Next week, Kamala Harris could make history if she wins the 2024 presidential election to become the United States’ first female leader. But it wouldn’t be the only way her presidency would break boundaries.
Harris’ husband Doug Emhoff is Jewish, and the two are in an interfaith relationship. If she wins, he’d be the inaugural First Gentleman—and the White House’s first Jewish spouse.
So what religion does Harris practice? Here’s what to know about her faith ahead of the 2024 election.
Kamala Harris is Baptist.
The VP said in an October 2020 interview with Interfaith Youth Core that her “faith journey” started when she was young.
“On Sundays, my mother would dress my sister, Maya, and me in our Sunday best and send us off to the 23rd Avenue Church of God in Oakland, California, where Maya and I sang in the children’s choir,” Harris told the publication. “That’s where I formed some of my earliest memories of the Bible’s teachings. It’s where I learned that ‘faith’ is a verb and that we must live it, and show it, in action.”
During Harris’ 2024 campaign, she visited multiple Baptist churches.
“I was raised to believe in a loving God, to believe that your faith is a verb,” she said during a CNN town hall in October. “Your life’s work should be to think about how you can serve in a way that is uplifting other people, that is about caring for other people.”
She grew up in an interfaith household.
Harris’ mother was Hindu, and her father was Christian. She grew up attending services at a Black Baptist church and a Hindu temple, USA Today reports.
Harris’ mother took her children to a Black church “to make sure we would grow into confident, proud Black women,” Harris wrote in her memoir.
Harris’ husband, Douglas Emhoff, is Jewish.
The couple tied the knot in 2014. According to America Magazine, the couple smashed a glass as part of the traditional Jewish custom at their wedding. Harris told Interfaith Youth Core that she shares “Jewish traditions and celebrations” with Emhoff at home.
“Kamala has connected me more deeply to my faith, even though it’s not the same as hers,” Emhoff said a his speech at the 2024 DNC. “She comes to synagogue with me for High Holiday services, and I go to church with her for Easter. I get to enjoy her mom’s chile relleno recipe every Christmas, and she makes a mean brisket for Passover.”
She was sworn in to the Senate on her family Bible.
There were rumors circulating that Harris refused to be sworn in to the Senate on a Bible, but that’s inaccurate. She used a family Bible for the occasion, noting that it was “well-worn,” per USA Today. “All right, that’s a good way to do it,” then-Vice President Biden said.
She tapped into her faith on the campaign trail.
In August 2019, Harris used parallels between what she hoped to achieve in politics and her faith.
“Jesus tells us how we should define neighbor,” she said during a speech. “Jesus tells us, your neighbor is not just the person who lives next door, who drives the kind of car you drive, the person shares your zip code. Jesus tells us your neighbor is that man by the side of the road who you walk by, who has faced hardship.”
During a recent visit to the New Birth Baptist Church in Stonecrest, Georgia, she told a parable from the Gospel of Luke.
“The parable of the good Samaritan teaches us to love thy neighbor as thyself,” she said. “It is an essential tenet and a pillar of our faith, and that of so many others. However, one must ask: Are all people of faith living those words? Are all people of faith expressing those words in their actions? Do we have leaders in place who understand that in the face of a stranger, one should see a neighbor?”
Harris goes to church regularly.
Her base church is the Third Baptist Church of San Francisco. The church’s pastor, Rev. Amos Brown, told the Associated Press that Harris is a “spiritual person” and “quintessential scholar.”
Harris calls Brown to pray over the phone before major decisions, with Brown telling The Washington Post that they prayed together shortly after President Joe Biden told her he was dropping out of the race.
“She’s always, throughout her career, when she has a major decision, she’ll call me and say, ‘Pastor, will you pray for me?’” he said. “Even before she decided to run, we had prayer together.”
Harris told Interfaith Youth Core that church has been a place where she “draws strength” and reflects. “I also draw something else from it as well: a sense of community and belonging where we can build lasting relationships and be there for one another in times of need,” she said.
Korin Miller is a freelance writer specializing in general wellness, sexual health and relationships, and lifestyle trends, with work appearing in Men’s Health, Women’s Health, Self, Glamour, and more. She has a master’s degree from American University, lives by the beach, and hopes to own a teacup pig and taco truck one day.
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