Dark Money Is Flooding Kamala Harris’s Campaign Coffers

Before Kamala Harris became vice president, she had a clear message about dark money groups: they play a dangerously influential role in our political system. Now her campaign is reaping the rewards of massive donations from these very sources.

Kamala Harris Holds Rally After Georgia Bus Tour

Kamala Harris during a campaign event in Savannah, Georgia, on August 29, 2024. (Elijah Nouvelage / Bloomberg via Getty Images)


As a junior Democratic senator in 2019, Vice President Kamala Harris took direct aim at dark money, cosponsoring election reforms that would have revealed the identities of the megadonors behind these secretive efforts to sway elections.

“It does not represent justice in America when dark money is fueling elections and when the few who have the greatest amount of wealth behind a veil without even presenting themselves or their names, manipulate and fuel the election process,” she said in a speech at the time. “We’ve got to take that money out of politics.”

But now, as her presidential campaign benefits from millions in contributions from secret donors — including a whopping $20 million donation from the Democrats’ main dark money group a week after she became the party’s presumed nominee — what is Harris saying about untraceable political spending?

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