The Harris campaign is dismissing critics of their fundraising efforts that have targeted individual races and genders, arguing the strategy is nothing more than normal campaign work.
The Harris campaign has held multiple fundraisers in the week since she was elevated to the top of the ticket, holding Zoom events with titles such as ‘Win with Black Men,’ ‘White Dudes for Harris,’ and ‘Karens for Kamala’ in hopes of attracting different demographics to the new campaign.
But the events have also earned scorn from critics on social media, with some accusing the campaign of harkening back to ‘segregation.’
‘The Kamala Harris campaign is bringing segregation back in style again,’ said one user on X in response to the back-to-back-to-back events.
‘It’s all about race with you guys,’ another critic said of the events.
The Harris campaign’s ‘White Dudes for Harris’ is scheduled for Monday and may be the most widely panned, with some critics calling the event ‘racist’ and ‘cringy,’ while others have called the event ‘condescending.’
‘There’s nothing more ‘progressive’ than self-loathing White guys with low self-esteem, man buns, and a gender studies degree from SUNY Binghamton thinking if they sign up for something as condescending as this that they’ll make their first Black female friend and maybe get a date. This qualifies as ‘trying too hard’ and is so desperate as to likely backfire,’ conservative radio host Jason Rantz told Fox News Digital.
Others have poked fun at potential participants in the events, arguing that it would target men who are soft or weak.
‘This will be the most Beta gathering in history,’ one user argued.
Nevertheless, the unique Zoom fundraising effort has been at least somewhat successful, with close to 100,000 Black men and women raising nearly $2 million before the ‘Karen’s for Kamala’ call had over 160,000 join the call.
The Harris campaign has also dismissed the critics, noting that former President Donald Trump has engaged in similar tactics.
‘I’m a bit confused. This is what campaigns do is build coalition groups. Latino Americans for Trump for example,’ Harris campaign spokesperson Kevin Munoz told Fox News Digital.
According to a report from the New York Post, allies for Trump in Congress have been holding events tailored towards the Black community, including get-out-the-vote events titled ‘Cigars, Cognac, and Congress’ that have been hosted in predominantly Black communities.
Trump has also aggressively courted Hispanic voters, with the campaign rebranding its outreach to the demographic last month by launching the ‘Latino Americans for Trump’ at a rally in Las Vegas, according to a report from NBC News, ditching the former ‘Latinos for Trump’ slogan for a new one that chooses to emphasize that Latinos are Americans.
‘Whether you’re African American, Latino American, Asian American, European American, wherever you come from, we are all American,’ Jaime Florez, the Hispanic communications director for the Republican National Committee and the Trump campaign, told NBC News.
The Trump campaign did not immediately respond to a Fox News Digital request for comment.