The Dude Abides

The Dude Is Voting for Kamala Harris

Jeff Bridges, star of The Big Lebowski, hopped on the “White Dudes for Harris” fundraiser call and pledged his support for the Democratic nominee: “I’m white, I’m a dude, and I’m for Harris.”
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His Dudeness has officially endorsed a candidate. Jeff Bridges, Oscar winner and iconic star of beloved ’90s cult film The Big Lebowski, surprised participants on a Monday night Zoom call titled “White Dudes for Harris”—a fundraiser for Vice President Kamala Harris. “I qualify, man,” Bridges said, echoing the Dude. “I’m white, I’m a dude, and I’m for Harris.”

The call ultimately attracted nearly 200,000 participants, according to organizers, and raised over $4 million for Harris. “I can see her being president,” Bridges told them. “A woman president, man! How exciting.”

The Crazy Heart star wasn’t the only famous white dude to show his support for Harris. Bridges was joined by actors including Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Grammy nominee Josh Groban, Hamilton’s Rory O’Malley, and comedians Paul Scheer and Adam Conover. N*Sync’s Lance Bass, The Goonie’s Sean Astin, House of CardsMichael Kelly, Madam Secretary’s Tim Daly, Frozen’s Josh Gad, and The West Wing’s Bradley Whitford were there too. While he never said he’d vote for Harris a third time if he could, Whitford did sound fired up for the VP, taking to social media platform X to show his support. “What a variety of white dudes,” quipped Whitford during the call. “It’s like a rainbow of beige.”

Star Wars—a favorite franchise for many a white dude—was well represented on the call as well. J.J. Abrams, who directed Star Wars: The Force Awakens and Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker, pledged to match up to $50,000 raised by attendees on the call. Mark Hamill hopped on as well after some difficulty, joking that he is “technically challenged” before warning participants the danger of Donald Trump and the Christian nationalist Project 2025. Project 2025, Hamill said, was attempting “to remake what we know as democracy into an autocracy.”

“White Dudes for Harris” was inspired, in part, by the the success of the fundraising effort began by “Black Women for Harris,” which raised $1.5 million in 3 hours for Harris’s campaign. In her first week since announcing her bid for the presidency, Harris has raised over $200 million, according to her campaign.

There’s at least one white dude who doesn’t seem to be a big fan of “White Dudes for Harris,” though. The X account, @dudesforharris, that is tied to “White Dudes for Harris,” has been suspended, somewhat suspiciously. Many are looking to X-owner and Donald Trump–supporter Elon Musk for answers as to why. A note from X says that the account was suspended for violating the platform’s rules, specifically for “our rules against evading suspension.” “Note that if you attempt to evade suspension by creating new accounts, we will suspend your new accounts,” the note continues.

X suspension or not, “White Dudes for Harris” has already made a positive impact in Harris’s fight for the presidency—even if the Dude himself wouldn’t necessarily call it a fight. “I can’t relate to that,” said Bridges on the call. “I just went through a health crisis, and I remember the doctor coming up to me and saying, ‘You got to fight. You got to fight.’ I said, ‘What are you talking about, man? I’m in surrender mode here.’ I’m going with the flow of what life has in store, and I feel that with this, with what we are all up to right now, it is not so much a fight, but it’s a surrender to our higher thoughts of how we want this future to turn out.”

That said, Bridges isn’t going to let semantics stop him from supporting Kamala Harris. “And so I am kind of surrendering to it, as opposed to fighting it, but that’s just my approach,” he said. “As the Dude might say, ‘That’s just my opinion, man.’”