Democratic presidential nominee Vice President Kamala Harris speaks at a campaign event at Hendrick Center for Automotive Excellence on the Scott Northern Wake Campus of Wake Tech Community College in Raleigh, N.C., Friday. Mike Stewart/Associated Press

Groups supporting Vice President Kamala Harris have jump-started dozens of identity-driven virtual calls to channel renewed enthusiasm by raising money, recruiting volunteers and growing email lists for the Harris ticket.

A constellation of Democrat-backing political action and nonprofit groups, politicians, and niche communities coordinating on social media has convened telethon-like video calls, mostly hosted on Zoom, to rally support for Harris.

Attendees of the virtual events in July contributed more than $20 million to the $310 million the campaign raised that month, according to a Harris campaign press release.

Using social media posts and event listings, The Washington Post identified at least 40 video calls since President Biden ended his reelection bid on July 21, some lasting more than three hours.

On the day Biden withdrew, about 44,000 joined a call convened by Win With Black Women. The call raised about $1.5 million for Harris, the group said. “Black Men for Harris” attracted 232,000 attendees the next day.

Five coalitions made up of people of color held calls in the first four days. As the movement gained momentum, many later calls also centered on supporters’ identities, such as race and ethnicity, gender, and sexual orientation.

Others focused on religion, age and political ideology. Calls for those in red states, Republicans and evangelicals sought to broaden the Democratic tent.

Several calls were based on occupation, with many speakers making the case that a Harris presidency would benefit their professional work.

Groups centered on niche interests, including cat owners, former Obama staffers and fans of the Grateful Dead, all assembled calls.

Attendance ranged from a few hundred to tens of thousands of people, according to organizers, and many were streamed across additional platforms that extended their reach. Celebrities and politicians often joined in.

Several additional groups held calls on Thursday night after the survey was completed, including Train Lovers for Harris/Walz, Jewish Women for Harris and Hype Women for Harris.

Four years after the covid-19 pandemic made virtual meetings a common experience, pro-Harris coalitions have embraced them as the go-to tool for grassroots organizing online, and at scale.

“There’s a space for everyone,” said Holli Holliday, a leader of Win With Black Women, whose group has held virtual meetings nearly every Sunday since 2020. “And if you don’t see your space, you are welcome and encouraged and invited to create a space that works for you.”

Groups aligned with former president Donald Trump have not embraced virtual calls at the same pace or scale as those for Harris in recent weeks, though there have been calls including “Blacks Against Harris,” on July 31, and “Latinos Against Harris,” on Aug. 8 – both attracting tens of thousands of attendees, according to organizers.

Trump’s campaign is more focused on engaging voters directly, especially those in battleground states, said campaign spokeswoman Karoline Leavitt, with Trump himself speaking to supporters at rallies in North Carolina and Pennsylvania this week.

“The Harris campaign hosting Zoom calls to garner support is on-brand for a candidate who has spent 22 days refusing to hold a press conference and hiding behind her teleprompter,” Leavitt said Tuesday.

Like an in-person event, the virtual “for Harris” calls can be effective fundraising tools by building solidarity among attendees, Michael McDonald, a political science professor at the University of Florida, told The Post.

“You could do a fundraising email or have people go to a website. But in all of those, people are relatively disconnected,” McDonald said. “Where Zoom bridges the traditional way in which you do fundraising in the information age, social media age, is that you can see other people. By seeing them, you can think that ‘I’m part of this larger group’ and so you feel a belonging.”

ORGANIZING THE CALLS

This year, campaign teams and groups are on more online platforms than before – including Instagram, TikTok and Zoom – resulting in wider outreach and more substantial fundraising, said Macon Phillips, a digital media strategist on Barack Obama’s 2008 campaign.

Phillips said the concept of organizing niche groups around a candidate, especially online, is not new, though.

The private Sunday meeting held by Win With Black Women on Zoom – normally attended by 400 to 500 people – became a “mega call” after Rep. Joyce Beatty, D-Ohio, mentioned it in some of her interviews, Holliday said. That night, the call was attended by 44,000 on Zoom, with almost as many tuning in on other streaming services and conference lines where it was shared, she said.

Holliday told The Post that when other organizers reached out for guidance, the group helped them set up their calls quickly because the group already had a formula.

“We’ve been working for four years to be able to support [Harris] specifically around running for president … so we were pretty ready,” she said.

Phillips is tracking “for Harris” groups that have emerged in many corners of social media. The site also provides guidance for starting a group and a website. Phillips added that some organizers created WhatsApp groups to share advice on running a successful event.

On July 25, White Women for Harris held a call that attracted about 200,000 people, according to the group, and raised an estimated $8.5 million – the largest haul from a Zoom event based on available tallies.

Nearly 200,000 people attended “White Dudes for Harris” on July 29, which featured actors Mark Ruffalo and Jeff Bridges, Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg, and eventual Harris running mate Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz. The event raised just over $4 million, according to organizers.

Ross Morales Rocketto, co-founder of a left-leaning nonprofit focused on engaging young people in politics, assembled the call as a show of support from White men for Harris’s campaign.

“We have not created space on the left where White dudes feel like they can be part of it, and I actually think we’ve done quite the opposite over the years,” Rocketto said. “We wanted to create this space because we know that there’s a silent majority of White dudes who are not actually MAGA supporters,” he said.

“I think the call is cool,” Lisa Pruitt, a law professor at the University of California at Davis who studies rural populations, told The Post. “I don’t think it’s a bad idea, but I don’t think it’s the sort of thing that is really serious outreach to the White working class who feel alienated, unseen and in many instances, they feel, when they are seen, they’re maligned.”

After attending the “White Dudes” event, Rep. Eric Swalwell, D-Calif., partnered with a New York comedy club on “Comics for Kamala.”

“After seeing all the talent who stepped up to do that, I thought ‘what if we did this, but we laughed a little bit and brought in people who have large followings but also care about what happens next,’” Swalwell said.

The Aug. 5 call saw about 160,000 attendees and raised roughly $500,000 for Harris’ campaign, he said.

VCS AND CAT LADIES

Others took different inspirations for their calls.

Kate Gardiner, the founder of a public relations agency, helped coordinate “VCs for Harris” by rallying venture capitalists who “passionately disagree with the stances of” the venture firm Andreessen Horowitz and other tech leaders aligned with Trump.

Prominent speakers included investor Ron Conway and LinkedIn co-founder Reid Hoffman, who pitched Harris as a pro-business candidate: “She is a great centrist in that she cares about a greater society, and cares about business.”

The Aug. 7 call attracted about 500 people and, within a day, raised $176,000, Gardiner said.

When JD Vance’s 2021 remarks describing Democrats as “childless cat ladies” with no “direct stake” in America’s future resurfaced, Linsay Deming, a Los Angeles-based comedian and producer, helped start “Cat Ladies for Kamala.”

Deming connected on social media with Blaire Postman, who had already spun up an Instagram account and website. Liv Carter, the “cat-fluencer” with more than 100,000 followers who was behind the 2019 “Cats for Warren” campaign, joined the effort.

“We reached out to as many politicians with cats as we possibly could,” to recruit speakers, Deming said.

The group joined TikTok and gained about 50,000 followers in the first 24 hours, Deming said. Word spread, resulting in about 35,000 attendees and $330,000 raised from the Cat Ladies’ call on Aug. 4, according to organizers.

“This is what grassroots community building can look like in the age of social media,” Deming said.

“YIMBYs for Harris” and “Swifties for Harris” are among the calls scheduled for later this month.