Welcome to Hard Talk from the BBC World Service with me, Stephen Sacker.

My guest today can be described in two very different ways.

Shannon Watts is a white woman, a mother of five children, who eased back on a successful

professional career to spend more time at home.

She is also a renowned grassroots political activist and organiser,

who, a decade ago, founded a movement, Moms Demand Action, which galvanized nationwide support

for tougher gun controls to stem the seemingly unstoppable tide of school shootings.

Shannon Watts became one of the most powerful opponents of the National Rifle Association and the so-called gun lobby, so active in American

politics. A couple of years ago, she was invited to the White House as President Biden signed

into law the first significant, albeitbate limited, gun control legislation

in decades. Now Shannon Watts' focus has switched from that single issue to big picture politics.

She's going all in as a fundraiser and grassroots activist for Kamala Harris in her bid to become America's first female president.

Watts recently organized a Zoom fundraising call explicitly appealing to white women for Harris.

It attracted close to 200,000 participants, raised over $8 million in two hours.

White women, she says, will be the key to the outcome of the

Trump-Harris race. But is her highly targeted activism strategically savvy or potentially divisive?

Well, she joins me now from San Francisco. Shannon Watts, welcome to Hard Talk.

Thank you for having me. It's a pleasure to have

you on the show. You have had a powerful voice in the American political arena for the last decade and

more, but you've never sought elected political office. You chose to be an activist. Why?

I think you can in many ways get more done and not have to have a certain persona or act a certain way or present yourself a certain way.

And for me, you know, being in the trenches, organizing women, really summoning their audacity and helping them find ways to have an impact on the political

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