With a massive social media following, Ella Emhoff could be Kamala Harris’s key to younger voters. Here’s what you need to know about the art, activism and aesthetics of the 25-year-old who calls the vice president “Momala”.
A model, knitter and art-school graduate, Ella Emhoff calls Kamala Harris “Momala” and has more than 340,000 Instagram followers.
The 25-year-old step-daughter of the sole Democratic presidential nominee took the spotlight when she hit back at JD Vance’s comments about Ms Harris being a “childless cat lady”.
The remarks from 2021 about Democrats being “a bunch of childless cat ladies… miserable at their own lives and the choices that they’ve made” resurfaced as Ms Harris took to the campaign trail.
Ella quickly waded in, posting on Instagram: “How can you be ‘childless’ when you have cutie pie kids like Cole and I?”
Cole, 29, and Ella, 25, are the children of second gentleman Doug Emhoff, who was previously married to film producer Kerstin Emhoff.
Ella shared these comments, praising her mum for speaking out and adding: “I love my three parents.”
In a 2021 New York Times interview, she called her mum, dad and stepmother a “three-person parenting squad”.
They were supportive even when they didn’t understand her interests, she said: “With hair and tattoos and things like that, I think they’re all in the realm of like, ‘I don’t understand it, but I want you to be who you want to be’.”
Her outfit at Joe Biden’s inauguration was perhaps the first time it was clear Ella was not cut from the same cloth as other politicians’ offspring.
She sent social media into a spin with her jewel-encrusted Miu Miu coat, oversized collar and dress designed for her by Batsheva Hay (the pair have since collaborated on a knitwear collection).
