‘White dudes’ raise over US$4 million for Kamala Harris, discuss women’s rights
NEW YORK: A star-studded live video call urging white men to vote for Kamala Harris raised about US$4 million on Monday night (Jul 29) for the US Democratic presidential candidate, attracting over 190,000 people including Star Wars actor Mark Hamill and singer Josh Groban.
The “White Dudes for Harris” event, which lasted over three hours, centred on how and why white men should help elect Harris, currently the vice president, in the Nov 5 presidential election against Republican rival Donald Trump.
Trump won the votes of over 60 per cent of US white men in both the 2016 and 2020 elections, said organiser Ross Morales Rocketto, founder of “Run for Something”.
“If white guys would just show up, if we would stand up and be counted, if we would talk about what it really means to be a great partner, and a man, which is to protect, and to help, and to lift up, and to not push down, all of us are going to be better for it,” Mitch Landrieu, a Harris campaign co-chair, said during the call.
The call is the latest in a series of video calls for Harris that have attracted large audiences and raised millions, sparked by one held by Black women the evening President Joe Biden stepped aside from the race and endorsed her.
Other guests included Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg, actor Jeff Bridges, who explained his presence on the call by noting his role as The Dude in the classic film The Big Lebowski, North Carolina Governor Roy Cooper and Illinois Governor JB Pritzker.
“What a variety of whiteness we have here,” said actor Bradley Whitford, who starred in the movie Get Out and the hit TV show The West Wing. “We got The Dude. We got Pete (Buttigieg). It’s like a rainbow of, uh, beige.”
