Despite coming up short in the vote count, Vice President Kamala Harris' campaign raised and spent roughly twice as much as President-elect Trump in the final days of the 2024 election and the weeks that followed, new campaign finance reports show.
The Harris campaign raised $160 million and spent $277 million from Oct. 25 through Nov. 25, the period covered by the latest reports filed with the Federal Election Commission, while the Trump campaign pulled in $87 million and spent $113 million over that time.
The largest shares of both campaigns' spending went to media buys and ad production, with the Harris campaign spending $129 million to Trump's $95.1 million, according to an analysis of expenditures in the new filings.
The Harris campaign spent much more than Trump's on directly contacting voters, reporting a combined $25.4 million on text message outreach, canvassing, phone calls and direct mail. Trump's campaign spent $3 million on "SMS advertising" and just $1,500 on direct mail printing and posting, underscoring how the campaign outsourced much of its field operation to other groups.
Harris' campaign also spent a much larger share of its funds on events, racking up at least $45.5 million in payments (17% of its total operating expenses in this report) to pay for event production, audio and visual services, equipment rental, supplies and event security.
The Trump campaign, meanwhile, reported spending $632,000, or less than 1% of its operating expenditures, on events.
The Harris campaign paid $165,000 to a production company affiliated with Beyoncé Knowles-Carter, who spoke at a late October rally in Houston. Companies affiliated with musicians Katy Perry, Ricky Martin and Christina Aguilera (all three of whom appeared at Harris events in the closing weeks of the campaign) received six-figure payments as well. And others affiliated with musicians like Bruce Springsteen, John Legend and Jason Isbell received smaller checks, too.
The celebrities themselves were not paid, a campaign official previously told NBC News, but the campaign had to pay for costs associated with production and their travel. Campaign finance laws dictate that campaigns have to pay market value for anything they receive, including entertainment at events.
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💲More number crunching: The new campaign finance reports also revealed that billionaire Elon Musk poured more than $20 million into a mysterious super PAC at the end of the campaign, part of more than $250 million he spent overall to boost Trump. Read more →
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