150,000+ Tune in as 'Progressives for Harris' Call Rallies Broad Coalition to Defeat Fascism

More than 150,000 people tuned in Monday night to a Zoom call featuring prominent progressive lawmakers, organizers, and labor leaders who have united in an effort to help Democratic nominee Kamala Harris defeat former President Donald Trump and the far-right forces he represents in November.

The "Progressives for Harris" call, which lasted more than three hours, came ahead of the vice president's expected announcement of her running mate, a choice that progressives see as an important signal of how Harris intends to campaign and govern.

Progressives have backed Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, who is reportedly one of the final two contenders in the running for the spot on the Democratic ticket. Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro is believed to be the other candidate under consideration.

But Harris' vice presidential pick was not a significant topic of discussion on Monday night's call, which included remarks from Sens. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) and Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), United Auto Workers president Shawn Fain and Association of Flight Attendants-CWA president Sara Nelson, Reps. Summer Lee (D-Pa.) and Pramila Jayapal (D-Wash.), and leaders of the Uncommitted Movement.

"I'm inviting you all to get formation with the pro-democracy forces uniting against American fascism as well as fascism all around the world, a coalition that includes black men and women who organized in the tens of thousands not too long ago, LGBTQ folks, labor unions, and millions of workers all around the country and the world," said Working Families Party national director Maurice Mitchell, who emceed the event. "People like me who want an arms embargo to stop the war in Gaza and care deeply about public safety and police accountability and climate change and housing justice and education, people who want to protect reproductive rights, and everybody of good conscience in between."

"We cannot be spectators," Mitchell added. "We must be agents."

Watch the full event:

The call was held hours after polling from Data for Progress showed that strong majorities of voters in key battleground states support central elements of the progressive agenda, including raising taxes on the rich and large corporations, expanding Medicare and Social Security benefits, hiking the federal minimum wage, and reining in out-of-control housing costs.

Sanders, who commissioned the survey as he pushes Harris to embrace an ambitious working-class agenda, said during Monday's event that "my message is pretty clear, and that is: All of us together must do everything that we can to defeat Donald Trump and elect Kamala Harris as our next president."

"The truth of the matter," said the Vermont senator, "is that our nation will not survive in any form that we can be proud of if we elect as president a pathological liar, somebody who I think just doesn't know the difference between truth and lies, someone convicted of 34 felonies, someone who is a convicted sexual abuser, and someone who as a businessman in the private sector was involved in 4,000 different lawsuits."

"For the sake of our kids and our grandchildren, and for the planet, Trump must be defeated and Kamala Harris must be elected," Sanders added.

While the call showcased broad support for Harris among leading progressives and a commitment to preventing Trump from winning another four years in the White House, grassroots organizers also made clear that they intend to pressure the Democratic nominee on critical issues, including the humanitarian catastrophe in Gaza—created by Israel with the support of the United States.

"Gen Z is determined to make sure Trump is nowhere near the White House ever again," Elise Joshi, executive director of Gen Z for Change, said during Monday's livestream. (According to one estimate, nearly 41 million members of Gen Z—people between the ages of 18 and 27 this year—will be eligible to vote in November.)

"At the same time, Gen Z for Change must honor where this generation is at," Joshi continued. "Heeding the calls of young people means calling for an immediate and permanent cease-fire, and using the leverage at our disposal to achieve one, including a weapons embargo. With that, and a working-class agenda, we will see record turnout from Gen Z in November."