WASHINGTON — The Democratic National Committee (DNC) invested $6.5 million to acquire a donor list from a political action committee that supported former Vice President Kamala Harris at the end of last year. This transaction occurred despite the national party’s fundraising body grappling with over $16 million in debt.
The DNC made two significant payments to the Fight for the People PAC, one of $3.5 million on November 28 and another of $3 million on December 29, as revealed by recent Federal Election Commission reports. These details were initially highlighted by The New York Times over the weekend.
The super PAC, aligned with Harris, utilized this financial boost to clear campaign debts more than a year following the Democrat’s election loss to Donald Trump. This included settling media production costs exceeding $3.9 million, covering $293,883 in polling fees, and paying $99,100 to The Roots’ management for a Philadelphia performance.
In contrast, the Republican National Committee surpassed the DNC in fundraising for 2025, collecting over $172 million in contributions and maintaining at least $95 million in cash reserves.
The DNC, while generating nearly $146 million in total fundraising, reported just over $14 million in cash available and faced a deficit of $17.5 million by the end of December.
Overall, the party has incurred approximately $22 million in liabilities associated with Harris’s campaign.
At the time of the first payment for the donor list, the DNC had roughly $12.6 million cash on hand and $15.9 million in debts, raising “questions” among some party members about the prudence of the purchase
The party lost around $6 million from its campaign war chest in November alone as its spending outpaced donations.
Deep-pocketed donors like media mogul Barry Diller and former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg had expressed wariness of contributing any more funds to the Democratic Party as far back as June 2025.
“For me, this really brings questions about the campaign’s finances, how transparent everything has been regarding the 2024 campaign, what has been spent and what are the lessons we need to learn coming from that experience,” DNC member Tim Lim, who unsuccessfully ran for party finance chair last year, told The Times.
Former Harris senior adviser Kirsten Allen argued: “It is standard after a presidential campaign for there to be an extended reconciliation period as outstanding invoices are received, processed and refunds are issued.”
“Since the campaign ended, the vice president has helped raise millions of dollars for the DNC and candidates nationwide, and heading into the midterms she will expand that effort supporting candidates up and down the ballot,” she added.
Party Chairman Ken Martin and his allies have also disputed that dealing with the financial aftermath of Harris’ defeat put the party on the back foot heading into the November midterms.
“While Republicans hoard their cash from billionaire megadonors, they’re losing,” DNC spokesperson Rosemary Boeglin told The Times. “We’ll keep investing and we’ll keep winning, and that includes this year’s midterms.”
Harris previously sought to swap donor lists with the Beau Biden Foundation, in a move that may have run afoul of the tax-exempt status of the charity named for then-Vice President Beau Biden’s late son.
In December 2015, months after Beau’s death from brain cancer, Harris’ US Senate campaign offered a $1,000 payment in exchange for the former Delaware AG’s donor list — and the foundation suggested appointing her to one of its board seats.
It’s unclear whether the transaction ever occurred.
