Vice President Kamala Harris’s failed presidential campaign spent far more on a high-profile Oprah Winfrey town hall than initially reported, part of a pattern of expensive celebrity-focused events that’s drawing criticism — even as the Democratic campaign continues ask for donations to pay off their debts.
The September Michigan event with Oprah cost $2.5 million, according to The New York Times, well above the $1 million in payments to Winfrey’s Harpo Productions shown in FEC filings. The revelation prompted Winfrey to forcefully defend herself against accusations of profiteering.
“I was not paid a dime,” Winfrey wrote on Instagram. “For the live-streaming event in September, my production company Harpo was asked to bring in set design, lights, cameras, crew, producers and every other item necessary (including the benches and the chairs we sat on) to put on a live production. I did not take any personal fee. However, the people who worked on that production needed to be paid. And were. End of story.”
The Harris campaign spent an unprecedented $1.5 billion over just 15 weeks – approximately $100 million weekly. Campaign allies defended the massive spending.
“There is not a single expenditure in a different spot that would have changed the outcome of the race,” Bakari Sellers told the Times. “We had so much money it was hard to get it out the door.”
But others see a huge waste.
“We spent money in stupid ways because we had a really bad strategy,” a former DNC consultant told Puck, citing funds directed to longshot races in Republican strongholds.
The spending included $600 million on media ads and $10 million on celebrity events.
Talk show host Areva Martin earned $200,000 as a media consultant, while journalist Roland Martin’s Nu Vision Media received $350,000 for what he described as advertising.
The campaign’s financial decisions are now causing internal turmoil.
Senior staff have stopped receiving paychecks despite earlier promises of payment through year’s end, while emails soliciting “Harris Fight Fund” donations continue. The Democratic Party is reportedly $20 million in debt, though campaign CFO Patrick Stauffer insists “there will be no debt” when disclosures are filed December 5.
DNC Finance Chair Chris Korge promised an “introspective study” of the campaign’s spending after getting “shocked” by losses in all seven swing states.
In a note to top fundraisers, Korge wrote that the DNC will need to “take a hard look at how it is structured.”
Despite outspending Trump significantly in a shorter timeframe, the campaign struggled with basic efficiency. The Times reported that Future Forward, Harris’s top PAC, warned in the final month that Trump was outspending them on broadcast advertising, even as millions went to digital influencers and a $900,000 ad buy on Las Vegas’s Sphere display.