Pro-Harris activism tests Trump's support among white women

• Now, with President Biden out of the race, Trump has to contend with a younger, more energetic woman candidate who's added new energy to voters who are worried about reproductive rights — and were apathetic about a Biden-Trump matchup.

The big picture: It's not just white women. During the past week, Zoom rallies have proven to be a powerful force for Harris, organizing thousands of Black women and men, groups that have voted overwhelmingly for Democrats in recent elections.

• On July 21, 40,000 to 50,000 Black women joined a Zoom call to organize for the presumed Democratic nominee.
• That was followed by a call that drew more than 50,000 Black men.
• Then on Thursday, there were more than 160,000 participants in the record-setting "White Women: Answer the Call" session that organizers say has already raised more than $11 million.

Zoom out: Harris, who's expected to become the Democratic nominee at the party's convention next month in Chicago, would be the first woman, the first Black woman and the first South Asian woman to be a major party's presidential candidate.

• The notion that Harris could become the first woman to be U.S. president hasn't been lost on Americans nationwide, many of whom are just beginning to tune into the presidential election.

Zoom in: The activism driven by women could be particularly impactful in the six or seven swing states likely to decide the election.

• That includes Wisconsin, Michigan, and Pennsylvania — the "blue wall" states that Harris could need to sweep to win the election.
• Democrats hope that women motivated by Harris' candidacy help her in the "blue wall" states and expand her paths to 270 electoral votes by giving her a chance in states such as North Carolina and Georgia, where Biden had been trailing Trump.

Flashback: White women played a key role in electing Trump in 2016 and have tended to vote Republican in every presidential election since 2000.

• In 2016, white women narrowly picked Trump over Hillary Clinton. A larger percentage of them — 53% — voted for Trump in 2020 as well.

How it happened: Elizabeth Minnella, a Harris volunteer, and Shannon Watts, a gun-control activist and founder of Moms Demand Action, organized Thursday's call after seeing Black women come together the previous Sunday, just eight hours after Biden dropped out.

• Minnella said that the initial call, which attracted 44,000 attendees on Zoom and inspired a subsequent call the next day with more than 50,000 Black men in support of Harris, was motivation to organize a call for white women.

What they're saying: "White women voting for Republicans, even when it appears to be against their best interests, is a complex phenomenon influenced by privilege, systemic racism and sexism, religious affiliations and, of course, the patriarchy," Watts wrote in a substack post Monday.

• "But we're not a monolithic group; our voting patterns are typically divided along lines of religion, education and marital status, and that division makes us not only a crucial voting bloc, but an unpredictable one."
• "Even small shifts in our voting behavior can have significant impacts on election outcomes."

What we're watching: Harris' first week as presidential candidate led to an explosion of organic organizing and voter enthusiasm on the left that had been absent this cycle, as the Trump vs. Biden rematch was widely viewed as the most dreaded election in recent political history.

• Now, the question is whether the intensity of that engagement will hold, and how Trump will respond.

What's next: The Democratic National Committee is hosting a "Women for Harris" call Monday evening, and Harris Victory Fund is having a fundraising call Thursday with historian Heather Cox Richardson and DNC Treasurer Virginia McGregor.

Editor's note: This story has been corrected to indicate that the Zoom call by Black women to organize for Harris was held in July rather than June.