project 2025, Atkins said, “We would basically become handmaidens and have no right to decide what to do with our own bodies.”
Atkins said she has met with Harris many times and believes “she truly understands our struggles and will be a phenomenal president for the people.”
The girl’s dad, Emhoff, talks to other dads of girls in Delco
After talking to Jewish voters, Emhoff traveled to Morton, Delaware County, to talk to another group of people who shared Atkins’ concerns: the girls’ fathers.
The crowd of around 200 included fathers, mothers and daughters who gathered at Morton Borough Hall on National Father and Daughter Day to the phone bank for Harris.
“Girl Dad” became a popular nickname in honor of basketball legend Kobe Bryant he proudly announced that “girls are the best” and he was a “girl dad” in 2018. It began trending on Twitter and Instagram after Bryant’s death in 2020.
And one Axios journalist was suggested earlier this year that 2024 could be the “year of the girl dad.”
“Women have gained tremendous momentum in our society, and fathers can maintain it by supporting their girls in following their arrow,” wrote George Moriarty, listing the names of influential women in sports, arts and entertainment, business and politics.
In Morton, Emhoff was joined by his daughter Ella, Stiller and television producer and host Andy Cohen.
Cohen, producer of the “Real Housewives” franchise, said: “If there’s one thing I learned from The Real Housewives, it’s don’t tell a woman what to do. Men telling women what to do is so 18th century. And Kamala Harris said it best: I don’t want to go back.”
Cohen has a daughter who is 2 and a half years elderly.
“I can tell you that she is already strong and fierce and rules my house,” he told the crowd. “That’s how it should be. Jewish women ruled my life and I’m fine.”
Emhoff said that a father’s job is to protect the family.
“Take care of your children and make sure they have the same rights that their mothers and grandmothers had,” he said.
What Trump has said and the plans laid out in Project 2025 “will continue to result in fewer than women,” Emhoff said. “This is a chance for our generation to turn the page and set our children on a better path.”
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