What’s It Like to Have Kamala Harris as ‘Momala’? We Asked Her Stepkids (original) (raw)

Politics|What’s It Like to Have Kamala Harris as ‘Momala’? We Asked Her Stepkids

https://www.nytimes.com/2021/01/17/us/politics/kamala-harris-stepmom-cole-ella-emhoff.html

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A Zoom interview with Ella and Cole Emhoff.

It’s pretty weird to see their dad on CNN, Cole and Ella Emhoff said. Credit...Tony Avelar/Associated Press

Published Jan. 17, 2021Updated Jan. 28, 2021

Before November, most people didn’t know the names Cole and Ella Emhoff. Cole, 26, was working at a production company in Los Angeles, living with his girlfriend. Ella, 21, was an art student in New York, living in Bushwick, and posting pictures of her knitting designs on Instagram.

But on the night that Joe Biden and his vice-presidential running mate, Kamala Harris, delivered their acceptance speeches, with their families gathered onstage, watching fireworks, Cole began receiving astonished texts from friends and colleagues. “They’re like, ‘Wait, how did you not tell me this?” he said, speaking by Zoom with his sister from their mother’s home in Los Angeles. He was wearing a gray T-shirt with an image of Ms. Harris’s face on it — he swore it was the only clean one he had in the house.

This interview has been edited and condensed.

The past few months must have been pretty surreal for the two of you. What’s it been like?

Cole Emhoff: It’s weird to turn on CNN and see my dad. I’m like, “Wait, you don’t belong there! But I guess you do?” It feels completely unprecedented for us because we haven’t really been around politics our entire life. We’re still kind of getting used to it.

Ella Emhoff: When we went to see them for Election Day, it really hit me, like, Whoa. Seeing them is a lot different now. There’s a lot more people. I think the idea of sharing our parents with the world is kind of insane. Like, it’s a really cool thing to wrap your head around — because you get to share all the great things — but it’s also like, Huh?!

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