Alpha Kappa Alpha, the historically black sorority that counts Vice President Kamala Harris as one of its most notable alumni, has created a political action committee, an unusual venture for a sorority that rallies around the chance to send a of its members to the White House.
AKA is part of a collective of the country’s oldest and most prestigious sororities and fraternities known as the “Divine Nine,” whose network of more than 2 million alumni represents an enormous political force among a constituency that both parties hope to mobilize. before the November Congress. election.
When Harris was announced as Joe Biden’s 2020 running mate, his campaign was flooded with thousands of donations of $19.08 — a reference to the year Alpha Kappa Alpha was founded.
In office, Harris organized a visit by leaders of the Divine Nine to the White House, the first time all were invited to meet with a president or vice president, POLITICO reported in 2021. Leaders of the Divine Nine have visited the White House or has met with Biden or Harris routinely since then – including recently in Mayas Biden sought to bolster his support among black voters.
Last month, after Biden dropped out of the race and endorsed Harris, all of the Divine Nine presidents pledged in a statement to “meet this critical moment in history with an unprecedented coordinated campaign of voter registration, education and mobilization.” The statement did not mention specific candidates or parties.
The Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority PAC, Inc., or AKA 1908 PAC, may accept donations of up to $5,000 from sorority members and their families to support federal campaigns and political parties. Kiahna Davis, AKA regional director for the Central region, is listed as PAC treasurer. Neither Davis nor the PAC responded to a request for comment.
Harris has long spoken fondly of AKA — whose members she likened to “family” — along with the other sororities and fraternities of the Divine Nine.
The vice president’s first public event after becoming the de facto Democratic nominee was an appearance at a national meeting of another Divine Nine sorority, Zeta Phi Beta, and she spoke at the meeting of Alpha Kappa Alpha, or Boulé, earlier this summer. And a rally she held in Atlanta shortly afterward featured only a small sampling of Divine Nine alumni in political power.
AKA is not the only Greek organization with a federal fundraising operation. Phi Beta Sigma, a Divine Nine fraternity, operates a PAC, and fraternity and sorority leaders founded the Fraternity and Sorority Political Action Committee in 2005 to support candidates “who defend and enhance the fraternity and sorority experience.”
This story originally appeared on Politico.com read the full story
