As the American political landscape drastically shifted and the Democratic party breathed a sigh of relief when President Joe Biden ended his re-election bid, his successor’s campaign swiftly began to take shape. Many elements seemed familiar from past election cycles — the canvassing and relentless emails or text messages, or both. But a July 29 evening gathering on Zoom presented something new in the presidential campaign cycle when it brought, as one famous speaker put it, a “rainbow of beige” men that counted nearly a dozen A-list Hollywood celebrities and major political figures among them to raise funds for Vice President Kamala Harris‘ nascent campaign.
The “White Dudes For Harris” Zoom meeting was a feel-good, self-aware round-robin of famous L.A. and D.C.-based men alternately talking about Harris with great passion (Sean Astin’s passionate speech stood out on this front); being a white dude (Jeff Bridges, “the Dude” himself, plainly told viewers he’s just a white dude who supports Harris); how all should fear the threat of a second Trump administration; and how uncomfortable it was to be in a gathering of all white men (“[The meeting] doesn’t sound like something I’d usually join, but this is a great cause,” Illinois Gov. “J.B.” Pritzker quipped).
The three-hour-and-20-minute Zoom was pulled together in just a few days and managed to lure in celebrities through what its organizer Ross Morales Rocketto calls “a virtuous cycle,” as news of the upcoming event went viral. Some celebrities, like Mark Hamill, just happened to come across the listing and were invited via their agents to speak with the gathering. Bridges, it turns out, came on board just 30 minutes ahead of the event and was asked to kick things off as the first guest to speak. The event reached voters nationwide, with 51 percent of its 200,000-plus attendees watching from battleground states, according to its organizers.
A fundraising call tailored for one of several splinter groups of the U.S. electorate, the wildly popular event was an example of how identity politics will continue to take up a lot of the oxygen this election year. As we saw from Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump’s recent comments about Harris’ race, identity is frequently used in politics to disparage and disrespect. But with this and several similar Zoom meetings, its inherent power is being harnessed in tandem with now-mainstreamed communications technology to organize and galvanize the electorate.
When applied to a group of self-described “white dudes,” this organizational tactic may be uncomfortable for some — even “a little taboo,” according to Rocketto, who spoke with The Hollywood Reporter. But it’s crucial for the Democrats in 2024, given Trump’s wide appeal to the white male demographic. Over 60 percent of white men voted MAGA in 2016 and 2020, according to exit polling data from Edison Research. And as political operative Rocketto, who also hosted the “White Dudes For Harris” Zoom event, pointed out while speaking with THR, the Democrats have focused less time and attention on white men over the past 25 to 30 years.
“This has been a gradual thing,” Rocketto explained. “A lot of that has to do with the fact that on the left, we often think in binaries. So either we go after white men or we go after women, people of color, Black women. And the answer is: we have to do both.”
Of course, for decades, Democrats have pieced together a diverse and disparate coalition to win elections. “White Dudes for Harris,” Rocketto explains, sprung from him eyeing the success of “Win With Black Women,” which has been hosting Zoom meetings on Sunday nights for four years. The group was born out of the frustration many Black women felt in 2020 over the poor treatment of the field of Black hopefuls Biden had been eyeing for his veep pick. These Sunday Zoom meetings last for hours, as attendees strategize and find support; on July 20, the day Biden’s campaign ended, the “Win With Black Women” Zoom raised upwards of $1.6 million for Harris.
Rooted in the unity seen with “Win with Black Women,” the White Dudes’ gathering was a massive success that brought in over $4 million. And from there, the Zoom movement has grown. There was the July 31 “Latino Men for Harris” gathering hosted by comic actor George Lopez. Then there was “Comics for Kamala” on Aug. 5, which brought dozens of comedy favorites together virtually to riff for Harris, with Nick Offerman’s barn-burner parody song “Proud to be a Kamala Man” (sung to the tune of “God Bless the USA,” aka “Proud to Be an American”) being a major highlight. At the same time, on a separate meeting, the “Elders for Harris” Zoom had Jane Fonda telling her age demo, “It’s not just because the orange man is terrible, it’s because Kamala is the leader we need right now.” Coming up next: “Cat Ladies for Harris,” a call formed in reaction to a recent insult that GOP Vice Presidential candidate J.D. Vance hurled at Harris; “Rural Americans for Harris”; and yup, “Deadheads for Harris,” which takes place on the day of the late Grateful Dead frontman’s birth.
Nearly a decade ago, Trump rose to political prominence, in part, by mastering the art of Twitter. Since understanding the mediums of the moment is central to campaigning — and mastering of them can spell victory — it’s become clear that in a matter of a week, 2024 is now The Zoom Election. A piece of videotelephony software, which during the COVID-19 pandemic brought feelings of unity for many (followed by fatigue), is now what Rocketto calls the new “appointment television.”
“This is different from 2020. Because when the pandemic hit, people weren’t used to Zoom. They weren’t used to doing things through calls. Four years later, the idea of getting on Zoom, not having to leave your house, doesn’t feel foreign to people anymore,” he said. “There’s still a time and a place for it. And I think this taps into something where hundreds of thousands of people are getting on at the same time to be in the same place, and even though people couldn’t see each other, they felt like they were having a community experience.”
While Team Trump has yet to move its campaign onto Zoom, it did find an inroad to live streaming on Aug. 5 when the candidate appeared on the streaming platform Kick to speak with internet personality Adin Ross. The 23-year-old, who has interviewed contentious personalities like white supremacist Nick Fuentes and who frequently streams himself playing video games on his Kick page, helped Trump gain more than 580,000 views at one point during the stream. Whether this will lead to his campaign embracing the medium and format remains to be seen.
For its part, Zoom would be wise to keep up with public demand to attend these meetings. Last week, the company’s engineers had to raise a meeting’s capacity to 200,000 for the first time when the “White Women: Answer the Call 2024″ meeting “broke” Zoom, as attendance swelled past the largest corporate package offered. Rocketto found an elegant solution for this dilemma for his White Dudes call when he simultaneously streamed the event on a YouTube page, pushing viewership to above 200,000; he told THR that another 450,000 have since viewed the Zoom there.
If sustained, the powerful sense of community that Rocketto says these Zoom meetings can provide could tip the truncated and still-nascent Harris campaign toward victory. Perhaps Zooms for Harris will be the MAGA rallies of 2024. While the Harris campaign may not be able to rely on the billions in free media attention that was aimed at those rallies, benefitting Trump’s 2016 campaign, it will receive the funds that the Zoom meetings raise — it should be noted — without any involvement from her team.
The cash boost is already apparent: Just three Zoom events — “White Dudes for Harris,” “Win with Black Women” and “White Women: Answer the Call” — raised $16 million, helping to push her campaign’s July haul to $310 million, more than doubling Trump’s $138.7 for the same period. And, according to an NPR/PBS News/Marist poll released on Tuesday, Harris now holds a 51-48 percent national lead over Trump.