LOS ANGELES.–When Democrat donors consider the 2028 presidential election, they’ll have to look at the way 60-year-old Vice President Kamala Harris burnt through an unprecedented $1.5 billion dollars in only 107 days, staggering sums of cash to lose an election to 78-year-old President Donald Trump. Kamala’s campaign staff led by Campaign Manager Jen O’Malley Dillon and chief strategist David Plouffe know where every dollar went, trying to buy off celebrity endorsements thinking that gave them the best shot of winning. Meeting with billionaire media mogul Oprah Winfrey, Kamala’s campaign team thought they had the election in the bag with Oprah on her side. Oprah was questioned about how much cash she received for her brief stint with Kamala. Oprah insisted she received no “personal fee,” yet on closer review her Chicago-Los Angeles based HarpoProductions received $1 million.
Oprah’s personal denial shows her venal side, knowing how to spin whether she “personally” received any payment from the Kamala campaign. But whatever the situation, the Kamala campaign spent staggering sums on cash in a107-day election cycle that many pundits thought was too short to prevail in 2024. Since the Democrat National Convention in Chicago [Aug. 19-22], Kamala walked away euphoric thinking that her campaign of “joy” propelled her to victory on Nov. 5. But, unlike the best plans, her campaign began to fade after the Sept. 27 ABC News presidential debate with Trump. Kamala’s Campaign Manager Jen O’Malley Dillon said Kamala won the debate decisively, but, curiously, within an hour of the debate, asked Trump for a rematch. Internal polling showed O’Malley Dillon that the debate gave Kamala no bounce in any polls.
Trump responded quickly to O’Malley Dillon’s request for a second debate, throwing cold water on the idea, saying that vanquished fighters always ask for a rematch. Trump won the debate in voters’ eyes because he debated Kamala and debate moderators David Muir and Linsey Davis, both of whom ganged up on Trump during the debate. Few saw the debate as fair-and-balanced, watching ABC News pick questions on climate change and women’s reproductive rights that clearly favored Kamala. No one imagined the way in which Kamala’s campaign burned through its donor cash. MSNBC did not reveal that any donation was paid to Rev. Al Sharpton’s National Action Network. Turns out the Harris campaign paid Sharpton’s charity $500,000 for its interview with Kamala. MSNBC denied knowing anything about the cash payments to Sharpton’s nonprofit.
Kamala famously avoided real press interviews during the 107-day campaign, preferring to let her costly media handlers spend exorbitant sums on carefully fashioned campaign ads, largely selling her through a series of high-priced TV ads. Trump spent his time on the campaign trail doing sometimes three, two-hour speeches a day, prompting the Kamala campaign to tell the fake news that he was exhausted and his speeches were increasingly incoherent, comparing him with 82-year-old President Joe Biden. Kamala’s chief strategist David Plouff pulled out all the stops in saying Trump was a threat to democracy, getting Kamala to actually tell CNN’s Anderson Cooper that he was a “fascist.” By the end of the campaign Kamala was not a real person but an image manufactured by her Hollywood handlers all designed to discredit Trump, calling him every name in the book.
Whatever extravagant sums of cash was paid for celebrity interviews and endorsements, Kamala burnt through $1.5 billion in record time. No donors would want to duplicate again the staggering losses of cash to the Democrat Party’s richest donors. What it proves beyond any doubt is there’s no substitute for effective campaigning. Trump put the pedal-to-the-metal and never let up during the campaign, weathering all of Kamala’s barbs and insults. Failing to report on the records sums paid to Oprah and Sharpton made the media look even more corrupt. Kamala preached to the choir with Sharpton at a cost of $500,000, all thinking that she targeted her Black audience. Kamala knew she had most of the Black audience in the bag but still had no problems handing out oodles of cash to Sharpton. Future donors will have second thoughts about trusting Kamala again in 2028.
Kamala’s backers said she ran nearly a perfect campaign but lost to Trump in a landslide. Demcorat want to minimize Trump’s 2.5 million popular vote margin [48.4% to 50%] but Democrats know that no GOP candidate hadn’t won the popular vote in 20 years. So along with his landslide in the Electoral College [222-312], Trump had delivered a far-reaching blow to Democrats future prospects. When Kamala tried to talk about issues, she could never get out from under the last four years serving as Biden’s Vice President. Kamala’s 36% approval ratings told the story of how Humpty Dumpty could not be put back together by her Hollywood media team, morphing her from mere mortal into superhero. Inside the campaign bubble Kamala looked like a winner but not to her Campaign Manage Jen O’Malley Dillon who exposed the campaign in panic toward the end.
About the Author
John M. Curtis writes politically neutral commentary analyzing spin in national and global news. He’s editor of OnlineColumnist.com and author of Dodging The Bullet and Operation Charisma.
