Second gentleman Doug Emhoff has made more than 30 campaign stops in the five weeks since the Democratic National Convention, stumping for his wife in over a dozen states. This week in Texas, he swung through three cities, ate at Whataburger and boosted other Democrats on the ballot.
“It’s only been two months and a couple of days since President Biden decided not to seek reelection. This was an unprecedented situation,” he told a San Antonio audience on Monday, adding: “We needed somebody to step into the breach … and that person happened to be my wife, Kamala Harris.”
Meanwhile, former first lady Melania Trump has not been seen on the campaign trail in the 10 weeks since the Republican National Convention, where she did not speak. Known for keeping a low profile, she has been even less visible this election cycle than in 2016 or 2020. At an April fundraiser, one of the few political appearances she has made this year, she collected payment for speaking, CNN reported Monday.
Over the past few weeks, Melania Trump’s public presence has primarily been limited to social media, where she has released videos promoting her forthcoming memoir, due out Oct. 8. On Thursday morning, she is slated to sit for a TV interview — her first in more than two years, according to Fox News — to promote her book and discuss former president Donald Trump’s campaign.
“This is huge, because we don’t hear from Melania a lot,” “Fox & Friends” host Lawrence Jones said when co-host Ainsley Earhardt, who will conduct the interview, announced it on air.
The contrasts reflect the personalities of the candidates and their spouses — and highlight the facts of the race, which Vice President Harris joined in July after Joe Biden’s exit.
“The [Harris] campaign needs every available surrogate on deck to help get the message out,” said Ron Bonjean, a Republican strategist. “The Harris and Walz camp have to reach as many voters as they can, so they’re expecting a lot out of the spouses.”
Trump, meanwhile, has no qualms about breaking with convention, and after two campaigns and one presidential term, he and his wife are known to Americans.
The differing strategies have also extended to the vice-presidential candidates.
Gwen Walz, wife of Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz (D), has appeared at 30 events across the country in the past month, the majority of them solo, according to the campaign. Though the wife of Sen. JD Vance (R-Ohio), Usha Vance, has also met voters on the trail, she has largely traveled with her husband rather than headlining independent engagements. The Trump-Vance campaign did not respond to requests for a full list of her events since the convention.
The contrast between the campaigns was evident at stops in New York last week.
At a Sept. 18 rally on Long Island, Trump described calling his wife to brag about his crowd sizes and ask her, “How great am I?” He also indicated he had not read her book because he was too busy.
“Go out and buy it,” Trump told supporters. “ … And if she says bad things about me, I’ll call you all up and I’ll say, ‘Don’t buy it; get rid of it.’”
The same night, Emhoff spoke during an event in Brooklyn, where he offered a retort to Arkansas Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders (R), who had said Harris “doesn’t have anything keeping her humble” because she doesn’t have biological children. (Harris is stepmother to Emhoff’s two children.)
“As if keeping women humble, whether you have children or not, is something we should strive for,” Emhoff said. “It is not.”
Politicians’ spouses have long held a unique role in campaigns, as they’re able to talk about the candidates in a way no one else can. That’s a role Emhoff has embraced. He has followed a fairly traditional playbook for a campaign spouse, analysts say, and he’s seen within the campaign as Harris’s chief validator.
Emhoff has appeared at 32 events in the five weeks since the Democratic convention, according to the Harris campaign. He gave a 14-minute speech at the convention, and has since made stops from Florida to Arizona. This week, he stopped by a Pennsylvania field office before heading to Texas.
Meanwhile, Melania Trump bucked tradition by declining to speak at the Republican convention, where she delivered remarks in 2016 and 2020. Though she has long preferred privacy, making her lack of participation unsurprising, experts said her absence is still notable.
“Had the Republicans nominated anyone else, there would’ve been the expectation that that person’s spouse be out and about, actively campaigning in the same kind of high-profile way that Doug Emhoff has been,” said Katherine Jellison, an Ohio University history professor who studies first ladies.
The Trump campaign did not respond to requests for comment about Melania Trump’s involvement.
While her distance from Trump’s campaign isn’t seen as hurting her husband’s standing with his base, strategists said Melania might help him appeal to other blocs if she campaigned — especially as polls show the former president lagging Harris among female voters.
“He’s not polling well with suburban women in these toss-up states and having Melania out there talking about kitchen table issues could [help],” Bonjean said.
In her book promotion videos, Melania has sometimes commented on politics — blaming gas prices and global unrest on Biden administration policies — but also on subjects as varied as her nude modeling and her renovation of the White House Rose Garden. Last week, she also tweeted to promote her 2024 Christmas ornament collection and a “limited edition necklace celebrating Lady Liberty.”
With candidates at the top of the ticket facing the most public scrutiny, the spouses of vice-presidential nominees generally have more flexibility in how much to campaign, Jellison said, noting that neither party’s approach this election cycle has been atypical.
Gwen Walz has stumped in a dozen states, meeting with educators, military families and LGBTQ advocates. She talks about reproductive rights and school shootings, tells voters the story of how she and Walz met as teachers, and hands out her great-grandmother’s gingersnap cookies.
Usha Vance spoke at the Republican convention, introducing her husband and calling their relationship an “example of the American Dream.” In the 10 weeks since, she has traveled to some of his engagements, recently greeting voters at a North Carolina sports bar and attending a Georgia dinner where her husband spoke.
Whatever candidates’ spouses choose to do during a campaign has the potential to influence voters, experts said.
“It does matter a great deal,” said University of Pennsylvania art history professor Gwendolyn DuBois Shaw, who has studied first ladies and their portraits. “We all hope, regardless of who that person is filling the job, that the person who is closest to them is being supportive.”
Meryl Kornfield contributed to this report.
