Vice President Kamala Harris’ failed presidential marketing campaign didn’t pay hundreds of thousands of {dollars} for superstar endorsements, a former high marketing campaign official mentioned Friday.
“We do not pay. We have never paid any artist and performer,” Adrienne Elrod, who served as senior adviser and senior spokesperson for the Harris marketing campaign, advised Deadline.
The Harris marketing campaign placed on a number of star-studded concert events within the days main as much as Harris’ Election Day defeat by President-elect Donald Trump.
Woman Gaga, Katy Perry, Christina Aguilera, Ricky Martin, Megan Thee Stallion, Bruce Springsteen, Jon Bon Jovi, 2 Chainz and Mumford & Sons had been among the many artists and musical acts that lent their abilities to the Harris marketing campaign in an obvious effort to get low-propensity voters out to the polls.
Grammy Award-winning artists Beyonce, Cardi B and Jennifer Lopez additionally appeared on the stump for Harris, however didn’t carry out — upsetting some Harris supporters.
Elrod defined that below Federal Election Fee guidelines, the Harris marketing campaign was required to pay honest market worth “for any ancillary costs” of performances — corresponding to wages for band members and producers.
“There are laws that have to be followed that we have followed religiously on this campaign,” she mentioned.
A sequence of election eve concert events alone reportedly set the marketing campaign again $20 million.
Earlier this week, tv speak present icon Oprah Winfrey, who additionally campaigned for Harris and hosted a digital city corridor for the vp, swatted down hypothesis that she was paid a private charge for the “Unite for America” occasion in September.
The Washington Examiner reported final week that the Harris marketing campaign paid $1 million to Winfrey’s Harpo Productions in October.
Winfrey and her manufacturing firm each insist that the cash went to paying for set design, lights, cameras, microphones, crew, producers, and all the things else required to placed on the reside city corridor occasion.
“We have never paid a fee to that person,” Elrod mentioned.
