Harris hits Atlanta with the Divine 9 on her side

Jul 30, 2024

By Brakkton Booker, Kierra Frazier, Shia Kapos and Jesse Naranjo

What up, Recast fam! We’re doing things a bit differently, giving you the top lines on what’s inside the newsletter. Today’s agenda:

The Divine Nine is rallying around one of its own
How white dudes are organizing for Harris
Eric Adams has new competition for NYC mayo

Photo illustration of torn-paper edge photo of Kamala Harris shaking peoples' hands.

Vice President Kamala Harris is greeted before speaking at the Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority Inc. annual convention July 10 in Dallas. | POLITICO illustration/Photo by AP

When Kamala Harris takes the stage at a rally in Atlanta this evening, she’ll be joined by a number of Georgia Democrats who earned millions of votes in this critical battleground state by leaning into a long-established and well-organized base of political support: Black Greek-letter organizations.

Harris, the all-but-certain Democratic presidential nominee, is a member of Alpha Kappa Alpha, the oldest sorority founded by college-educated Black women. AKAs are part of a collective known as the Divine Nine — comprising the nation’s oldest and most elite Black fraternities and sororities where civic engagement and voter mobilization efforts are essential tenets for their members.

So when Harris makes her first campaign stop in the Peach State — alongside Sen. Raphael Warnock (D-Ga.) of Alpha Phi Alpha, Atlanta Mayor Andre Dickens of Kappa Alpha Psi, fellow AKA Rep. Nikema Williams (D-Ga.) and Stacey Abrams of Delta Sigma Theta — it’ll be more than just a signal that her campaign is lasering in on Georgia, a battleground President Joe Biden narrowly won in 2020 — which the vice president’s team believes is back in play with her now atop the ticket.

Her appearance at the rally will also be a signal, received by some, of just how central this network of Black sororities and fraternities will be to Harris’ mobilization efforts. The Recast’s interviews with more than a dozen members of Divine Nine organizations revealed a growing sense of unease around Biden’s candidacy, something that had been present for months but was exacerbated by his poor debate performance against former President Donald Trump last month.

The Divine Nine was already organizing — albeit with some trepidation — on behalf of the 81-year-old. But when Biden announced he would “pass the torch” to Harris, the difference in enthusiasm, urgency and readiness to meet the challenge of the next 100 or so days was markedly different.

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It’s also surpassing the level of excitement for former President Barack Obama back in 2008 and 2012, according to Marc Morial, a third-generation member of Alpha Phi Alpha, whose members also included Martin Luther King Jr. and Supreme Court Justice Thurgood Marshall.

There’s a “sensibility [within] the Divine Nine that Kamala is one of us,” says Morial, who last weekend presided over the annual National Urban League conference where he said the assembled crowd of mostly Black leaders and activists was “on fire” over Harris’ candidacy. This moment, he continued, has taken on greater significance.

“I mean, people had a different feeling about Barack,” Morial says. “Barack was symbolic. Barack was not Divine Nine. Barack was not HBCU.”

Vice President Kamala Harris, center, speaks during a meeting with the Council of Presidents of the National Pan-Hellenic Council.

Harris leads a meeting with the presidents of the Divine Nine organizations Oct. 6, 2021, at the White House. | Susan Walsh/AP

“It’s a different kind of energy,” Elsie Cooke-Holmes, the national president and chair of the National Board of Directors of Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, tells The Recast. “It just turned it into overdrive.”

Divine Nine organizations are officially nonpartisan, though each has a political arm that can engage in activities like raising money to support candidates. These Black fraternities and sororities have a membership network of more than 2.5 million people, a politically engaged and high-turnout group of voters who are college-educated and mostly middle class.

A letter signed by all Divine Nine presidents, issued soon after Biden stepped aside, pledged “an unprecedented voter registration, education and mobilization coordinated campaign.”

It’ll take weeks before we know just how this unprecedented effort shakes out. But we’re already seeing some indications.

Willis Lonzer III, the general president of Alpha Phi Alpha, tells The Recast that Harris’ ascension is inspiring the fraternity to strengthen its core voter engagement effort, dubbed “A Voteless People is a Hopeless People,” which dates back to the 1930s.

Audience members cheer while holding up four fingers.

Members of Alpha Kappa Alpha, Harris' sorority, cheer for the vice president in July at their annual convention in Dallas. | Brandon Bell/Getty Images

There's a strategy session town hall for members next week that Lonzer says is aimed at ensuring “our organizational effectiveness can be streamlined and executed” in the closing 98 days before Election Day.

Alpha Kappa Alpha, the sorority founded at Howard University, Harris’ alma mater and where she crossed over as a member, has similar voter engagement efforts underway.

Writing The Dallas Morning News, Danette Anthony Reed, international president and CEO of Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority Inc., highlighted their own mobilization efforts, which the sorority is calling, “Take 4 or more in 24.” It seeks to move some 400,000 voters this cycle by educating the electorate on voter registration and various ways of casting votes, whether it be by mail, in-person or early voting.

Harris clearly understands the necessity of employing the Divine Nine to power her through the final stretch. One of her first campaign stops as a presidential candidate was to deliver remarks at a gathering of Zeta Phi Beta in Indianapolis last week.

Vice President Kamala Harris speaks.

Harris addresses Zeta Phi Beta Sorority Inc.'s Grand Boulé last week in Indianapolis. | Darron Cummings/AP

The vice president told the crowd: “We know when we organize, mountains move. When we mobilize, nations change. And when we vote, we make history.”

Rep. Sydney Kamlager-Dove (D-Calif.), a member of Zeta Phi Beta who was in attendance for Harris’ remarks, tells The Recast that the vice president’s marching orders are clear.

“Everyone understands the assignment,” Kamlager-Dove said. “We recognize we have less than 100 days … and we got to propel this sister” to the White House.

We’ll be keeping tabs on how the Divine Nine deploys its network for Harris. Holla at me with tips, dispatches and recommendations at bbooker@politico.com. Or tell us how you’re seeing grassroots organizing shift with Harris leading the ticket.

All the best,
The Recast Team

‘WHITE DUDES’ AND WOMEN FOR HARRIS

Attendees holds signs that say Harris for president.

Attendees holds signs and listen as Govs. Josh Shapiro and Gretchen Whitmer campaign for Harris at Wissahickon High School in Ambler, Pennsylvania, on Monday | Heather Khalifa for POLITICO

Speaking of newly energized networks... We've seen a spate of identity-based organizing events over the past week, including Zoom calls targeted at Black women, Black men, Latinas, South Asians and LGBTQ+ voters. These grassroots events have generated more than $15 million in fundraising for Harris, per a CBS analysis.

Our Shia Kapos and Kierra Frazier hopped onto two virtual calls Monday night: “White Dudes for Harris,” which drew nearly 200,000 participants, and a “Women for Harris” event that attracted over 300,000.

Actor Jeff Bridges set the tone early in the discussion for white dudes, which also featured a long line of politicos (such as Democratic Rep. Steny Hoyer of Maryland), some Harris veep contenders (Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg and Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz) and one ex-contender (looking at you North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper).

“I’m excited, man. The fact that Joe passed the baton so beautifully and Kamala is our girl. A woman president. How exciting!” Bridges said on the call, which ended up raising more than $4 million last night.

Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker acknowledged that the name of the event was a bit unusual: “White Dudes for Harris — it doesn’t sound like something I would join, but this is a terrific cause.”

The “Women for Harris” Zoom call, hosted by the DNC, included Gloria Steinem, Rep. Pramila Jayapal (D-Wash.) and Sen. Laphonza Butler (D-Calif.). Organizers did not immediately disclose how much money was raised during that event.

But the impromptu Zoom gatherings have not only boosted enthusiasm — and dollars — for Harris, they’ve also begun to alleviate concerns that the vice president can turn this newfound, Democratic excitement into real mobilization on the ground. In the week since Biden dropped his reelection bid, the Harris campaign pulled in a record $200 million.

Read Shia’s and Kierra’s full story here.