An aide to former Vice President Kamala Harris had to instruct former Second Gentleman Doug Emhoff to write his wife love letters after they got in a fight on the campaign trail, according to her new book.
Harris came out with a new book on Tuesday, titled “107 Days,” which details the shortest presidential campaign in modern history. The former vice president writes of a time her and her husband got in an argument on her birthday, which ended with a staffer intervening to fix the situation. (RELATED: Kamala Humiliates Tim Walz One Last Time By Revealing Why She Chose Him For VP)
“Throughout the flight, I was looking forward to a special evening with Doug. Though we were apart a lot those days, campaigning in different cities, for my birthday our staff conspired so that we’d meet up in Philadelphia,” Harris writes of celebrating her 60th birthday on the campaign trail.
“I was wondering what he’d planned for our evening. The simple answer: Nothing. Not a thing,” she says.
Second gentleman Doug Emhoff and U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris wait the arrival of Second lady Usha Vance and Vice President-elect, U.S. Sen. J.D. Vance (R-OH) for Inauguration ceremonies at the White House on January 20, 2025 in Washington, DC. Photo by Andrew Harnik/Getty Images)
The former vice president adds that she did not realize at the time how the campaign and the attacks on her had worn on her husband. Harris then lists all the ways she says Emhoff didn’t meet expectations on her birthday.
“He hadn’t put any thought into where we’d stay that night, so staff had picked a place for us that they thought would be a bit more special than the usual campaign hotel,” Harris writes.
She then details how one of her aides had picked two special restaurants for the couple to eat at to celebrate Harris’ birthday. The aide asked Emhoff for help on the menu, but he shrugged and told the official to ask Harris, according to the book.
“Doug at least had thought to get a gift for me,” the former vice president writes, noting that the pair of earrings he had gotten her was from the same designer who made the gift he got her for their anniversary.
“When I turned it over, I saw that the pearls’ backing had been engraved with the date. How thoughtful, to commemorate the milestone of my big birthday. But then I looked closer,” Harris writes.
“The date was not my birthday. It was the date of our wedding anniversary. He’d obviously intended to give me both pieces on our anniversary, until it occurred to him that by repurposing one piece, he could kill two birds with one stone,” she continues.
Derrick Johnson, President and CEO, NAACP, Doug Emhoff, Former Vice President Kamala Harris, winner of the Chairman’s Award, and Leon W. Russell, Chair, NAACP National Board of Directors, pose in the press room during the 56th NAACP Image Awards at Pasadena Civic Auditorium on February 22, 2025 in Pasadena, California. (Photo by Robin L Marshall/Getty Images for BET)
The final straw was after Harris went to take a bath, forgot a towel and had a hard time reaching Emhoff for help, according to her book.
“And then we got into it. The stress had finally gotten to both of us. It was one of those fights that every married couple has had,” Harris writes. “But we weren’t every married couple. Doug stopped the argument cold. As soon as his words were out, the truth of them landed on me like a bucket of ice water. ‘We can’t turn on each other.’”
After revealing how the dispute ended, the former vice president explains that her aide —referred to as Storm in the book — ordered the former Second Gentleman to fix the mess Harris believed he created.
“The next day she told Doug, ‘Mr. Second Gentleman, you have to fix this.’ She handed him a set of note cards. She’d numbered them one through five, for the nights we’d be apart through the end of the campaign. She instructed him to write a note on each one,” the former vice president writes.
“From then till the election, no matter what city each of us had landed in, at the end of the day I would find a note on my pillow, in Doug’s chicken scratch, telling me how much he loved me,” she concludes.
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