This story is republished with permission from The Birmingham Times
Four years ago, a Zoom meeting to build support for Kamala Harris as the Democratic vice presidential nominee attracted just 90 participants. On Sunday night, an estimated 40,000 Black women and allies logged on to Zoom and another 50,000 women on other platforms at the same time to support her brand-new presidential campaign.
Among those was State Sen. Merika Coleman (D-Pleasant Grove) who said the virtual gathering was “church. It was a celebration of sisterhood, but it was also a call to action,” she told The Birmingham Times on Tuesday. “It was supposed to be a max of 1,000 people on the call, then we got notice that they were going to up it and it went 3,000 and it just continued to grow and grow. That’s the excitement of Black women all over the country.”
The excitement and discussion came just hours after President Joe Biden announced the end of his reelection campaign and endorsement of Harris.
Zoom typically maxes out at 1,000 participants but a female executive at the video conferencing company stepped in to increase the capacity to 40,000, said Aimee Allison, who has attended many of the weekly calls organized by the #WinWithBlackWomen network over the years.
“It was thrilling,” Allison said. “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 Kamala Harris is injecting into the race.”
Coleman is one of 52 delegates plus 4 delegates from Alabama who will be in Chicago Aug. 19-22 to nominate Harris to be the Democrat nominee for president in the Nov. 5 general election against Republican Donald Trump. The state senator said Harris is the best person to represent the Democratic Party.
“I think [she] was the only pick that [Biden] could’ve made,” Coleman said. “He said in his endorsement that he would have never picked her as his Vice-Presidential running mate or his Vice President if he did not believe she was ready to be President on day one. I support her wholeheartedly. I’ve already given my official endorsement and change my paperwork [to Harris from Biden] with the DNC, “said Coleman.
Harris is by far “one of the most qualified presidential candidates that we’ve ever had, and she just happens to be a woman and happens to be African American as well,” Coleman continued, “… she’s a former prosecutor, former attorney general, and former U.S. Senator, and now the current Vice President of the United States.”
Jefferson County Commissioner Shelia Tyson, who received more votes for Alabama delegate in the elections earlier this year, and was also on the Zoom call said Harris brings a strong resume to the race.
“If you look at her background, being an attorney, being a prosecutor … She went to an Historically Black College and University (HBCU), and she belongs to the AKA (Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority) which puts her around a diversity of people, a whole different group of people with different issues and the way she voted on things as the Vice President. She has everything we need in order to lead this country.”
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 percent to Trump’s 6 percent, 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. But if Sunday and Monday’s calls are any indication, they’re now all-in for Harris, who is of Black and Indian descent.
“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, okay, so how do we pitch in?” said Angelique Roche, a writer and consultant who described the Sunday Zoom call as powerful and galvanizing.
“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,” she said.
Earlier this month, Harris herself extolled “the power of sisterhood and service” when she addressed the annual gathering of Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, which she joined as a student at Howard University, one of the nation’s most storied historically Black colleges.
“Our nation is counting on the leaders in this room to guide us forward,” she told the crowd of Black women, some shaking pompoms to cheer her on. “When we mobilize, nations change. And when we vote, we make history.”
Associated Press contributed to this report.