Kamala Harris’s campaign paid more than double what was previously thought to Oprah Winfrey as Democrats continue to fundraise past the election after going into debt to run a presidential bid.
Reports emerged that Harris’s campaign paid Winfrey’s Harpo Productions $1 million as part of a very pricey and short run for the White House.
But now, the New York Times reports that two people familiar with the matter reveal the full price of the event with Winfrey cost closer to $2.5 million.
Overall, Harris’ campaign spent a whopping $100 million per week during her very condensed presidential run, which began in late July.
And supporters of the vice president are still being flooded with requests for donations after her extravagant $1.6 billion campaign budget left the Democratic Party $20 million in debt.
The indulgent spending has caused broader concerns about the Democrats campaign give badly they lost the election despite a $1 billion war chest.
President-elect Donald Trump beat Harris with 312 Electoral College votes, a margin of victory not seen since the 1988 election.
The 2024 election also saw Republicans maintaining control in the House of Representatives and retaking a majority in the Senate – give the GOP a trifecta of government come 2025, as well as a six-to-three conservative majority in the Supreme Court.
Spending included nearly $9,000 in ice cream from high-end shops like Sweet Lucy’s Ice Cream and Jeni’s Splendid Ice Creams.
The campaign reportedly allocated almost $15,000 on food delivery services such as Uber Eats and DoorDash from July through the end of the race in early November.
But the some of the biggest spending was for influencer partnerships and for celebrities to appear and perform at her events.
The campaign also spent $900,000 just to reserve ad space on Las Vegas’ Sphere in the final week of the election.
Harris’ campaign also spent $2.6 million in private jet travel during a two-week blitz of battleground states in October.
Winfrey was paid $2.5 million for her production firm holding a town hall with Harris in September.
Campaign finance laws prevent businesses from providing services to campaigns at below-market rates.
The television personality insisted she did not pocket any of the funds, but paid her team and charged for what the campaign needed for the event.
‘I was not paid a dime,’ Winfrey wrote in an Instagram comment.
‘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,’ she added.
‘However, the people who worked on that production needed to be paid. And were. End of story.’
The few dozen million spent on other celebrity events included Lady Gaga, Beyoncé, Bon Jovi, Bruce Springsteen, Katy Perry and many more.
The effectiveness of celebrity endorsements and performances is now coming into question considering Harris’ star-studded and pricey campaign and her definitive loss.
Trump, on the other hand, gained a significant amount of publicity and viewership by appearing on podcasts for free – including tens of millions of listens and views on the world’s most popular podcast The Joe Rogan Experience.