'White Dudes' Rally for Harris in Massive Zoom Call

Vice President Kamala Harris' first-week campaign haul of $200 million was widely reported. Now media outlets are zeroing in on how some of those donations came to be: Zoom. The BBC reports a group of Black female political organizers kicked off the trend, amassing $1.6 million for the likely Democratic presidential candidate in four hours; their goal had been to hit $1 million in 100 days. Others have since followed their lead, slugging the calls with names based on identity, like Thursday's "White Women: Answer the Call" Zoom. It drew 164,000 people—among them Pink, Megan Rapinoe, and Connie Britton, per the AP—reportedly setting a Zoom record while raising $11 million.

Then came Monday. Organizers say the three-hour "White Dudes for Harris" Zoom call saw 180,000 people join, among them celebs and politicians like Jeff Bridges, Mark Ruffalo, Mark Hamill, Tim Walz, Pete Buttigieg, and Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker, reports Politico. As Bridges told participants, "I'm white. I'm a dude and I'm for Harris." That call pulled in $3.7 million for Harris. The BBC sees the Harris campaign—which the AP notes is not organizing the Zooms—as "harnessing a grassroots energy that did not exist for President Joe Biden, using modern video conferencing to reach motivated voters and fundraise virtually." (More Kamala Harris 2024 stories.)