Harris campaign ends race with $1.8 million – part of a mixed financial picture for Democrats
By Fredreka Schouten and David Wright, CNN
(CNN) — Democrats emerged from their bruising election losses in November with a decidedly mixed financial picture, new federal filings show. The Democratic National Committee appeared flush with cash, despite recent post-election staff cuts, and a leading liberal super PAC appeared to have tens of millions of dollars in unpaid bills.
Vice President Kamala Harris’ defunct campaign, meanwhile, had just $1.8 million remaining in its bank accounts after spending more than $1 billion in a failed effort to defeat Republican Donald Trump. The Harris campaign reported no debts.
But the filings with the Federal Election Commission overnight – which cover fundraising and spending between October 17 and November 25 – offer just a snapshot of the financial outlook for a party working to regroup after losing the White House and the Senate and failing to flip the House last month. Aides to key committees say they are still dealing with outstanding invoices and other accounting issues as they close the books on the costly presidential contest. A full view of Democrats’ finances might not be apparent until January when candidates, parties and outside groups file their year-end reports with the FEC.
Quarter-billion spending spree
The filings show Harris burned through money during the final, intense home stretch of the campaign, plowing more than $270 million into the effort to win the presidency from October 17 through the post-election period.
That frenzied spending in the final weeks of the campaign and Democrats’ aggressive efforts to secure donations after the election drew intense scrutiny and raised alarms that her campaign was grappling with unpaid bills. But after record-breaking fundraising, Harris’ campaign reported $1.82 million in cash on hand as of November 25.
In the weeks since the election, Democrats have continued to bombard supporters with fundraising appeals, seeking more contributions.
A fundraising email sent this week, for instance, from Harris’ joint fundraising committee with national and state Democratic parties, sought donations to a “Harris Fight Fund” program, which it said is aimed at electing “Democrats down the ticket ready to hold Trump accountable.”
The fine print shows the proceeds going first to the Democratic National Committee in an effort to shore up the national party’s finances.
In its filing Thursday with the FEC, the DNC reported more than $47 million remaining in the bank and no debts – despite recently shedding staff post-election.
That’s in sharp contrast to the main super PAC that backed Harris’ candidacy for the White House, which ended the post-election period with nearly $50 million in unpaid bills, the FEC reports show. The group, Future Forward, listed $47.3 million in debts as of November 25, largely related to advertising expenses.
Chauncey McLean, who oversees Future Forward, said those bills do not amount to “real debt,” but reflect a requirement by the FEC that the group report an estimate of its spending on advertising on a rolling, real-time basis. “The invoices are already paid,” and the next report the group files will reflect those payments, he said.
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