How Harris’ campaign spent $277 million in the final weeks

The Harris campaign also continued to raise millions from small-dollar donors after losing the election, according to new campaign fundraising reports.

Vice President Kamala Harris’ campaign continued to swamp President-elect Donald Trump’s in fundraising and spending in the final stretch of the election before losing the 2024 vote — and her operation raised millions more from small-dollar donors after her defeat.

Harris broke fundraising records this year, and new campaign finance reports filed with the Federal Election Commission show her billion-dollar campaign raised and spent roughly twice as much as Trump in the final days of the race and the weeks that followed.

The Harris campaign raised $160 million and spent $277 million from Oct. 25 through Nov. 25, the period covered by the new financial reports, 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 spending 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, including billionaire Elon Musk’s super PAC.

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 reports also shed more light on how much Harris’ closing series of high-profile rallies with celebrities and musicians cost the campaign.

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.

Criticism and questions about finances have also swirled around as the Harris campaign continued to send fundraising pitches after the election, sparking clashes among Harris campaign officials and allies. Two campaign officials told NBC News last month that the pitches were raising funds for the Democratic National Committee to help with recounts or curing ballots, but other officials said they were meant to help pay off debts.

The Harris campaign and its joint fundraising committee raised more than $6 million from online donors in the 20 days after the election, averaging $301,000 per day, according to a fundraising report from ActBlue, Democrats’ main online fundraising platform.

The report shows how the Harris campaign spent heavily in the period after the election to tie up loose ends, almost $38 million from the day after Election Day through Nov. 25. The latest report shows no outstanding debt.

Harris campaign officials have publicly stressed that the record-breaking campaign did not rack up debt, with campaign chair Jen O’Malley Dillon telling “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.”

Trump’s campaign did report $11.4 million in debt — virtually all of it owed to a call center firm in Iowa for “telemarketing and data management services.”

Super PACs supporting both candidates also filed their fundraising reports covering the sprint through Election Day late Thursday, shedding more light on the millions that flooded the race in the final days and subsequent weeks.

Future Forward, Harris’ top super PAC, took in more than $163 million and spent $184 million between Oct. 17 and Nov. 25. It closed the period with more than $47 million in debt.

The majority of the money FF PAC raised down the stretch came from Future Forward USA Action, an affiliated nonprofit that does not have to publicly disclose its donors. The super PAC’s top disclosed individual donor in the final stretch was Dustin Moskovitz, a prolific Democratic megadonor who co-founded Facebook, who gave $12 million over those final weeks.

Throughout the year, FF PAC raised and spent more than a half-billion dollars, outpacing its GOP counterpart, MAGA Inc. The pro-Trump group raised $347 million in 2024, including $78 million in the final weeks of the race, when it also spent $102 million. But unlike the Democratic super PAC, it closed the period without any debt and with $6.9 million left in its account.

Other pro-Trump groups associated with some of the biggest donors in politics also raised and spent heavily at the very end. America PAC, the super PAC started by Musk, brought in about $120 million in receipts and in-kind contributions from Musk during this period.

Preserve America, a super PAC funded primarily by casino magnate Miriam Adelson (whose late husband, Sheldon, was among the top Republican donors before his death), raised another $6 million from Adelson and $2.5 million from Republican investor Phil Singer.

The Democratic National Committee fared better, closing the period with more than $47 million on hand after more than $66 million in contributions and transfers from the Harris campaign and its affiliated committees, mostly on Election Day or in the weeks after. The DNC’s cash position was on par with its rival, the Republican National Committee, which had $42 million banked away as of Nov. 25.