WASHINGTON – On a virtual “White Dudes for Harris” call, it was probably appropriate for “The Dude” to appear.
Actor Jeff Bridges spoke at a fundraiser aimed at white men who support the vice president Kamala Harris and praised her on Monday night, before channeling his iconic role as “The Dude” in 1998’s “The Big Lebowski,” declaring, “As the Dude might say, ‘That’s just my opinion, man. ‘” (The original line was “That’s just your opinion, man.”)
The call lasted more than three hours and organizers said it drew more than 180,000 people who donated more than $3.7 million. It was the latest in a series of Zoom meetings to raise money and rally support among tens of thousands of Harris supporters, after the president Joe Biden announced that he was leaving the presidential race and supporting her.
Zooms have already been organized according to the backgrounds of supporters – including Black women, Hispanic women, Black men, Asian Americans, Native Americans and the LGBTQ+ community.
It reflected how Democrats, including Biden, have often relied on voters from broad and disparate backgrounds to form a diverse coalition of support. The president’s victory in 2020, for example, depended on segments of the population ranging from organized labor to conservative and suburban women disillusioned with the Republican Party. donald trump.
The “white guys” Zoom event also featured appearances from actors Mark Ruffalo, Mark Hamill and Bradley Whitford, who poked fun at how so many white male speakers were “a beige rainbow.”
Democratic officials also participated, including the secretary of transportation Pete ButtigiegMinnesota Governor Tim Walz and Illinois Governor JB Pritzker, all mentioned as Harris’ potential running mates.
Pritzker joked that he normally wouldn’t attend “an event with a name like White Dudes for” something, while Buttigieg talked about what an honor it was to share a call with Bridges as “The Dude” before adopting a more serious tone: “The men They are also freer in a country where we have a president who defends things like access to the right to abortion.”
Walz said Trump supporters are not inherently bad people, but urged attendees: “Never run away from our progressive values. One person’s socialism is another’s neighborliness.”
Ross Morales Rocketto, a progressive operative who founded the group “guys,” said, “We know the silent majority of white men do not support MAGA,” referring to Trump’s “Make America Great Again” movement.
The Zoom calls were not organized by Harris’ team, but her campaign is grateful for the support — and the millions of dollars in fundraising. “Winning campaigns are driven by real, organic support,” said Harris campaign communications director Michael Tyler.
Amit Ahuja, a professor of political science at the University of California, Santa Barbara, whose research focuses include the processes of inclusion and exclusion in multiethnic societies, said that “no campaign will say no” to groups of different origins organizing and encouraging enthusiasm and fundraising.
But he said it’s up to the candidate to accept support from individual groups while at the same time offering a broader personal story that can resonate with the country as a whole. One example, he said, is then-candidate Barack Obama, who overcame the campaign’s initial questions about racial identities to build a narrative around his personal story and hope.
“This is a challenge for both sides. This is a close race. Both must compile the largest coalition possible. And by leaning on one identity or another, they can really hurt themselves,” Ahuja said. He said the best response is to urge voters to “look at the candidate, not the groups.”
Calls to Harris often feature celebrities who have supported Biden’s campaign in the past. And their number demonstrates how the vice president will have to appeal to different facets of the increasingly pluralistic population.
The political networking group “Win With Black Women” held a Zoom meeting the same night Biden left and saw the number of participants rise to more than 44,000. She featured celebratory speeches from activists, business leaders, members of Congress and officials from the vice president’s office.
Afterwards, a “Win With Black Men” virtual fundraising event attracted more than 53,000 participants. They heard several presentations, including from 27-year-old Democratic Rep. Maxwell Frost of Florida, who was a key supporter of the Biden campaign among younger voters, and Georgia Sen. Raphael Warnock.
A “White Women for Harris” Zoom drew more than 164,000 participants — so many that the platform struggled to keep up with demand. The attraction was headlined by singer Pink, soccer star Megan Rapinoe and actor Connie Britton.
The Trump campaign also organized different groups of supporters according to their different backgrounds, including events in swing states like Pennsylvania and Georgia for black voters and “Latinos for Trump.”
Some Republicans have criticized Harris for her “policy of diversity, equality and inclusion,” arguing that the vice president’s political career has been helped by Democratic efforts to promote diversity. This despite House Speaker Mike Johnson and other Republican leaders on Capitol Hill discouraging lines of criticism they considered racist and sexist — instead urging party members to focus their criticism on Harris’ political record.
North Carolina Democratic Gov. Roy Cooper, who announced he did not want to be considered Harris’ running mate shortly before the start of Monday night’s conference call, asked those gathered about the GOP attacks: “A candidate from the DEI?”
“Here’s what they’re saying: that women and people of color don’t deserve to lead,” Cooper said.
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Associated Press writers Matt Brown in Washington and Bill Barrow in Atlanta contributed to this report.
