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To date, the Democratic presidential campaign of Vice President Kamala Harris has raised upwards of $380 million entering the month of August. Meanwhile, Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Incorporated (AKA), of which Harris is a member, intends to help add more to her campaign war chest.
On August 9th, Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Incorporated, the nation’s oldest Black Greek-letter sorority, and one of the “Divine Nine” of historically Black sororities and fraternities across the nation, filed with the Federal Elections Commission (FEC) to create a PAC, or political action committee, for the purpose of raising money to support federal political candidates during the 2024 election season.
VP Harris is a member of the sorority, having been initiated into its Alpha Chapter during her senior year at Howard University. Harris recently addressed the annual AKA convention, the 71st Boule, in Dallas, Texas, just last month prior to President Joe Biden making the decision to step down from the campaign and endorse her.
Harris told the AKA Convention then, “You are such an incredible part of my journey, and I love you guys.”
According to The Atlanta Voice newspaper, members of the sorority were among the 44,000 Black women who raised a reported $1.5 million for the Harris presidential campaign via a Zoom call within a day after she announced she was running for the presidency.
Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Inc. is “…an international service organization, founded on the campus of Howard University in 1908” according to its website. It is currently comprised of more than 325,000 members in undergraduate and graduate chapters across the United States and in 12 countries.
Other prominent members of the Alpha Kappa Alpha include Michelle Obama, Congresswoman Alma Adams (N.C.), actors Phylicia Rashad and Vanessa Bell Calloway, pastor Bernice King, filmmaker Ava DuVernay and comedienne Wanda Sykes, to name a few.
A PAC, according to USA Today, is “…a political action committee, typically organized for the purpose of raising money to either elect - or defeat - a political candidate or ballot issue.”
PACs are “…most often dedicated to certain business, labor or ideological interests….,” and “…have specific rules that govern how [they] operate, regulating how much they can donate to candidate committees and national political parties in a calendar year,” USA Today continues.
According to the FEC, there are several types of PACs. Alpha Kappa Alpha may be creating an SSF, or separate segregated fund, which allows it as a membership organization to “solicit money only from those connected with the association that sponsors it.”
The name of the PAC the sorority is reportedly creating is called, “AKA 1908 PAC”.
The AKAs already have a nonpartisan voter registration, education and mobilization apparatus that works in concert with other Divine Nine organizations.
Currently, the sorority’s Mid-Atlantic Regional Director, Soror Nadine Vargas, resides in Raleigh, N.C., where she is a member of the Alpha Theta Omega Chapter. She is a 30-year member of Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Incorporated, a Silver Star (25 years or more), and a Life Member.
According to The Atlanta Voice, “AKA is poised to mobilize and organize millions of Black voters in key swing states across the country.”
Currently, The New York Times/Siena College poll shows Vice President Harris leading Republican opponent, former Pres. Donald Trump by at least four percentage points in the battleground states of Michigan, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin.
In North Carolina, Trump still leads Harris, 47.2 percent to 44.1 percent, which is considered a statistical tie, according to Cygnal Polling, on behalf of the conservative John Locke Foundation.
Vice President Harris is expected to visit Raleigh on Friday to discuss the economy. This will be her eighth visit to North Carolina this year.
A request for comment was sent to Alpha Kappa Alpha’s Mid-Atlantic Chief of Staff Ade’Leaka Gore, but there was no response by press time.
