The Kamala Harris campaign paid Oprah Winfrey $1 million to take part in a celebrity town-hall event and to appear at Harris’s final campaign rally in Philadelphia, on the night before election day.
Winfrey’s Harpo Productions received the sum on 15 October, after the town hall in September.
Also in attendance at the final campaign rally, where Winfrey urged voters to vote for Harris, were popstars Katy Perry and Lady Gaga.
In total, the Harris campaign spent $1.2 billion, a record amount, compared to Donald Trump’s more modest $750 million.
Among Harris’s many extravagances was the construction of a copycat studio for her Call Her Daddy appearance, at a cost of $100,000.
The set was built in a hotel room in Washington DC, so that Harris wouldn’t have to go to LA.
She also spent nearly $4 million to recruit social-media influences.
Actual Democrat spending on the election was far more. Estimates suggest that, when payments from affiliated PACs and the DNC are taken into account, the total figure raised is more in the region of $2.3 billion.
By contrast, Trump, his PACs and the RNC raised a total of $1.8 billion.
A combined spend of $3.5 billion makes 2024 the most expensive election campaign in history.
Despite spending considerably less, Trump still managed to hammer Harris, winning the electoral college and the popular vote, and probably control of both Houses.
Between July and election day, the Harris campaign and its affiliates spent $654 million, whereas Trump spent £378 million, 57% less.
As the full scale of the defeat sinks in, the recriminations have already begun, with aides and staffers expressing disbelief at how so much money could be spent to no avail.
“How did you spend $1 billion and not win? What the f***?” said a former Biden staffer, according to The Daily Mail.