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Vice President Kamala Harris\u2019 last-minute campaign for president has meant an instant spurt of\u00a0increased travel<\/a>, intensified\u00a0fundraising<\/a>, a flurry of filming new content for ads and a quick search for a\u00a0running mate<\/a>.<\/p>\n Add to that list a series of hastily organized Zoom<\/a> calls to raise money and rev up supporters \u2014 including one on Monday night built around \u201cWhite Dudes for Harris.\u201d In a surprise appearance, actor and star of The Big Lebowski <\/em>Jeff Bridges\u2014known as \u201cJeffrey The Dude Lebowski\u201d in the film, turned up<\/a>. Bridges said those on the call should throw their support behind Harris. <\/p>\n \u201cAs the dude might say, that\u2019s just my opinion man, I don\u2019t know,\u201d said Bridges, according to a post on X<\/a>. <\/p>\n In barely a week since President Joe Biden bowed out of the race and endorsed Harris, tens of thousands of people have joined virtual gatherings spun up by activists and outside organizations to rally support for the vice president among specific groups including Black women, Hispanic women, Black men, Asian Americans, Native Americans and the LGBTQ+ community.<\/p>\n The calls reflect how Democrats, including Biden, have frequently relied on voters from broad and disparate backgrounds to piece together a diverse coalition of support. Biden\u2019s 2020 victory, for example, relied on segments of the population ranging from organized labor to conservative, suburban women disillusioned with Republican\u00a0Donald Trump<\/a>.<\/p>\n Organizers of Monday night\u2019s \u201cwhite dudes\u201d Zoom expect 100,000 attendees to join a gathering featuring appearances from actors including Mark Ruffalo, Sean Astin, Mark Hamill and Bradley Whitford.<\/p>\n Also set to participate: Democratic officials including Transportation Secretary\u00a0Pete Buttigieg,<\/a>\u00a0North Carolina Gov.\u00a0Roy Cooper<\/a>, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz and Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker, all of whom have been mentioned as potential running mates for Harris.<\/p>\n \u201cWe are organizing ourselves this time because we aren\u2019t going to sit around and let the MAGA crowd bully other white guys into voting for a hateful and divisive ideology,\u201d Ross Morales Rocketto, a progressive operative who founded the group, said in a statement. He was referring to Trump\u2019s \u201cMake America Great Again\u201d movement.<\/p>\n The Zoom calls haven\u2019t been organized by Harris\u2019 team, but her campaign welcomes the assist \u2014 and the millions of dollars in fundraising.<\/p>\n \u201cWinning campaigns are powered by real, organic support,\u201d Harris campaign communications director Michael Tyler said in a statement.<\/p>\n Amit Ahuja, a political science professor at the University of California at Santa Barbara whose research focus includes the processes of inclusion and exclusion in multiethnic societies, said that \u201cno campaign\u2019s going to say no\u201d to groups from different backgrounds organizing themselves and bolstering enthusiasm and fundraising.<\/p>\n But he said that it is up to the candidate to accept support from individual groups while offering a larger personal story that can resonate with the larger country as a whole. An example, he said, is then-candidate Barack Obama, who rose above early campaign questions about racial identities to build a narrative around his personal story and hope.<\/p>\n \u201cThis is a challenge for both sides. This is a tight race. They both have to compile the largest possible coalition. And, by leaning into one identity or the other, they could actually really hurt themselves,\u201d Ahuja said. He said the best response is to urge voters to \u201clook at the candidate, don\u2019t look at the groups.\u201d<\/p>\n The calls for Harris often feature\u00a0celebrities who have supported Biden\u2019s campaign in the past<\/a>. And their sheer number demonstrates how the vice president will need to appeal to different facets of the increasingly pluralistic population.<\/p>\n The political networking group \u201cWin With Black Women\u201d held a Zoom meeting the same night that Biden dopped out, and saw its number of participants swell to more than 44,000. It featured celebratory speeches from activists, business leaders, members of Congress and staff from the vice president\u2019s office.<\/p>\n After that, a \u201cWin With Black Men\u201d virtual fundraising event attracted more than 53,000 attendees. They heard several presentations, including by 27-year-old Democratic Rep. Maxwell Frost of Florida, who had been a leading advocate for Biden\u2019s campaign among younger voters, and Georgia Sen. Raphael Warnock.<\/p>\n A Zoom of \u201cWhite Women for Harris\u201d attracted more than 164,000 participants \u2014 so many that the platform struggled to meet the demand. It was headlined by the likes of singer Pink and soccer star Megan Rapinoe.<\/p>\n \u201cAs white women, we are the ones who have the privilege, of course, and we too have had to fight \u2014 and continue to fight \u2014 for our equality our selfhood, our freedom,\u201d actor\u00a0Connie Britton<\/a>\u00a0told participants. She supported Biden\u2019s campaign in 2020 and this cycle before shifting enthusiastically to Harris.<\/p>\n Trump\u2019s campaign has also organized different groups of supporters by their distinct backgrounds, including events in battleground states like Pennsylvania and Georgia for Black voters and \u201cLatino Americans for Trump.\u201d<\/p>\n Some Republicans have criticized Harris for her \u201cdiversity, equality and inclusion politics,\u201d arguing that the vice president\u2019s political career was helped by Democratic efforts to promote diversity. That\u2019s despite House Speaker Mike Johnson and other GOP leaders on Capitol Hill discouraging lines of criticism that they considered\u00a0racist and sexist<\/a>\u00a0\u2014 instead urging members of the party to focus their criticisms on Harris\u2019 political record.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n