Black women are already proving to be a strong and enthusiastic fundraising base for Vice President Kamala Harris. Mother Jones; Greg Hauenstein / SOPA Images/Sipa USA/AP; Getty
On Sunday night, more than 40,000 Black women reportedly gathered on a Zoom call.
Their purpose: To rally around Vice President Kamala Harris’ newly launched campaign to win the Democratic nomination for the presidency. Part of how that support manifested was through a massive influx of cash: Black women on that Zoom call raised $1.5 million in three hours, according to Win With Black Women, the organization that convened the virtual gathering.
Black women have long been recognized as the most crucial voting bloc for the Democratic party. But experts say their role in contributing to Harris’ record-breaking first 24 hours of fundraising—when she raised raised more than $80 million, according to her campaign—makes clear that Black women’s political power goes far beyond party loyalty.
“Until [Sunday], Black women weren’t necessarily associated with being powerhouse fundraisers,” Aimee Allison, founder and president of the organization She the People, told me. “For Black women to raise money like that is evidence of Black women’s political power in another way.”
Money, Allison said, “is the fuel of American politics—and we can play there as well.”
Win With Black Women has been holding weekly, off-the-record Zoom calls for years to discuss Black women’s political power, according to Allison and Glynda Carr, president, CEO and co-founder of the group Higher Heights for America, which works to elect progressive Black women to office. But the calls have never been as well attended as Sunday’s, which had upwards of 40,000 listeners, according to organizers. Typically, the calls reach a maximum attendance of 1,000 people, according to Allison. (Spokespeople for Win With Black Women did not immediately respond to questions from Mother Jones on Monday.)
Black women played a major role in grassroots fundraising for former President Obama’s campaign, Carr noted, adding that Black people also tend to donate a higher share of their wealth than white people do. Though Harris has already raked in a huge sum of cash, that kind of windfall is uncommon for Black women running for federal office, who research shows tend to have less cash on hand than other candidates. Of course, it’s hard to make any comparison between Harris and other Black women candidates given that she would be the first woman of color ever to win the Democratic Party’s nomination. This early financial support for Harris from Black women is notable, and shows that “this is a growing space for Black women,” Carr said.
Kelly Dittmar, director of research at Rutgers’ Center for American Women and Politics also sees it as “symbolic of something more”: the “support and enthusiasm” crucial in powering Harris’ candidacy to victory. “If that type of organizing is already happening,” Dittmar said, “that bodes well for the Harris campaign.”
Carr’s organization is already planning on how to capitalize on the enthusiasm for Harris’ candidacy, she said, including by growing Higher Heights’ network of Black women supporters in the coming months.
“There’s a real opportunity to harnesses [Black women’s fundraising]—not just for Kamala Harris’ presidency,” Carr said, “but candidates inspiring Black women’s political spending up and down the ballot.”
