The former Second Gentleman, Doug Emhoff, isn’t looking to become First Gentleman in 2028.

As Kamala Harris begins testing the political waters once again, it seems her husband isn’t totally sanguine about having her jump back into the presidential primary race for the next go-round.

In retrospect, it would have been much wiser for Kamala Harris to run for governor of California. The primary would have been bruising, given how crowded that field was. But considering how the field shook out, with the spectacular collapse of Eric Swalwell and the primary win of the lackluster Xavier Becerra, it is easy to see how Kamala Harris would have cruised to victory. Her political resume would have not suffered from four to eight years in Sacramento. Well, hindsight is 20/20. She was one staircase away from the Oval Office for four years, and her name continues to lead the pack in potential Democratic primary contenders, so maybe she thought being governor of California was a step down. However, her name recognition isn’t translating into political clout for the midterms.

And now, a new report says that Doug Emhoff isn’t thrilled with the idea of doing the time warp again.

Harris’s husband, Doug Emhoff, is among those who have shared concerns with others about another run, though people close to him expect he will support her if she decides to run.

In “107 Days,” her memoir of the 2024 campaign, Harris describes her husband as protective and supportive, noting that when she was chosen to be Biden’s running mate in 2020, “he made a huge sacrifice, gladly and without bitterness.” She wrote, “he knew it was essential that there be no appearance of conflicts of interest in our new roles. So that was his last day at his law firm.”

She writes that in October 2024, she realized that “the attacks on me, and the many personal assaults he’d been experiencing were finally taking a toll.” She describes an argument they had and Emhoff telling her, “We can’t turn on each other,” he said. She wrote, “With the hits coming from every direction, we had to stay united.”

Since leaving Washington, Emhoff has returned to work as an attorney in Los Angeles at white shoe law firm Willkie Farr & Gallagher LLP. He and Harris purchased a new $8-million home in Malibu with views of the Pacific Ocean. Harris has taken some business meetings at their new home.

Even though Kamala traveled all over the country for her book tour, Doug Emhoff was able to retire back into private life fairly easily, with a cushy job and new house. If she ran for president again, Emhoff would have to quit his job again, and go back on the campaign trail. They are millionaires and live very well. Giving all of that up to run again could be a pretty bitter pill – especially if the Democrat primary is as brutal as some think it might become.

But Kamala is keeping her name in the game at the moment.

Harris maintains she has not made a decision on whether to mount a third run at the presidency, but appears to be laying the groundwork for another White House campaign.

Ahead of the midterms, Harris has made the rounds at Democratic fundraisers, including private events for Wisconsin gubernatorial candidate David Crowley and Nevada gubernatorial candidate Aaron Ford, according to the Wall Street Journal.

Just last week, Harris hopped on a call with the Democratic National Committee and more than 2,000 volunteers, urging them to help with the get-out-the-vote effort in a dozen states.

“I have not decided if I’m going to run again,” she said at a NAACP event in Michigan last month. “I do sincerely believe ’28 won’t matter if we don’t get through ’26.”

Obviously, no Democratic candidate is going to announce a presidential run before the midterms are over. But once they are over, and the results are known, I think we are pretty quickly going to see some noise from certain Democrats as they begin putting together “exploratory committees” and the like in order to test the waters among donors. And speaking of donors, they don’t seem to be excited about another round of Kamala Harris.

Some donors – uneasy about what Harris is planning on doing – have told her directly that a 2028 White House run would be “a long shot.”

There’s a lot of history there with Kamala’s initial presidential run, and a lot of money spent that ultimately left the DNC in debt. Donors, who were willing to support Kamala Harris when she was replacing a failing Joe Biden, aren’t necessarily willing to back her again.

But back to Doug Emhoff. There was plenty of embarassing dirt that came to light about his personal life before Kamala Harris, and all of that will once again be back in the spotlight if she runs again. One can’t blame Emhoff if he would rather just live a privileged private life from now on, away from the public eye. Now, if he could just convince Kamala to do the same, and spare us all.

Featured image: Kamala Harris and Doug Emhoff on July 4, 2024, cropped, official White House photo by Emily Hanna, public domain