[BenIndy: We share this with deep apologies to the white dudes who found out about it too late. In truth, we privately shared several identity-group fundraising call notices (including the Black Men for Harris, Out for Kamala Harris LGBTQ+ Unity, South Asian Women for Harris, and Women for Harris calls) with friends and family, but did not think to share them here. The outrage and FOMO we saw after admitting this oversight indicate we must apologize for our grievous error. But don’t worry: there will probably be more events like this one, so keep your eyes open. Join the email lists, become group members, and sign up to be notified. Donate. Jokes aside, white voters have favored GOP candidates for years. This is an election where we hope to see that trend at least slip.]
‘White Dudes for Harris’— including The Dude himself — raise over $4M
Washington Post, by Adila Suliman, July 30, 2024
The Zoom fundraiser for Vice President Harris, attended by Jeff Bridges, Mark Hamill and Pete Buttigieg among others, raised over $4 million, organizers said.
After Black Women for Harris and White Women for Harris, it was the turn of “White Dudes for Harris” — where almost 200,000 people, including the actor who plays “The Dude” himself, helped raise over $4 million during a fundraising Zoom call, according to organizers.
Most notable among the celebrities was a man introduced as the “dude in chief,” actor Jeff Bridges, who played The Dude in “The Big Lebowski,” released in 1998, and joked: “I qualify … I’m White, I’m a dude and I’m for Harris.”
Attendees expressed enthusiasm and excitement for the campaign — while also joking about the lack of diversity on the call. “What a variety of Whiteness we have here … it’s like a rainbow of beige!” actor Bradley Whitford of “The West Wing” told the group. Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker (D) teased that a White Dudes gathering “doesn’t usually sound like something I would join, but this is a terrific cause.”
Organizer Ross Morales Rocketto also acknowledged more serious motivations for organizing the call. “The left has been ceding White men to the MAGA right for way, way too long,” he said referencing the slogan popularized by Trump, “Make America Great Again.”
“That’s going to stop tonight, because we know that the silent majority of White men aren’t actually MAGA supporters. They’re folks like you who just want a better life for their families.”
A majority of White men have long sided with Republican presidential nominees, and Trump won a majority of White male voters in 2020, The Post previously reported. President Biden ultimately won by assembling a large enough coalition of voters in key states, winning margins among young and non-White voters, college graduates and independents.
Harris’s campaign has had to contend with attacks focused on her gender and racial identity — with one Republican lawmaker calling her unqualified and a “DEI vice president,” and many political pundits widely presume that her expected vice-presidential pick will have to be a White male to give her ticket the broadest appeal.
During Monday’s call, Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg framed Harris’s campaign as one for “freedom.”
The White Dudes fundraiser has no official affiliation with Harris but large amounts of money were raised through matched funds and merchandise sales, including a popular trucker hat, the group said.
During his speech, Bridges paid homage to Black Women for Harris for inspiring a wave of copycat fundraising calls. “Kamala is so certainly our girl … a woman president, man, so exciting! And her championing of women’s rights, I’m for that, and for all her stance on the environment.”
Bridges also managed to work in his character’s catchphrase in “The Big Lebowski,” quipping at one point: “As the Dude might say: That’s just my opinion, man.”
In addition to raising funds for Harris’s campaign, speakers hoped to energize supporters ahead of what is expected to be an intense race.
Buttigieg said it was an “honor” to address “this convening of dudes, right after The Dude,” referencing Bridges. “The vibes right now are incredible,” Buttigieg said of the Harris campaign. “The momentum is extraordinary.”
“I’ve never felt this kind of belief, this kind of enthusiasm ever. I want us to enjoy it,” Whitford said.
Similar zoom fundraiser calls have been organized to support Harris’s presidential bid after President Biden announced the end of his candidacy earlier in July.
More than 44,000 people logged onto a Zoom call organized by Win With Black Women to support Harris, raising over $1.5 million, organizers said. The call featured Bernice King, the youngest child of Martin Luther King Jr.; 85-year-old Rep. Maxine Waters (D-Calif.), the most senior Black woman in the House; and Donna Brazile, the two-time acting chair of the Democratic National Committee.That event also helped inspire similar fundraising calls for Black men and Latinas.
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