Vice President Kamala Harris received a $4 million fundraising boost Monday during a “White Dudes for Harris” fundraiser aimed at drumming up white male support ahead of the 2024 election.
The online event drew more than 190,000 people and raised about $4 million for the Harris Victory Fund, according to organizers, although the YouTube live stream appeared to peak at approximately 64,000 viewers.
The total haul included sales of baseball caps with the “White Dudes for Harris” moniker – the group’s distinctive logo.
Hollywood actors Jeff Bridges, Sean Astin, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Bradley Whitford and Mark Hamil were among the “white dude” celebrities urging viewers to contribute to Harris’ campaign and “stand up” to former President Donald Trump during the telethon-style event.
“I was brought to this party not so much for being white, and I certainly am, but because I’m a dude,” Bridges, who began his remarks while on mute, said on the call.
The Academy-Award winning actor, known for role as Jeffrey “The Dude” Lebowski, in the Coen brothers’ film “The Big Lebowski,” expressed that he was “excited” about the prospect of having Harris as the country’s first female commander in chief.
“A woman president. I’m for that,” he declared.
“Kamala is most certainly our girl,” Bridges said of the 59-year-old vice president.
The “White Dudes for Harris” meeting follows similar demographic-specific virtual gatherings organized to secure support for Harris from key voting blocs, including white women, black women, South Asians and the LGBTQ community.
“I’ve been thinking a lot about men. I’ve been thinking about the unique challenges that many of them face and how those challenges turn into violent or destructive tendencies with other people,” event organizer Ross Morales Rocketto said of his motivation to spearhead “White Dudes for Harris.”
Morales Rocketto also addressed what he called, “the elephant in the room.”
“A lot of people feel and felt uncomfortable about the call, and I think that is understandably so,” he said of his decision to give white men who support Harris a platform. “Throughout American history, when white men have organized it’s often with pointy hats on.”
“I think the skepticism is understandable,” Morales Rocketto added, before criticizing the political left for “ceding white men to the MAGA right for way too long.”
“The silent majority of white men are not MAGA supporters,” he argued.
Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg was the first of a number of potential Harris running mate options to address the “white dudes,” and Morales Rocketto introduced the former South Bend, Ind., mayor as “the internet’s favorite candidate for VP.”
“The vibes right now are incredible,” Buttigieg said, before arguing that “men are more free when the leader of the free world supports access to birth control and IVF.”
The Biden administration official also stressed that Harris supporters should be “driven by what we believe in, not just what we’re trying to stop.”
Here’s the latest on Kamala Harris’ 2024 presidential campaign:
“Donald Trump’s unfitness for office is clear and nobody will be able to prosecute that better than Kamala Harris,” he added.
Democratic Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker, who has also been floated as a possible VP pick, slammed Trump and GOP vice presidential nominee JD Vance in his brief remarks.
“Donald Trump is a 34 time convicted felon and adjudicated rapist and congenital liar – he is a fraud, and JD Vance is his mini me,” the governor said.
Pritzker, on several occasions, made references to the internet hoax that falsely claimed Vance (R-Ohio) included an X-rated anecdote involving a couch in his 2016 memoir, “Hillbilly Elegy.”
“Vance seems completely unwilling to couch his disdain for women,” the Illinois Democrat charged after joking that he was attending a “Couches Against Trump or CATS” Zoom call after the “White Dudes for Harris” fundraiser.
Democratic Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, another veepstakes contender, derided Trump and Vance as “the anti-freedoms” and “robber barons.”
Walz credited the event participants for laying the groundwork for Harris’ roadmap to victory.
“We need a plan to win. And that’s what you guys are doing,” he said, before laying into Trump, again.
“How often in the world do you make that bastard wake up afterwards and know that black woman kicked his ass and sent him on the road,” the governor said. “And that’s something that guy is going to have to live with for the rest of his life.”
