Vice President Kamala Harris’ campaign appears to have set their focus on fundraising and celebrity sit-downs, raking in millions through the help of Hollywood and big money donors.
Support for Vice President Kamala Harris skyrocketed after President Joe Biden ended his reelection bid on July 21 and endorsed her. Donors who had withheld funds under Biden and celebrities questioning his mental fitness quickly rallied around Harris, dramatically boosting her image.
Less than a day after Biden’s exit, the Democracy Alliance — a group of left-leaning donors that has raised over $2 billion for liberal causes — threw its support behind Harris. In her first official month as the nominee, Harris’ campaign raised $361 million in August, more than doubling former President Donald Trump’s haul for the same month.
Harris made her first appearance in the Los Angeles area since announcing her campaign on Sunday, hosting a fundraiser with tickets starting at $500 per person and rising to $1 million, according to Deadline. With celebrities like Stevie Wonder, Demi Lovato, Jessica Alba and Lily Tomlin in attendance, the event in combination with another San Francisco fundraiser raked in an estimated $55 million for the vice president’s campaign, Spectrum News 1 reported.
“We just see the same old tired show from the same old tired playbook,” Harris stated at the Los Angeles fundraiser, the outlet reported.
Former Obama fundraiser Allison Huynh told the Daily Caller News Foundation that Hollywood and Big Tech have long pushed candidates as a “aspirational luxury ticket,” recalling how former President Barack Obama was “adopted” by the two major groups.
“They market their candidates as, like I said, an aspirational luxury ticket item. I was interested in Obama because there were a lot of young people who supported him … he spoke to folks who were new to politics or disenfranchised with the divisiveness of politics,” Huynh said. “But then quickly Obama was adopted by Oprah, by P. Diddy, the royalty of Beverly Hills, I believe even Harvey Weinstein under the guise of social justice … Obama became the puppet for the Hollywood and tech elite. That’s what I saw.”
Despite strong Hollywood support for Harris, Trump has received backing from celebrities like Kid Rock, Zachary Levi, Dennis Quaid and billionaire Elon Musk. In June, a Silicon Valley fundraiser for Trump raised an estimated $12 million, surpassing the amount expected from the typically left-wing circle, according to Craft Ventures co-founder David Sacks.
Since the first presidential debate against Trump on Sept. 10, Harris has made campaign appearances in North Carolina, Wisconsin and Georgia, while conducting just four short interviews with 6ABC Philadelphia Action News, the National Association of Black Journalists (NABJ), MSNBC’s Stephanie Ruhle and a sit-down with celebrity Oprah Winfrey as celebrities like Meryl Streep, Jennifer Lopez, Ben Stiller and Chris Rock virtually attended. (RELATED: Kamala Harris Struggles To Speak After Teleprompter Appears To Stop Working)
Former Democratic fundraiser Evan Barker spoke with the DCNF about the apparent disengagement in Harris’ strategy of speaking to the wealthy and famous instead of a more concerted effort to spend time with regular voters.
“You know, I think what was really telling — I’m sure you saw the Oprah Winfrey rally … That, to me, was just absolutely repulsive. I just saw a bunch of celebrities zooming in from their mansions or their hotel suites and basically just talking about Kamala Harris’s identity or just making sort of like these very generic platitudes about hope, joy and integrity and not really discussing the like actual state of the economy and how working Americans are really, really hurting right now,” Barker said.
US actress Meryl Streep appears on screen as US Vice President and Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris joins US television producer Oprah Winfrey at a ‘Unite for America’ live streaming rally in Farmington Hills, Michigan, on September 19, 2024. (Photo by SAUL LOEB/AFP via Getty Images)
Huynh also criticized Harris’ interviews, calling the “aspirational” language an “illusionary game” meant to “normalize” her to voters.
“I believe Harris is a puppet because we never really see her speak on her own. What are her passions? She speaks like a corporate drone. And that language, when we examine that language, it’s very aspirational. Look at her interview with Oprah, ‘Okay, hi Oprah … oh, Oprah she’s my BFF,’” Huynh told DCNF.
“It’s aspirations, dreams. ‘I was a middle-class kid, I had a lawn.’ Touchy, feely — ‘this is my childhood.’ I mean, the country is in crisis and she decides just to cozy up and have girlfriend time — tea time — on national TV with Oprah,” Huynh said. “I believe it’s psych ops, an illusionary game, to normalize Kamala instead of the radical policies and the politicians she runs with — which is basically socialists.”
While Harris and her running mate Democratic Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz began their bus tour in August, hitting key swing states, fundraisers hosting Hollywood’s elite have been thrown since the end of July. On July 29, “White Dudes for Harris” organized a fundraiser for the newly selected presidential nominee at the time, hosting politicians alongside major Hollywood stars like Jeff Bridges, Bradley Whitford and Josh Gad. (RELATED: Battleground State With Few Electors May Punch Above Its Weight, Deliver ‘Big Blow’ To Harris Come November)
The Zoom call event ended up raising an estimated $4 million with over 190,000 tuning in to hear the speakers, despite Harris’s absence, according to Reuters. Recently, a Los Angeles fundraiser headlined by former President Barack Obama and attended by celebrities such as Rob Reiner, Conan O’Brien and Jennifer Coolidge raised over $4 million for Harris’ Victory Fund, with Harris not in attendance as well, Deadline reported.
“The Democrats like to say, you know, with all of this inflation, it’s okay because wages have risen, well, there’s a whole subset of people, like my grandmother, who haven’t seen their wages rise and are just really, really, really struggling to buy groceries and to fill up their gas tank,” Barker stated.
Polls have consistently shown voters’ top concerns are the economy, inflation and immigration — all of which Harris has offered vague responses or faced backlash from both sides of the aisle for her proposed policies and flip-flopping.
Despite inflation easing in June, with prices for food, gas and other commodities dropping, two-thirds of middle-income families have reportedly fallen behind the cost of living, according to a July survey by insurance company Primerica. Of the 1,017 adults surveyed by the insurance company, 58% rated their community’s economic health as “not good” or “poor.” Additionally, 30% reported an increase in credit card debt, and 80% said their household is cooking more meals at home instead of dining out or ordering takeout over the past year, according to Primerica.
An August poll by The Economist/YouGov found that 24% of 1,567 respondents cited inflation as the top issue, followed by 13% listing jobs and the economy, and 12% pointing to immigration. In a Sept. 15 poll by ABC News/Ipsos, Trump led Harris by seven points on who Americans trust more to handle the economy and by ten points on immigration.
Barker shared how her mother and 86-year-old grandmother in Missouri have struggled in recent years. She noted that her mother has had a “really hard time getting back on her feet” after losing her job during COVID-19, while her grandmother struggles to afford basic necessities like gas and groceries on her Social Security check.
“So to see people like Oprah Winfrey, you know, and I know she has humble beginnings, right? She is so far removed from that at this point,” Barker continued. “And Chris Rock, who just made jokes basically about making donations to Kamala Harris back in the day when she was running for district attorney to get out of a parking ticket, was just incredibly insulting to people that are struggling right now.”
The Harris campaign did not respond to the DCNF’s request for comment.
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