Not long after Kamala Harris lost the 2024 election, her senior advisers and the Democratic National Committee struck a handshake deal.
Ms. Harris still had bills piling up, and campaign officials had counted on raising more money during a prolonged fight over tallying votes. Instead, the race was called early in the morning after Election Day.
The private agreement was this: The party would pick up the tab for any outstanding 2024 bills, allowing Ms. Harris to claim she did not end the race in debt. In turn, Ms. Harris would raise the money to cover all of those leftover costs, leaving the party whole financially as it sought to navigate the second Trump era.
Left in the dark were the small donors who received nearly 100 email solicitations sent from the Harris operation this year alone on behalf of the D.N.C. The emails did not disclose that funds raised from those emails were essentially earmarked for leftover bills. Convincing donors, both big and small, to pay for debts is typically a tough sell.
The arrangement was described by four people with knowledge of it and corroborated through Federal Election Commission disclosures. The people spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss internal deliberations. Though the deal was struck before the current party chairman, Ken Martin, was elected in February, it has continued during his tenure.
The total tally in post-election bills that the D.N.C. has covered so far is $20.5 million, federal records show. While significant, that sum amounted to less than 2 percent of the $1.5 billion that the presidential campaign spent in 15 weeks….