Vice President Kamala Harris’ husband, Doug Emhoff, headlined three Chicago-area fundraisers Wednesday, including one hosted by the former president of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee and his wife.
“Just today, she was in the situation room dealing with the security of Israel,” Emhoff said of Harris as he spoke in the West Loop home of former AIPAC President Lee “Rosy” Rosenberg. “So this is something that is personal. It’s something that is meaningful, and it’s something that she will continue to do as president of the United States.”
The fundraisers came less than one week before the second gentleman is scheduled to return to Chicago, along with all of the most prominent Democratic power players, for the Democratic National Convention. Emhoff said he visited the site of the DNC earlier in his visit to Chicago and predicted that it would be a “magnificent convention.” He will travel to Pennsylvania this weekend before returning to Chicago for the DNC, he said.
The convention is expected to draw large groups of protesters, many of whom will be demonstrating against Israel’s handling of the war with Hamas and critical of President Joe Biden’s policies.
Harris has largely aligned with Biden’s views on handling the war in Gaza, while both also have at times empathized with the plight of Palestinians. Some progressive Democrats have hoped that Harris will take a tougher stance on Israel than Biden.
Rosenberg and Democratic Sen. Ben Cardin of Maryland emphasized Harris’ record of supporting Israel.
“I know her views on these issues, and it’s exactly what we need for Israel’s security and for strengthening the ties between our two countries,” Cardin, who presided over Israel Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s address to Congress in Harris’ stead earlier this year, said at the fundraiser.
Emhoff, who is Jewish, discussed his efforts to fight antisemitism as he spoke at Rosenberg’s home and later at a lakefront high-rise apartment overlooking Navy Pier.
Rosenberg praised those efforts as well as the administration’s record on Israel.
“For our nation, for Israel and for our community, these have been difficult days. The use of the term ‘existential’ has found a meaning, and as Americans, Jewish Americans, a predominant sense of loneliness,” Rosenberg said. “What has given us hope, though, has been the stalwart backbone of the Biden-Harris administration, speaking with moral clarity that America stands with Israel, that America is committed to Israel’s security.”
Cardin, chair of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, also praised the Biden-Harris administration for the times when they’ve “had Israel’s back when Israel’s isolated globally.”
Emhoff was scheduled to attend a third fundraiser later Wednesday on the North Shore.
Thousands of people in Gaza have died and been driven from their homes as a result of Israel’s attacks since Oct. 7, when Hamas attacked Israel and killed more than a thousand people.