CONCORD, N.H. — 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 90,000 Black women and allies logged on at the same time to support her new presidential campaign. 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 #WinWith BlackWomen network over the years. And organizers said the meeting was streamed to another 50,000 women on other platforms.
"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-maker Kamala Harris is injecting into the race." The discussion just hours after President Joe Biden announced the end of his reelection campaign and endorsement of Harris had the feel of a revival meeting, said Allison, who founded "She the People" to advocate for women of color in politics in 2018. Woman after woman described in detail what needs to be done before Election Day while also celebrating one of their own.
"We're together. We're beautiful, we're strong, we're capable. We're ready.
We have incredible power in this group," she said. "People just were so hungry for that community and for that feeling of hope." On Monday night, a "Black Men for Harris" o.