DNC receives thousands of $19.08 donations in honor of AKA
The DNC has nabbed over 11,000 donations in the same amount of the founding year of Alpha Kappa Alpha. Kamala Harris is a sister.
The campaign to elect former vice president Joe Biden and his running mate, Kamala Harris, has attracted support from what Harris has called her “secret weapon:” the women of Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Inc.
Clayton Cox, the finance director for the Democratic National Committee, said while he had never seen such specific donations, he knew why.
Cox told RollCall.com that the donations are from members of AKA, as well as other Black Greek letter organizations. The week after Harris’ nomination was announced, Cox said that he was getting notifications about the $19.08 donations every 15 minutes.
According to Roll Call, the DNC has received more than 11,000 donations of $19.08, which is the year Alpha Kappa Alpha, the nation’s oldest African American sorority, was founded.
Harris pledged AKA at Howard University as a senior in the 1980s.
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“Kamala made it her business to get to know all of us,” Benita Stephens, one of Harris’ line sisters, told the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. “Kamala is the standout because she is running for vice president, but we were all special.”
Of the 38 women on Harris’ line, at least a dozen are attorneys, and another handful are doctors.
Nationwide, members of the sorority have shown their support for Harris greeting her at campaign stops dressed in pink and green. Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Inc. boasts over 300,000 members.
An Amazon search for “Kamala Harris AKA,” results in a dozen t-shirts dedicated to the potential first African American and first South Asian vice president of the United States.
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“Family is my beloved Alpha Kappa Alpha, our Divine 9 and my HBCU [historically Black colleges and universities] brothers and sisters,” Harris said while accepting the vice-presidential nomination at this year’s virtual Democratic National Convention.
While the sorority does not endorse candidates, individual members across the country have launched plans to raise funds for the Biden-Harris campaign and to mobilize voters.
The $19.08 donations have amounted to more than $200,000.
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