Can Kamala Harris Zoom her way to the White House?

The tech trend of Zoom rallies is helping the US Vice-President to raise funds and reach supporters.

- Dave Lee

Advancements in technology can play a defining role in how an election cycle plays out. Think of then presidential candidate (and later, the 35th US president) John F. Kennedy in 1960: Tanned and wearing make-up, he used the first-ever TV presidential debate to overcome a six-point polling deficit against the pale and tired-looking rival Richard Nixon.

If you want a more modern example, consider former US president Barack Obama's harnessing of social media as a grassroots engine room to solicit millions of dollars in small donations. (Eight years later, Donald Trump would manipulate that same technology to sow division, hijacking the news cycle with every 140-character then Twitter outburst.) In the run-up to 2024's vote, dire predictions were made about which technologies might play an outsized role in swaying voters.

One worry was that artificial intelligence deepfake technology would mean voters could no longer believe their eyes and ears.

Thankfully, the effects of this so far seem to have had negligible real-world impacts - knock on wood.

But one fascinating trend is the recent flurry of so-called Zoom rallies supporting the campaign to elect US Vice-President Kamala Harris. With hundreds of thousands of attendees and more than US$15 million (S$19.8 million) raised, they have proved to be an unexpected tour de force.

The trend began almost as soon as Ms Harris became the presumptive Democratic nominee, with a group called Win With Black Women publicising one of its regularly scheduled Sunday evening Zoom calls on MSNBC. The publicity prompted tens of thousands to join it.

Together, over three hours, they raised US$1.6 million.