This sudden new trend of specific identifiable demographics doing online meetups for Kamala Harris has SF City Attorney David Chiu co-organizing a "AANHPI Men for Kamala Harris" call, and they’ve lined up stars Ken Jeong and BD Wong to join in.
In the hours after Joe Biden ended his presidential campaign and threw his support to Kamala Harris, a quickly organized Zoom call dubbed “Black Women for Harris” shattered expectations and drew more than 44,000 online participants.
Sensing an opportunity, the very next night saw a “Black Men for Harris” online meetup turn into a fundraiser that hauled in $1.3 million. This was followed three days later by a “White Women: Answer The Call! Show up for Kamala Harris” Zoom meetup that went more of a celebrity route with Pink and Megan Rapinoe, which became the largest Zoom call ever with 200,000 participants and raised $11 million. Then on Monday night, a rather goofy “White Dudes for Harris” featured The Big Lebowski “Dude” Jeff Bridges and raised $4 million.
Next Wednesday, August 7th, at 5pm PST/8pm EST, we'll be joined online by Dr. @kenjeong, Broadway's @WongBD, Crazy Rich Asians' Chris Pang, Westworld's Leonardo Nam, Olympic medalist @greglouganis, @RepTedLieu, @RepAndyKimNJ, @AGRobBonta, @AGWilliamTong, & many others.
— David Chiu (@DavidChiu) July 31, 2024
So we have a pattern here where specific demographics’ identity politics are yielding lucrative fundraisers for the Harris campaign, in a tactic for which the Trump campaign has no comparable response. So San Francisco City Attorney David Chiu is now helping organize an “AANHPI Men for Harris” online event next Wednesday. (AANHPI is an initialism for Asian American, Native Hawaiian and Pacific Islanders.)
And the call has already lined up featured speakers like comic Ken Jeong and SF Lincoln High graduate BD Wong.
“We are organizing AANHPI men to follow the lead of our sisters and support the election of our first woman President who would also be America's first President of Asian and African descent,” organizers said in their announcement. “On Wednesday, August 7th, at 5pm PST / 8pm EST, we are hosting a virtual event with AANHPI elected officials, celebrities, and community leaders and invite you to join us.”
The call also has Olympic diver Greg Louganis (he’s half-Samoan), and otherwise mostly elected officials like Chiu, California AG Rob Bonta, and LA-area congressional representative Ted Lieu. More speakers are likely to be announced in the days to come.
You have to register for the AANHPI Men for Harris to get the link for the Wednesday, August 7th 5 pm call. It’s free to join, but you will of course be hit up to make a donation repeatedly throughout the night's proceedings.
Related: Kamala Harris Getting Widely Memed, and That’s Actually a Good Thing For Her Campaign [SFist]
Images: (Left) Warner Bros Pictures, (Right) wongbd via Instagram