No Evidence Harris Campaign Paid for Celebrity Endorsements
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Quick Take
Vice President Kamala Harris received many celebrity endorsements leading up to the election, including from Beyoncé, Oprah Winfrey, Eminem, Megan Thee Stallion and Lizzo. Social media posts have made the unfounded claim that these celebrities were collectively paid $20 million for their endorsements. We’ve found no evidence to support the claim.
Full Story
In the months leading up to the election, Vice President Kamala Harris received several high-profile celebrity endorsements.
In July, rapper Megan Thee Stallion appeared with Harris at a rally in Atlanta.
Television host Oprah Winfrey spoke at the Democratic National Convention in August, where she endorsed Harris for president: “What we’re going to do is elect Kamala Harris as the next President of the United States,” Winfrey said.
In October, rappers Eminem and Lizzo both spoke at rallies for the vice president in Detroit.
Singer-songwriter Beyoncé endorsed Harris later that month at a rally in Houston.
Social media users have claimed, without any evidence, that these celebrities were collectively paid around $20 million for their endorsements.
We previously wrote about the unfounded claim that Beyoncé was paid $10 million, which a Harris campaign official said “is not true.” Now, posts are claiming others were paid millions.
A Nov. 12 Instagram post shared a clip from Fox News, in which anchor Harris Faulkner claimed that Beyoncé received $10 million from the Harris campaign for her endorsement, Megan Thee Stallion received $5 million, Lizzo received $3 million and Eminem received $1.8 million.
In a caption, the user claimed that Oprah received $1 million for her endorsement.
“Is that normally how it goes — you spend $20 million, you get yourself in debt to try to get a bunch of rich celebrities on stage?” Faulkner asks in the clip, referencing a claim from a Democratic National Committee member that the Harris campaign ended this election cycle with $20 million in debt.
Federal Election Commission records for the Harris campaign are only available through Oct. 16 and show no debts are owed. Unnamed sources close to the campaign told NBC News that some debt has been accrued.
Former professional basketball player Rod Benson shared the claim on Threads, writing, “We donated $1B to the Kamala campaign and a few days later they ask for more money cause they ended up with $20M in debt paying for celebrity endorsements.”
In a separate post, Benson added: “They paid Oprah $1M to endorse the campaign.”
Other users shared the same or similar numbers.
We’ve found no evidence to support the claim that these celebrities were paid anything in exchange for their endorsements.
As we’ve written, political campaigns are required to publicly disclose any paid endorsements. But the Harris campaign, through Oct. 16, lists only one endorsement-related expenditure — for $75 — in its FEC financial reports. It was made to the League of Conservation Voters Action Fund, a pro-environment political action committee, in June 2023, when President Joe Biden was still running for reelection.
The Harris campaign did make two payments totaling $1 million to Harpo Productions Inc., Oprah Winfrey’s production company, on Oct. 15, for “event production.” Winfrey said in an Instagram comment that she was “not paid a dime” and that the payments went toward production fees for her interview with Harris in September. “I did not take any personal fee. However the people who worked on that production needed to be paid. And were. End of story,” Winfrey wrote.
We found no record of Harris’ campaign paying Beyoncé, Eminem, Megan Thee Stallion, Lizzo, or their production companies, anything.
We asked the Harris campaign about these claims regarding the endorsements, but we haven’t received a response.
Claims about paid celebrity endorsements have been circulating in the weeks leading up to and following the election. On Nov. 14, rapper Cardi B responded on X to the claim that she was paid for her endorsement of Harris, writing, “I didn’t get paid a dollar.”
Editor’s note: FactCheck.org is one of several organizations working with Facebook to debunk misinformation shared on social media. Our previous stories can be found here. Facebook has no control over our editorial content.
Sources
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Epstein, Reid J., et al. “Beyoncé Rallies for Harris in Houston With a Message for the Battlegrounds.” New York Times. 26 Oct 2024.
Gore, D’Angelo. “League of Conservation Voters.” FactCheck.org. 5 Sep 2024.
Korecki, Natasha. “Clashes, confusion and secrecy consume the Harris campaign’s finances.” NBC. 14 Nov 2024.
Levy, Piet, and Jay Stahl. “Cardi B supports Kamala Harris at campaign rally in Wisconsin: ‘Ready to make history?‘” USA Today. 2 Nov 2024.
Moorman, Taijuan, and KiMi Robinson. “Megan Thee Stallion performs ‘Savage’ at Kamala Harris rally: ‘Hotties for Harris.’” USA Today. 30 Jul 2024.
Nicholas, Peter, and Dareh Gregorian. “President Joe Biden drops out of 2024 presidential race.” NBC. 21 Jul 2024.
Nichols, Anna Liz. “‘It’s about damn time’ to elect Harris as president, Lizzo says.” Alabama Reflector. 20 Oct 2024.
Vakil, Caroline. “DNC critic sparks discussions about what went wrong for Harris.” The Hill. 13 Nov 2024.
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