Black women-led stream gets 90K viewers, raises $1.5M US for Kamala Harris in a few hours
Organizers had to expand Zoom capacity, stream call on other platforms to keep up with demand
Shortly after U.S. President Joe Biden stepped down from the presidential race on Sunday and endorsed Vice-President Kamala Harris, Nyki Robinson's phone started blowing up.
"We're glued to the television, and then I get a text message in the afternoon saying Black women are gathering on a call tonight," Robinson, founder of the non-partisan Black Girls Vote, told As It Happens host Nil Köksal.
"Next thing you know, I had that text message at least 10 times from different individuals."
News of the Zoom call — organized by the advocacy group Win With Black Women in support of Harris's presidential bid — spread like wildfire, and quickly exceeded its 1,000-person capacity. An executive at Zoom stepped in and increased the call's capacity, organizer say.
In the end, the group says 44,000 people joined the call, and another 50,000 watched the event stream on other platforms. It also says it raised $1.5 million U.S. for the Harris campaign in under three hours, and signed up 10,000 new volunteers across 50 states.
"It's something I had never seen before. It's unheard of. It was so inspirational. It was uplifting," Robinson said. "It was something that is so indescribable. You know, it's one of those things where you had to be there."
Zoom did not respond to CBC's requests for comment.
'It was thrilling'
Aimee Allison has been attending the group's weekly calls for years, and says she's never seen anything like this one.
"It was thrilling," said Allison, founder of the advocacy group She The People, which supports women of colour in politics.
"It wasn't chaos. The infrastructure was there amongst Black women to be able to scale and meet the moment. And I think this is the difference-maker Kamala Harris is injecting into the race."
Win With Black Women founder Jotaka Eaddy told the Washington Post the most participants they've ever had on a call before Sunday was 1,500, and she was only expecting a few hundred people at Sunday's meeting.
"What happened ... was historic," she told the newspaper.
Harris, who is of Black and Indian descent, has been busy shoring up support for her presidential bid within the Democratic party this past week.
With endorsements from top party brass and the support of hundreds of convention delegates secured, she's widely expected to become the presidential nominee when Democrats meet virtually on Aug. 7.
That would make her the first woman of colour to be a major party's presidential nominee. And if she were to beat Republican rival Donald Trump, she would be the first woman — and the first Black woman — to take the presidency.
Several Democraic lawmakers and officials took part in Sunday's call, including California Rep. Maxine Waters, former Democratic National Committee chair Donna Brazile, and Texas state Sen. Charlane Oliver.
But participants say its reach extended well beyond the halls of power.
"This wasn't just policy people or legislative people or elected officials. This was across the board. Everybody came with their toolbox and was like, OK, so how do we pitch in?" said Angelique Roche, a writer and consultant who attended.
"These were different generations with different education levels, different jobs, different backgrounds, different industries, all coming to the table and saying, 'We're ready, we're in.'"
Black voters in general, and women in particular, were key to Biden's victories in both the 2020 primaries and general election. While Donald Trump had a modest advantage among white women, Biden won overwhelmingly among Black women, 93 per cent to Trump's six per cent according to AP VoteCast, a survey of more than 110,000 voters.
Just last week, more than 1,300 Black female leaders and allies published a letter supporting Biden and Harris.
Robinson says she didn't speak on the call, just listened. Her organization, Black Girls Vote, doesn't endorse candidates or parties, she says, but instead encourages Black girls to get involved in politics.
"We want people to know that this election is so critical, and we want people to get out the vote," she said.
Black women are often discounted, she said, which is why it was inspiring to see such a massive and effective mobilization on Sunday.
"Some people never thought that they would see a Black woman at the top of the ticket in any election. And now that we have it … just seeing what's happening, and just the responses from people, young people … wanting to get involved, I get goosebumps," she said.
"Our time is now. You know, they say luck doesn't exist. It's when preparation meets opportunity. And this is our opportunity to do whatever we can to make sure young Black girls across the country understand the power of their vote."
With files from The Associated Press. Interview with Nyki Robinson produced by Kate Swoger
