A video call with 60,000 self-professed “White Dudes for Harris” showed the breadth of Democratic support for her candidacy, and the ways the party is learning to make fun of itself.
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Gov. Tim Walz of Minnesota and Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg appeared on Monday on a “White Dudes for Harris” call with other supporters of Vice President Kamala Harris.
By Rebecca Davis O’Brien and Ken Bensinger
July 29, 2024, 11:38 p.m. ET
First came the Black women, who had been meeting every week for four years and were ready to spring into action for Kamala Harris. Then came the Black men and South Asians. There were also the white women, in a Zoom-busting paroxysm of solidarity and angst.
On Monday night, the string of identity groups backing Ms. Harris reached its bizarre, and perhaps inevitable, apotheosis with the inaugural meeting of the aptly named “White Dudes for Harris.”
“What a variety of whiteness we have here,” marveled Bradley Whitford, the “West Wing” actor, his tongue firmly in cheek as he opened his remarks to the 60,000 or so attendees who had gathered on a live video call to show their support and raise money for Ms. Harris’s nascent presidential campaign. “It’s like a rainbow of beige.”
The call, put together by a few Democratic organizers (and not affiliated with the Harris campaign), was billed as a moment of solidarity, a chance to prove that former President Donald J. Trump doesn’t own the votes of white men or speak for them.
The speakers included two white dudes on the shortlist to be Ms. Harris’s running mate — Gov. Tim Walz of Minnesota and Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg — as well as the singers Josh Groban and Lance Bass and the actor Mark Hamill. Gov. Roy Cooper of North Carolina was there, in a suit and tie, and Gov. JB Pritzker of Illinois was too, cracking jokes about JD Vance.
Since President Biden dropped out of the race and backed Ms. Harris, just over a week ago, there has been a rush of Democratic enthusiasm behind her — momentum that some have likened to Barack Obama’s first presidential run.
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