by Sharelle Burt
November 13, 2024
Someone’s got to pay for it….
Newsweek reports that ahead of Vice President Kamala Harris’ final days in office, Democrats are fearful of being stuck with her massive $900 million campaign bill.
The Federal Election Commission (FEC) revealed Harris’ campaign spent that amount out of the $1 billion raised. Members of the Democratic National Committee (DNC) have labeled the campaign a “$1 billion disaster” with close to $20 million in debt. A few moves during her campaigning have been under a microscope, especially alleged payment to top celebrities seen at rallies.
Harris’s team is accused of paying Grammy-Award-winning artist Beyonce $10 million to endorse the candidate at a rally in Houston in October 2024. However, fact-checking websites FactCheck.org and PolitiFact found “no evidence” supporting the claim. Harris’ campaign also allegedly paid $1 million to Oprah Winfrey’s production company, Harpo, for a celebrity-filled town hall in Detroit, but the former talk show host claims she wasn’t paid anything. A spokesperson for Harpo said her boss wasn’t paid a personal fee but highlighted the campaign “paid for the production costs.” The amount spent on ads was also scrutinized.
An eye-catching projection on the massive Las Vegas Sphere during the final week of the campaign allegedly had a $450,000-a-day price tag—something that wasn’t filed with the FEC.
The overall cost of ads between Harris’s nomination as the Democratic Party nominee and Election Day reached more than $650 million.
According to Axios, Democratic Party Chair Jaime Harrison has privately shared his concerns about the potential level of debt, including in a documentary that Harrison is scheduled to be included in. Members of the campaign have “rolled their eyes” at the time the chair has spent being followed around by cameras, but an official alleges the campaign isn’t financially responsible for the film.
Most campaign committees are stricken with huge amounts of debt, but the DNC is worried Harris’s debt mimics former President Barack Obama’s successful re-election campaign in 2012. The committee was hit with a $2 million bill in late 2015 after Obama won and was still able to raise funds. During Hilary Clinton’s campaign run, growing bills made it hard for the committee. Tensions rose between the committee and Clinton’s team as they believed the DNC’s debt assisted in her defeat in 2016.
Harris’ campaign is expected to continue raising funds after the election cycle is completed, as swing states seemingly take days to count votes. However, with Trump’s victory under the belt, post-election fundraising is more difficult.
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