Giant Zoom calls powering record fundraising for Kamala Harris

Call attendance began in the tens of thousands – already a feat given Zoom meetings are usually restricted to 1,000 participants. But since then, the campaign’s biggest has been 160,000 people. Zoom did not respond to request for comment for this story.

Republicans have criticised some of the identity-based virtual gatherings as “racist” and “desperate” pandering to liberal supporters.

But while some may cringe at such overt use of identity to campaign, the impact of the virtual events is being taken seriously.

The Zoom sessions are “an informal thing where [Harris] can present some scripted lines and get people fired up,” said Republican consultant and pollster Whit Ayres. “It’s a signal that there is enormous enthusiasm out there for her candidacy.”

And, he said, it would be a mistake for Republicans to criticise the identity-based Zoom sessions.

“It backfires when you start attacking people because of their identity. Because everyone else who shares their identity feels like you’re attacking them.”

Meanwhile, Ms Harris’s opponent Donald Trump and his party have said Democrats are more energised by Mr Biden’s surprise departure from the race, rather than by Ms Harris herself.

On 21 July, in a matter of hours after the US president announced he was dropping out and endorsing his deputy, the group of black female political organisers convened their Zoom call.

The four-hour conversation attracted 44,000 participants and raised $1.6m for Ms Harris. The original goal was $1m in 100 days.

“I felt like when Obama got the nomination all over again. I actually felt more excited, to be honest,” Black Voters Matter co-founder LaTosha Brown, who joined the call, told The 19th News.

“My first response was, ‘OK, he’s out; now we’ve got to fight for this sister’.”

Ms Harris, 59, would be the first black woman – and first South Asian woman – to secure a major American party’s nomination for president.

Gatherings of South Asian women have followed, celebrating their “auntie” and Latinas have hailed a “hermana”. The official nomination is expected at the Democratic National Convention in August.