Oprah Winfrey, Beyoncé, Bruce Springsteen, and
self-identified “Childless Cat Lady” Taylor Swift were among the many coastal celebrities who endorsed Kamala Harris in the lead-up to the vice president’s monumental defeat. It turns out that the production of inauthentic election-time adoration and ideological conviction was expensive.
Federal filings revealed that the campaign, which is
reportedly indebted to the tune of over $18 million after blowing roughly $1 billion on Harris’ latest failed presidential run, poured boatloads of cash into influencer networks and production companies linked to big names in the entertainment industry.
Federal Election Commission filings show, for instance, that the Harris campaign committee
paid Oprah Winfrey’s Harpo Productions $1 million on Oct. 15.
Winfrey tried her apparent best on more than one occasion to generate excitement for Harris. In September, she
hosted a rally in Michigan, suggesting that there was a “grassroots movement” behind the vice president and that Harris inspired “a real feeling of optimism and hope.”
On the eve of Harris’ rejection by the majority of American voters, Winfrey
told a crowd in Philadelphia once again to vote, suggesting it might be their last opportunity ever to do so.
Katy Perry, Jon Bon Jovi, Christina Aguilera, Ricky Martin, rapper 2 Chainz, and Lady Gaga also made appearances at Harris’ final swing-state concerts. The Washington Examiner
indicated that the campaign blew over $15 million on “event production“-related costs.
‘It didn’t matter to have a bunch of celebrities talking to no one.’
Elements of the defeated Harris campaign
told the New York Post that former Obama campaign adviser Stephanie Cutter pushed the star-studded concert performances as a way to turn out lower-propensity voters — a plan apparently supported by senior Harris adviser David Plouffe, who has since taken steps to erase his social media presence.
One campaign source told the Post, “They said they were ‘spending to zero.’ I guess they overshot zero.”
Another source said that the costly events constituted “a real misuse of funds that could have been better spent on ads laying out economic polices” to irate and struggling voters. “It didn’t matter to have a bunch of celebrities talking to no one, because one, 75 million people already voted, and two, people were concerned about their own financial issues, not Oprah telling them America won’t exist.”
The Harris campaign apparently dodged the Post’s request for comment.
‘Now they are being squeezed by vendors and others.’
“Money can’t buy you love or a good candidate,” a Trump campaign adviser told the Examiner.
When compared to President-elect Donald Trump’s various podcast appearances, which were virtually all massively popular — especially his appearance on “The Joe Rogan Experience,” which has netted over 48.7 million views on YouTube alone despite
its initial suppression — Harris’ “Call Her Daddy” interview with Alex Cooper was a failure, netting fewer than 845,000 views on YouTube.
This promotional spot was not only ineffective but costly. An unnamed source told the Examiner that the Harris campaign spent six figures building a set for the vice president’s “Call Her Daddy” appearance.
Federal filings also indicate that the Harris campaign spent tens of millions of dollars on consultants to stimulate and simulate support online. The Examiner noted that Village Marketing Agency received over $3.9 million, ostensibly for its help
recruiting social media influencers to boost the vice president online.
Trump appeared to troll the Harris campaign on Truth Social over the weekend,
writing, “I am very surprised that the Democrats, who fought a hard and valiant fight in the 2020 Presidential Election, raising a record amount of money, didn’t have lots of
$’s left over. Now they are being squeezed by vendors and others.”
“Whatever we can do to help them during this difficult period, I would strongly recommend we, as a Party and for the sake of desperately needed UNITY, do,” continued the president elect. “We have a lot of money left over in that our biggest asset in the campaign was ‘Earned Media,’ and that doesn’t cost very much. MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN!”
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Celebrity, Celeb, Kamala harris, Oprah winfrey, Harris, Election, Debt, Hilarious, Fail, Oprah, Taylor swift, Politics
