Is Kamala Harris’ Campaign $20M in Debt? What We Know

Kamala Harris’ presidential election campaign ended the 2024 White House contest “at least $20 million in debt,” according to Politico’s California bureau chief Christopher Cadelago.
Cadelago made the claim on X, formerly Twitter, noting Harris’ team had “$118 million in the bank” as recently as October 16.
Donald Trump was elected to the White House for a second time, with The Associated Press (AP) reporting he had secured 295 Electoral College votes as of 5:30 a.m. ET on Thursday, 25 more than he needed for victory. According to AP, Trump is also ahead in the battleground states of Nevada and Arizona, which have 17 Electoral College votes between them. He is also on track to win the popular vote.
In the post on Wednesday, Cadelago wrote: “Kamala Harris’s campaign ended with at least $20 million in debt, per two sources familiar. Harris raised over $1 billion and had $118 million in the bank as of Oct. 16.”
Newsweek has not independently confirmed that a debt of around $20 million exists. The Harris-Walz campaign was contacted for comment via email on Thursday outside of regular office hours.
The claim was repeated by on X by Breitbart’s Matthew Boyle, who cited an anonymous “Kamala campaign staffer.”
The Washington bureau chief for Breitbart News Network wrote: “The $20 million debt thing is real. [The Harris campaign’s deputy campaign manager] Rob Flaherty, this staffer said, is currently shopping around the Kamala fundraising email list to anyone who wants it to try to raise the money back. This includes other campaigns and outside groups.”
According to data from the Federal Election Commission (FEC), the official Harris campaign had received $1,009 million up until October 16, including when it was the Joe Biden campaign before the incumbent president dropped out of the race in July. During this time, it spent around $890 million.
Over the same period, according to the FEC, the official Trump campaign raised $392 million and spent $345 million. According to Forbes, the Harris campaign had $118 million in the bank, compared to $36.2 million for Trump, as of October 16.
Democrats, including the official Harris campaign, spent $1.1 billion on aired advertising and associated reservations, according to AdImpact, a website that monitors the cost and content of ads.
According to The New York Times, the Harris campaign spent “six figures” to fly banners over four NFL games in October in an attempt to reach male voters in swing states. The Guardian reported in November that it also spent “a reported $450,000 a day” to have ads displayed on the Las Vegas Sphere in the swing state of Nevada.
Ultimately, the messaging did not appear to hit its mark(s). Speaking to Newsweek, Mark Shanahan, an American politics expert who teaches at the University of Surrey in the U.K., said Harris “never really landed” her economic message during the presidential election campaign.
He said: “Once again, the Democrats underestimated the appeal of Trump. He turns politics into a soap opera and it keeps many more than his MAGA loyalists tuned in. Allied to that, he offered simple messages: the economy is poor and he can fix it; and America’s troubles start at its borders, and he can fix that too.
“Harris had too little time to introduce herself to America. She never really landed her messages on the economy with great clarity, and the one area we really thought would boost her, around reproductive rights, really didn’t get the expected cut-through with voters.”
Harris delivered a concession speech on Wednesday at Washington D.C.’s Howard University, which she attended as a student. The vice president said Americans “must accept” the election result adding: “Hear me when I say the light of America’s promise will always burn bright.”