Kamala Harris raised more money in a shorter period of time than any presidential candidate in American history.
If her campaign had been a business, she'd now be under investigation. "What did you do with all that money, Kammy?" the detective would ask. Harris would be forced to shrug her shoulders as would the rest of her campaign staff.
Harris is the first Democratic candidate since John Kerry in 2004 to lose the popular vote. She outraised Donald Trump by almost 2-1. Her campaign came up with innovative and totally ridiculous ways to spend money, such as flashy campaign rallies, celebrity concerts, and drone shows.
Her shell-shocked donors are still being asked to contribute to her campaign to help eliminate a debt totaling at least $20 million according to Fox News.
Harris, who entered the campaign in mid-July, had no time to form an entirely new campaign. She ended up marrying her campaign with the Biden for President effort. Together, the two campaigns raised an astonishing $2.15 billion. according to the New York Times. Trump and GOP PACs spent a little more than $1.2 billion.
Certainly, advertising was a major expense. When all was said and done, Harris spent north of $600 million on advertising. Hypocritically, the Harris campaign spent $10 million from July through October on carbon-belching private planes for her and her staff.
The biggest expense during the race was advertising. Between July 21 and Oct. 16, financial records show that the Harris campaign spent $494 million on producing and buying media, a category that includes both television and digital ads. The total sum through the election is said to be closer to $600 million.
Yet starting in October, her campaign was actually narrowly outspent on broadcast television by Mr. Trump, according to data from the ad-tracking service AdImpact.
Harris told CNN in 2019, "There’s no question we have to be practical. But being practical also recognizes that climate change is an existential threat to us as human beings."
Elon Musk ran a get-out-the-vote effort largely using volunteers going door to door. There were also some paid canvassers, but the bulk of the operation was volunteer-heavy. Harris, on the other hand, spent $50 million for paid door-to-door canvassers, according to the Times.
Some of the other expenses related to paying off state parties and individuals who were bellyaching about not getting a cut from the Harris campaign.
Another Harris challenge: After raising $1 billion in less than three months, a bevy of consultants, allies and others were often angling for a cut, including the chairman of the Democratic Party in Philadelphia. In September, the Harris operation contributed almost $25 million to other party committees, in part to quiet those demands.
Some media allies of Ms. Harris were also paid. Areva Martin, who hosts a talk show, was paid $200,000 as a media consultant, and she went on a battleground-state tour in October.
Roland Martin, who hosts his own streaming programming and runs a media company called Nu Vision Media, received $350,000 in September for a “media buy” that he said was for advertising.
Martin, who interviewed Harris in October, wanted more.“It should have been a hell of a lot more,” Martin told the Times in an interview. “More should have been spent on Black-owned media.”
All Sharpton got his payoff as well. Sharpton extorted two $250,000 checks from the Harris campaign. That was for one MSNBC interview in October. Her campaign also gave $2 million in late September to The Urban League for unspecified reasons.
That's an awful lot of money for one interview. And what services did the Urban League perform to get a couple of million dollars? The cash went to grease the palms of people who can turn out black voters. Perfectly legal...I think.
One line item you won't find on any financial report is the commissions paid to individuals who buy advertising. This is an incredibly lucrative business. When you consider that the Harris campaign spent $600 million on ads, someone got their 10-15% commission.
The Times reports that "Four companies received at least $90 million in payments as of mid-October, including one firm whose cumulative receipts from the Harris campaign approached $300 million."
A lot of fancy cars and nice houses were paid for by Harris donors to people who did nothing but make a few phone calls.
