July 23, 2024
Win With Black Men Fundraises $1.3 Million For Kamala Harris
'At this critical moment in our nation’s history we must all work with a fierce urgency to elect Vice President Kamala Harris to the presidency.'
Following the success of the Win With Black Women Zoom call, which raised over $1.5 million dollars from 44,000 donors on behalf of Vice President Kamala Harris’s campaign for the presidency, the brother organization, Win With Black Men, repeated the effort. It raised over $1.3 million from over 17,000 donors.
According to The Hill, ahead of the call, Black men were urged to support the vice president in her presidential bid. The Alpha PAC, one of the country’s most well-known and accomplished Black male PACs, endorsed Harris’s candidacy. In a statement, Everett B. Ward, the chair of the PAC, called Harris the clear choice for the nation’s future.
“At this critical moment in our nation’s history we must all work with a fierce urgency to elect Vice President Kamala Harris to the presidency,” Ward said. “She has demonstrated throughout her public service career a commitment to delivering justice for all, protecting our freedoms, and paving the way for economic opportunity for all Americans. This November the choice is clear between a proven leader in Vice President Harris and a twice-impeached, convicted felon, culture war flame thrower, and pathological liar who has been found liable for sexual assault and massive fraud.”
Roland S. Martin and the Black Star Network responded by hosting a four-hour Zoom call on July 22 that featured Khalil Thompson, the executive director of Win With Black Men; Bakari Sellers, a lawyer and frequent CNN political commentator; Michael Blake, the founder & CEO of Kairos Democracy and Atlas Strategy Group; and Quentin James, president of The Collective PAC & the Vote To Live Action Fund.
According to the New Pittsburgh Courier, a recurring theme on the call was protection. “Let’s protect Kamala,” Sellers said on the call. “Let’s be with her like she was there for us. We are going to disagree a lot. But let’s put the petty bickering aside. Let’s stand up and be the Black men who change this country.”
“Sisters, as they always do, have been leading the charge, and we’re trying to catch up to them,” Thompson told the outlet. “We’re really excited to see this groundswell of support. I remember when my father took me and my brothers to the Million Man March back in 1995. We want to have that same groundswell and that feeling. This is about us showing up and making the best decisions for our community…It’s about electing and hiring people that are going to represent our communities and bring the best for our communities back when they’re in office.
“I think we have to support our communities and our brothers who are frustrated,” Thompson continued. “But there is not one person that has been elected to office that’s a perfect human being because none of us are. And so, making sure that there’s not a litmus test or a purity test that we’re going to hold one particular party to and not hold the other to. I think that is a detriment to us all. It is important that I believe we show up and support Kamala Harris. I think when we make it about one particular person, then each election is just about that person. We are calling for a transformative moment.”