Grassroots organizers raise millions online for Harris in first week
"Join the call." That viral appeal has gone out almost daily since Vice President Kamala Harris launched her presidential campaign last week after President Biden withdrew from the 2024 race.
Links for Zoom webinars and organizing calls are popping up on social media feeds and email listservs across a diverse range of demographic groups that could be integral to Harris' coalition. More than $15 million has been raised by virtual grassroots gatherings over the past week, according to a CBS News analysis.
The latest call is scheduled Monday with "White Dudes for Harris." Vice presidential prospects Governors Tim Walz, J.B. Pritzker, Roy Cooper and Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg are expected to join the call, according to sources familiar with the details.
"It's on us to organize ourselves and to give another option to what we believe is the silent majority of white men," said organizer Ross Morales Rocketto, who told CBS News more than 75,000 have RSVP'd for the call. "To folks who are skeptical, it's understandable. I get it. And, you know, what I would say is, join the call. We're leading with our actions."
Win With Black Women was one of the first organizations to hold a call in the hours after Harris' candidacy became official. The group was established in 2020 and was instrumental in pushing for a Black woman to be named to the ticket with then-candidate Biden.
More than 44,000 Black women and allies joined the call with an additional 50,000 individuals viewing on other online platforms. The result was a $2 million grassroots fundraising haul.
"President Biden's endorsement of Vice President Harris as the Democratic nominee for President of the United States is a pivotal moment for our country," said Win With Black Women Founder Jotaka Eaddy. "As we gathered, we expressed our gratitude for the extraordinary work President Biden has done, while we affirmed our individual commitment to stand united in unwavering support of Vice President Kamala Harris as the leader our nation needs."
The following day, a call held by Win With Black Men generated more than $1.5 million with 53,000 participants. Led by journalist Roland Martin, it featured Democratic strategist Bakari Sellers and several elected officials including Congressional Black Caucus Chair Steven Horsford, Florida Representative Maxwell Frost and Georgia Senator Raphael Warnock.
Quentin James, president of The Collective PAC, which supports Black political candidates, said the committee's call was organized within 12 hours after the Win With Black Women call. He said he got a 1 a.m. text from Sellers that read, "When is our call? The brothers are thirsty."
"There's this misconception that there's a lot of Black men that aren't supporting the vice president. That's not true," James said. "We wanted to show up within 24 hours of tens of thousands of Black women to say, 'Hey, we got your back.'"
Most of the grassroots calls have been organized outside the campaign or the party, James said.
"A lot of this momentum is happening outside the campaign, and that's okay. As long as we're giving our accurate information and we're empowering people, this distributed organizing model is just gonna be incredible," James said.
The back-to-back calls motivated activist and Moms Demand Action founder Shannon Watts to follow suit. She organized a group, dubbed "White Women: Answer the Call." The impromptu effort, sparked by a 5 a.m. X post last Tuesday, broke a record for the largest Zoom call in history. It crashed the site with nearly 200,000 women and raised more than $11 million.
"I thought, 'Are white women going to do this too and take the baton?'" Watts told CBS News. "White women are the largest voting bloc in this country. We make up 40% of the voters and so we are divided by religious, marital and education lines. And even a tiny shift in our voting patterns can swing an entire election, and so that was a conversation that we needed to have on this call."
"I am here tonight embracing myself, in your incredible, profound white women midst, because we got a f***ing job to do y'all," said actress Connie Britton on the call.
If elected, Harris would not only become the first female president in U.S. history but also the first Black and South Asian to serve as commander in chief. Harris is the daughter of Jamaican and Indian immigrants.
The Indian American Impact Fund held a call with Rep. Ro Khanna of California last Thursday. Sarah Shah also helped organize a South Asian Women for Harris call last Wednesday that had 10,000 attendees and raised $300,000.
Shah said a WhatsApp group of the thousands who attended her group's calls last week was also launched, as well as a website, desipresident.com, that promotes volunteering events – the next step for attendees on their calls.
"Our message is no matter who you are, no matter where you are, there's a role for you to play in electing the first South Asian president," Shah said.
Harris is an alum of Howard University and could also become the first graduate from an historically Black university to serve as President.
The Bison PAC, a newly formed political action committee, was set up by Howard alums in support of Harris. The PAC is an affiliate of The Collective PAC and has no connection to the university or the Harris campaign. More than 4,000 individuals joined its inaugural call last week, netting more than $142,000. Additional fundraisers are planned this fall including at Howard's homecoming.
"Howard has such a legacy of political activism and leadership," said Stefanie Brown James, a Howard alum and Collective PAC founder who launched the Bison PAC with her husband, Quentin. "For her (Harris) to actually lead the country as president of the United States, and she's a Howard Bison, I think just overall for everyone, this is a different level and the energy that you're seeing is people being excited."
Other organized calls that have taken place include Latinas for Harris, Native Women + Two Spirit for Harris, AAPI Victory Fund and Out For Kamala Harris LGBTQ+ Unity hosted by the Human Rights Campaign.
Over 7,000 women joined the two Latinas for Harris calls, raising more than $168,000. Harris' campaign manager, Julie Chávez Rodríguez, who is Latina herself, joined one of the calls to further mobilize the key demographic group.
"You all have broken the internet!" Michelle Villegas, the National Latino Engagement director for Harris, repeatedly told the women on the calls, remarking on the high demand.
Additional calls are planned this week with Women for Harris, Caribbean-Americans for Harris, Filipino Americans for Harris and Disabled Voters for Harris.
The Harris campaign says it held thousands of in-person events in battleground states this past weekend and has signed up over 170,000 volunteers since Harris' launch. The campaign also announced Sunday that it has raised more than $200 million in less than a week since the president's endorsement of Harris, with a majority coming from first-time donors.
Allison Novello contributed reporting.