Before losing the 2024 election, Vice President Kamala Harris’ campaign continued to outspend and outspend President-elect Donald Trump’s in the last days of the election. Her campaign also garnered millions more from small-dollar donations after she lost.
In the final days of the election and the weeks that followed, Harris’s billion-dollar campaign raised and spent almost twice as much as Trump’s, breaking fundraising records this year, according to new campaign finance disclosures submitted to the Federal Election Commission.
Between October 25 and November 25, when the fresh financial records were released, the Harris campaign raised $160 million and spent $277 million, while the Trump campaign raised $87 million and spent $113 million over that same period.
An examination of expenditures in the latest forms shows that media buys and ad creation accounted for the largest portions of both campaigns’ spending, with the Harris campaign spending $129 million compared to Trump’s $95.1 million.
The Harris campaign reported spending a total of $25.4 million on text message outreach, canvassing, phone calls, and direct mail—much more than Trump’s. The fact that Trump’s campaign only spent $1,500 on direct mail printing and mailing and $3 million on “SMS advertising” highlights how the campaign outsourced a large portion of its field operations to third parties, such as billionaire Elon Musk’s super PAC.
Additionally, a far greater portion of Harris’ campaign’s budget went into events; at least $45.5 million was paid for event production, audio and video services, equipment rental, supplies, and event security, accounting for 17% of the campaign’s total operational expenses in this report.
In contrast, the Trump campaign claimed to have spent $632,000 on events—less than 1% of its total operational costs.
The expense to the campaign of Harris’ final round of high-profile rallies featuring singers and celebrities was also clarified by the reports.
A production business connected to Beyonc Knowles-Carter, who appeared at a rally in Houston in late October, was paid $165,000 by the Harris campaign. Six-figure payments were also given to businesses connected to performers Katy Perry, Ricky Martin, and Christina Aguilera—all three of whom made appearances at Harris events during the campaign’s final weeks. Additionally, smaller checks were given to people connected to musicians including Jason Isbell, John Legend, and Bruce Springsteen.
According to a campaign staffer who previously spoke to NBC News, the celebrities themselves were not compensated; instead, the campaign was required to cover the expenses of their travel and production. Campaigns must pay market value for everything they receive, including entertainment at events, according to campaign finance laws.
As the Harris campaign continued to send fundraising appeals after the election, criticism and financial inquiries also surfaced, leading to conflicts between Harris campaign leaders and supporters. Last month, two campaign officials told NBC News that the pitches were intended to assist pay off debts, while other officials said they were soliciting money for the DNC to aid in recounts or curing ballots.
According to a fundraising report from ActBlue, the primary online fundraising platform for Democrats, the Harris campaign and its joint fundraising committee raised almost $6 million from online donations in the 20 days following the election, or $301,000 every day on average.
According to the report, the Harris campaign spent about $38 million from the day following Election Day until November 25 to wrap up any loose ends. According to the most recent report, no debt is still owed.
Officials from the Harris campaign have made it clear that the historic campaign did not accrue debt. Campaign chair Jen O’Malley Dillon told “Pod Save America,” “We are going to be in a good space across the board, across all of our entities without debt that carries forward.”
Nearly all of the $11.4 million in debt reported by Trump’s campaign was owed to an Iowa call center company for “telemarketing and data management services.”
Late Thursday, super PACs that backed both candidates submitted their fundraising reports for the run-up to Election Day, providing additional insight into the millions of dollars that poured into the race in the final days and weeks.
Between October 17 and November 25, Harris’s leading super PAC, Future Forward, raised over $163 million and spent $184 million. It owed almost $47 million at the end of the period.
Future Forward USA Action, an allied nonprofit that is exempt from disclosing its donors to the public, provided the majority of the funds that FF PAC raised in the last days. In the last weeks, Dustin Moskovitz, a prominent Democratic megadonor and co-founder of Facebook, contributed $12 million, making him the super PAC’s largest disclosed individual donor.
FF PAC outperformed its GOP rival, MAGA Inc., by raising and spending over half a billion dollars over the course of the year. The pro-Trump organization spent $102 million and raised $347 million in 2024, including $78 million in the last few weeks of the election. However, it ended the term with $6.9 million in its account and no debt, in contrast to the Democratic super PAC.
At the very end, other pro-Trump organizations connected to some of the largest political donors also raised and spent a significant amount of money. During this time, Musk contributed around $120 million in cash and in-kind to America PAC, the super PAC he founded.
The casino tycoon Miriam Adelson, whose late husband Sheldon was one of the leading Republican fundraisers prior to his passing, contributed an additional $6 million to Preserve America, a super PAC, and Republican businessman Phil Singer contributed $2.5 million.
More than $66 million in contributions and transfers from the Harris campaign and its connected groups, primarily on Election Day or in the weeks following, helped the Democratic National Committee close the year with more than $47 million on hand. As of Nov. 25, the DNC had $42 million in cash on hand, matching that of its competitor, the Republican National Committee.
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