‘White Dudes’ Raise $4 Million for Harris as Stars Join Zoom

(Bloomberg) -- Democrats Pete Buttigieg and JB Pritzker joined actors Jeff Bridges, Mark Ruffalo and about 200,000 others to kick off campaign fund-raising efforts by a new group Monday: White Dudes for Harris.

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The call on Zoom raked in more than $4 million, including cash and merchandise sales, according to an emailed statement from the organizers.

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It continues the social media momentum set by other racial and gendered groups for Kamala Harris since President Joe Biden withdrew from the presidential race against Donald Trump over a week ago.

A call organized by Win With Black Women on July 21 drew 44,000 and raised more than $1.5 million in just three hours. White Dudes for Harris organizers said this was the inspiration for their own gathering. There have also been calls featuring Black men, White women, South Asian women and Hispanic supporters.

Harris’ campaign has enjoyed a surge in publicity on social media, as her unexpected candidacy inspired an explosion of memes across TikTok, Instagram and X. The Kamala Harris organization said it raised $200 million in the first week of the campaign.

At the start of the month, the Biden campaign, now the Harris campaign, had $96 million, while the Trump campaign began July with $128 million on hand. That’s according to the most recent federal campaign finance filings.

Buttigieg, who is reportedly among several White men being vetted as a vice presidential candidate alongside Harris, said on Monday’s call that Harris’ support for abortion, gay marriage, birth control and IVF also support freedom for men, as well as freedom to join labor unions, and support democracy.

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“The vibes right now are incredible,” he said, describing a visit to a campaign kickoff near his home in Michigan’s Traverse City resort area. “I haven’t seen that kind of energy for Democrats in Michigan since I was campaigning in the midterms.”

Actor Bridges, best known for his character, “The Dude,” in the cult classic The Big Lebowski, said that when he heard about the gathering, he knew he needed to be on it. “I’m White, I’m a dude and I’m for Harris,” he said.

White men may be crucial to Harris’ success in November, even as her entry into the race has narrowed the gap in many polls. White men have tended to vote Republican, with Trump winning 57% of their votes in 2020 compared with 40% for Biden, according to a 2021 analysis by Pew Research.

Monday’s Zoom call also featured Governor Roy Cooper of North Carolina, who has pulled his name from consideration as Harris’ running mate. The organizers said 152,854 people signed up to join the newly formed group.

The invitation for the call had urged the participants to not “let the MAGA crowd bully other White guys into voting for a hateful and divisive ideology because we understand that under MAGA everyone loses.”

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In a small setback, the @WhiteDudes4Harris account on the social media site X was locked Tuesday morning, but has since been re-instated with some restrictions, the group said. The social media company X didn’t respond to a request for comment.

--With assistance from Kurt Wagner.

(Adds quotes and data on past voting patterns starting in the seventh paragraph. An earlier version of this story corrected the spelling of Kamala Harris in the fifth paragraph.)

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