Vice President Kamala Harris‘ campaign recently revealed that it raised a record $81 million in the first 24 hours after President Biden dropped out of the 2024 race and Harris became the presumptive nominee.
The figure, which was a new presidential donation record, included money raised across the campaign, the Democratic National Committee, and joint fundraising committees. Her campaign said over 888,000 grassroots donors contributed in those 24 hours.
On Sunday night when the group “Win With Black Women” held their weekly Zoom call, Harris becoming the Democratic nominee was the center of their conversation. The women, mostly members of Harris’ sorority, Alpha Kappa Alpha (AKA) Sorority Inc., helped raise over $1 million for her campaign.
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“There were 44,000 women on this call, that just shows you the power that we have, and it made you feel proud to be a part of the movement,” Shariah Dixon-Turner, the president of the Rho Theta Omega Chapter of AKA, told 6abc.com. “Once President Biden endorsed Harris the money started rolling in immediately,” Dixon-Turner said, adding that over $1 million came in in just under three hours.
It appears the momentum Harris is gaining in terms of campaign donations is not going to slow down anytime soon as another demographic is stepping up to get her elected.
White women are mobilizing resources to donate to the Harris campaign, following in the footsteps of Win With Black Women.
Harris’ white women supporters are joining the fight on Thursday, July 25, through an event dubbed “White Women: Answer The Call!”
Actress Alyssa Milano, who shared a flyer for the event on social media, wrote: “On Sunday night, 44,000 women gathered with Win With Black Women to support Kamala Harris, and raised over $1 million. It’s our turn to show up. Join us on Thursday, July 25th at 8:30 pm ET to organize, galvanize and mobilize white women to show up with their human, social and financial capital in the name of electing VP Kamala Harris America’s next – and first woman – president. You will leave this call with tools to turn your support for Kamala Harris into actionable next steps.”
On July 22, “Black Men For Harris” via Zoom raised over $1.3 million. Over 53,000 Black men joined the virtual event hosted by Roland Martin.
For more than two decades in public life, Harris has achieved a lot of firsts: the first black woman to serve as San Francisco’s district attorney, the first woman to be California’s attorney general, the first Indian American senator, and the first woman vice president of the U.S., working by President Joe Biden’s side.
If Harris becomes the Democratic nominee and defeats Republican candidate Donald Trump in November, she will not only be the first woman to serve as president but also the first black woman and first person of South Asian descent to be president.
White women showing up for Harris is interesting considering what happened in 2016. Research shows that even though women voted overwhelmingly to elect Hillary Clinton, it was white women who helped Trump get into the White House. Per figures, the majority of non-college-educated white women (64%) voted for Trump, while 35% supported Clinton.
