Washington DC – Twenty-four hours after Vice President Kamala Harris announced her bid to be the next President of the United States, Illinois Attorney General Kwame Raoul and 40,000 other Black men sat in on a fundraising call for the Vice President to rally support. 

Yesterday, CBS News sat down with AG Raoul to discuss the importance of the gathering, AG Raoul stated “I think there’s a sense of excitement for Kamala Harris and that’s why quickly Black men were able to gather and raise the type of money [that] you referenced earlier…Some men are reluctant to support a woman thinking that it weakens their stature as a leader, and I wanted to confront that.”

As the New York Times reported, AG Raoul expanded on this thought on the call stating, “‘Sometimes as Black men we get confused as to what strength is, and sometimes we think that standing behind a Black woman as a leader does not display strength as Black men…I’m here to tell you all tonight that it does the opposite of that, it displays strength. I’m standing behind a Black woman to be president of the United States, and it doesn’t make me any less of a Black man…I’m asking all of you all to do the same.’”

AG Raoul also shared with CBS News “I’m the father of a 24-year-old black woman who’s in law school right now and I want to encourage her to use that training to reach for the highest heights. And how can I do that if I don’t fully support somebody with the type of background and experience as Kamala Harris to achieve the presidency. And to be able to one day to stand up and call a ‘Madam President’, if I don’t fully support that, I as a Black Dad to a Black young woman, I’m not doing my job.”

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