White Dudes Are Assembling for Kamala Harris
Kamala Harris is the presumptive Democratic nominee for the next presidential election, meaning this race is Harris vs. Trump, a POC woman vs. an orange man. Harris got a huge boost this week from one particular group: white dudes.
In general, Hollywood figures tend to give their support, both vocal and financial, to the Democrat Party. For this election, Biden saw a large number of the Hollywood glitterati turn out in support of his re-election. He even had a fundraiser held for him with the likes of George Clooney, Jimmy Kimmel, Jack Black, Julia Roberts, and even Barack Obama. This fundraiser though, despite raising $30 million, would signal the end for Biden as the host, Clooney, came out afterward to ask Biden to step out of the race over his painful-to-watch debate performance.
Hollywood, and the Democratic Party at large, has now turned its attention to Harris, the current Vice-President of the United States and frontrunner for the big chair in the 2024 election. Clooney has already endorsed the decision, praising Biden for standing down and supporting Harris’ election campaign. If Harris wins, she will be the first female President in the history of the U.S.A. Not only that, but Harris would also be the first woman of color to be President.
Of course, there are plenty of people who, in the year 2024, still believe that a woman, or a person of color, is “unelectable” (despite women doing a damn good job of it in other countries across the world, such as Finland, voted the happiest country on the planet). Harris may have stronger support from women and POC communities than Trump does, but there is one demographic that Trump’s MAGA team has had a stronghold on: white men. But he doesn’t have all of them.
White Dudes, Assemble!
A new initiative titled ‘White Dudes for Harris’ has already jumped into action. A fundraising video livestream to endorse Harris for President and raise money for the campaign featured a bevy of star-studded names including Mark Ruffalo, Jeff Bridges (the ultimate white Dude), Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Sean Astin, Bradley Whitford, Lance Bass, Josh Groban, Josh Gad, Mark Hamill and podcaster and business expert Scott Galloway. The stream also served as somewhat of an audition for white male Democratic politicians that could make potential running mate candidates such as Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, Michigan Sen. Gary Peters, and Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker.
Jumping straight to the point was one of the lead organizers of the group, Ross Morales Rocketto, a veteran progressive consultant who has worked with the Democratic party in the past who stated,
“The left has been ceding white men to the MAGA right for way, way too long. 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. They want more economic security,” he added. “They want better health care. They want better schools. There’s a crisis of loneliness in this country, and many of us are the ones that feel the most lonely.”
The video live stream and its participants soon were trending on Twitter, with many pointing out the wholesomeness of the discussions being had. Sean Astin, in particular, struck a chord with the masses thanks to his passionate support for having more women in power. Many shared some of his most impassioned moments praising Harris and shared it on social media.
Getting white men on board
In 2020, Biden won 40% of the white male votes, an improvement over Hillary Clinton’s 32% in the prior election. Now, while it is highly unlikely that Harris will be able to go above 50% to earn the majority of white male votes, if she can narrow the margin between her and Trump, it would have a significant impact. North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper stated the importance of capturing these votes saying,
“I’m not the political scientists or the pollsters, but I know enough to know — and I’ve seen enough polling results or outcomes in elections to know — that if white males would vote 1-2% more for Democrats than they usually do, then we win this race.”
The point of the call wasn’t to introduce new policies or plans to entice this demographic to vote for Harris. It focused heavily on topics already well covered, such as Harris’ stance on abortion laws and taxing the rich. Much of what was discussed was to push back against the criticism that as a POC woman, Harris is not able to adequately take on the role. Jokes were also made about the “rainbow of beige” present on the call and, well, it is a call featuring white dudes, so I don’t know what else anyone expected there.
The live stream ended up fundraising $4 million for Harris’ campaign and drew in over 190,000 views while live.
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